How will the collaboration and viewing of video content with the advent of 5G

In the first articles on how the advent of 5G technology can change people's daily lives, we talked about games and augmented reality. But this is only a small part of the opportunities that new generation networks offer us. Therefore, today we’ll talk about what 5G technologies are still capable of, namely, how they will change collaboration technologies and watch videos on mobile devices.

Collaboration Technology Evolution

When working together on a project on the Internet, people are faced with certain problems and limitations. And this applies to a variety of areas - from editing video files to making changes to the overall document. Several employees can work on one document at once, but poor communication quality and high latency of at least one of them create problems for everyone else: changes to the document in this case will not be displayed in real time, so someone can, for example, start edit the paragraph that another employee is already working with. This leads to confusion and unnecessary waste of time.

Uploading and downloading files, especially when it comes to heavy videos with 4K resolution, can take a lot longer than we would like. At the same time, the availability of high-speed connection and its quality significantly limit our mobility.

5G technology can help deal with these issues. For example, one of the participants in the student film crew shoots high-resolution video on his smartphone and directly uploads it to the general “cloud” during the shooting process. Other students with access to the "cloud" are working on editing this video in real time, and several people can simultaneously process each frame. And recall, the video itself at this time continues to be shot and laid out in the "cloud". So each of the group members will see the work of their colleagues, which will achieve maximum productivity and avoid downtime due to the expectation of new material. Moreover, to work on such a project outside the studio, mobile Internet is enough, because thanks to the tremendous speed and minimal latency, 5G networks are quite capable of dealing with such a load.

The evolution of technology for viewing content

The extent to which our approach to viewing content has changed in recent years is a relevant topic, but not a new one. We have long stopped switching between TV channels in search of interesting programs and instead we watch our favorite shows on streaming services at a convenient time for us. And we are increasingly doing this, sitting not in front of the TV screen or monitor, but picking up a smartphone or tablet. And with the advent of the 5G era, both the viewing methods and the visual content itself will change so much that it’s even hard to imagine now.

Using boundless augmented reality with photorealistic graphics without unnecessary wires and with support for 6DoF, that is, six degrees of freedom of movement, we will be able to get into the worlds that previously had only been viewed on the screens of our gadgets and monitors. With the technologies of unlimited augmented reality, we can, say, forget about passively watching a football match in front of the TV and get the best seats in the stadium, even those for which tickets are not for sale. Moreover, it will be possible to walk around the playing field, examine each of the players and watch the game “from the inside”.

With 5G technologies, not only will the degree of immersion in watching video content increase, the social aspect will also change. For example, you can watch the same football match with your friend when everyone is sitting at home. Moreover, a variety of information will be displayed on the “common” screen for you, from broadcasting the match itself to player statistics, multimedia content and the video chat window. This will provide more opportunities for interaction and much more comfort in communication. And, when the judge appoints a penalty, you can see the reaction of a friend and immediately start repeating this controversial moment to arrange a joint frame-by-frame analysis.

The high data transfer speed and minimum delay of 5G networks, as well as the use of AI technologies open the door for introducing completely new features for personalizing content and “smart” functions.

While watching a football match on the “common” screen, the AI ​​will be able to independently switch between camera views, zoom in and start a repeat of the “hot” moments of the game. At the same time, the speed and throughput of 5G networks allows you to use not only "cloud" computing for AI. With the 5G era, it's time for distributed computing and Wireless Edge technologies (wireless systems at the junction of networks and gadgets). All of these technologies can unlock the potential of next-generation networks and open up completely new gadget scenarios for users and opportunities that will soon become part of our daily lives.

Stay tuned - the next article on interesting possibilities of practical application of 5G technologies will talk about shopping and social interaction on the network.