If you're a Winter Olympics geek like me, then you know that US figure skater Nathan Chen got off to a rocky start, failing to land his signature quad jump in the ice skating team competition last Thursday. But if you are a 5G technology geek -- and aren't we all? -- you can take comfort in knowing that ice skating is one of the venues at which KT is showing off its 5G prowess... and hoping it doesn't land with a thud.
All three Korean operators -- KT Corp. , SK Telecom (Nasdaq: SKM) and LG U+ -- are expected to do some 5G demos at venues in both Pyeongchang and Gangneung using specially built networks. KT has been promoting its efforts in advance, and has gained wide coverage for those plans as a result. While the demonstrations show a world audience what 5G is capable of supporting, they also are clearly designed to impress a local audience as well.
To demonstrate the additional bandwidth 5G can provide, and the less-than 1 millisecond delay it can offer, KT is delivering live feeds from helmet-mounted cameras on bobsled competitors so that those at the venue can get a real feel for the action. Attendees who are less thrill-driven can use 5G-equipped tablets to switch between different camera located on cross-country skiing route.
KT installed 100 cameras at one of the figure-skating venues, so that audiences can use tablet devices to choose the angle from which they want to watch the athletes land their axels and salchows. This "time-slice" approach captures athletes mid-motion from different angles, so that maybe viewers can even tell the complicated jumps apart.
"Through demonstrations of 5G network technology in PyeongChang, we will better prepare for its official commercialization," KT Chief Executive Hwang Chang-gyu said in a statement.
— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading