Thursday, November 14, 2019

Will 5G Really Change Video Experience?

It is not hard to find arguments that 5G will create a different and new platform for consumption of entertainment video. Precisely how remains to be seen, but there are some common hopes. 


“Greater realism” has been the main objective in the video entertainment business for some time, rivaled only by the “more choice” positioning. The whole point of high-definition television, 4K and 8K is greater realism. TV in 3D formats supposedly also results in greater realism, and has been attempted for decades, with mixed success. 


That also arguably is the driver behind augmented reality or virtual reality features as well, arguably well suited to 5G, allowing an untethered experience, indoors or outside. 


On the other hand, as gaming and video entertainment fuse, the advantages of 3D, augmented or virtual reality, in an untethered setting, become more interesting. Early applications might emerge around e-sports, for example. 


Some believe venues might be able to locally show many different camera angles to attendees, for example. Of course, that particular feature has been talked about for many decades, and has not yet really taken off. 


Yet others imagine that social elements might well develop, such as shared viewing by people at remote locations, with direct social interactions part of the experience. That is sort of an extrapolation of what people already do when chatting during a show. 


At a more prosaic level, 5G should support mobile video experiences even better than 4G did, though changing mostly the “screen” used and “location where content is viewed” parts of the experience. It is not so clear that the basic business model changes. 


The issue, as always, is which of these develops as a significant commercial reality, if at all. Many of the ideas are not new. But few have really gained commercial traction.

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