Sports fans can be demanding when they want their favorite athletes to perform on the green or on the field. And FOX Sports in the U.S. is well aware of its viewers’ high expectations when it comes to its network being able to deliver the action as it happens, in vivid high definition and on every device.
In June 2018, Ericsson partnered with AT&T, FOX Sports, Fox Innovation Lab and Intel in a 5G trial at the 118th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, New York, to bring ultra-high-definition (UHD) images of the event to FOX Sports viewers.
Thanks to our 5G network equipment (radios, baseband and simulated network 5G Core), 4K video encoder and decoder supplied by MediaKind (the new identity for Ericsson’s media solutions business), the spectrum provided by AT&T to optimize the 5G performance, and Intel’s Mobile Trial Platform working as the 5G modem, we were able to give FOX Sports viewers UHD views from two 4K cameras on the seventh green and tee box, where the 5G trial network was deployed. Throughout the event, the 5G network demonstrated sustained uplink speeds of over 300Mbps, easily meeting the 60-80Mbps encoded video transmission requirements.
The trial successfully proves that a 5G wireless network can reliably send large, UHD video files with no noticeable latency or degradation to video quality transmitting at very high speeds. It also does away with the need to lay miles of event-specific fiber between the cameras and the production compound.
Perhaps most importantly, the result of the trial goes one step further toward meeting increasing consumer demand for better picture quality and higher resolutions to make the experience life-like even in the viewer’s living room.
