5G Live TV Creates a New Game-Watching Experience

As true 4K content is widely available, the traffic of 8K and VR content will increase exponentially. The application and popularity of 5G technologies will certainly bring disruptive changes to the HD video industry. Services like live broadcast of sporting events, live news, and user-generated content (UGC) are characterized by timeliness and large amount of data, so it is quite appropriate to adopt the edge delivery architecture on a 5G network. ZTE's 5G Live TV solution that integrates 5G and UHD live sports broadcast to enable diversity of content has become the focus of attention of major operators. Shanxi Mobile Delivers Innovative User Experience at NYG Since the issuance of commercial 5G license in 2019, China has officially entered the first year of 5G. The Shanxi Branch of China Mobile (Shanxi Mobile) has been looking for new business opportunities to deliver high-quality services, enhance customer stickiness, and achieve growth in profits. Shanxi Mobile and ZTE jointly achieved the first application of an innovative 5G Live TV solution at the 2nd National Youth Games of China (2nd NYG) in August 2019. Based on the 5G network and IPTV platform, the 5G Live TV solution provided a new experience for watching the opening ceremony, horse riding competition, and wrestling match for both on-site audience and off-site IPTV users. After entering the stadium and downloading the relevant client APP developed by Shanxi Mobile and ZTE on their 5G mobile phones, the audience enjoyed an innovative game-watching experience in three distinctive 5G scenarios: multi-angle views, flexible zooming, and 360-degree viewing, with the end-to-end live broadcast latency reduced to less than one second. The key technology of this solution is multi-access edge computing (MEC) that can call the edge capability to offload live videos locally to achieve ultra-low latency for switching between different views on the 5G network. Shanxi Mobile not only provides rich game-watching experience for mobile phone users, but also allows IPTV users to access the real-time multi-angle UHD live games on the IPTV platform. With ZTE's Big Video 3.0S UHD AI STB, the off-site audience can watch the high-definition games from four different viewing angles, enjoying a customized game watching experience. Using the 5G Live TV solution, ZTE and Shanxi Mobile successfully turned the 2nd NYG into China's first 5G sporting event. It was also the first time for 4K and multiple views to make their debut on live TV. These new business attempts have enhanced both delay-sensitive service experience and user stickiness. China Telecom Enhances Personalized Experience at WWC E-Surfing Video is an online video operation platform under China Telecom, with more than 220 million users. The huge user base provides strong support for its successful operation. In the 5G era, China Telecom is seeking to develop innovative and personalized video services to retain existing users and attract new users. The 15th World Wushu Championship (WWC) was held in Shanghai in October 2019. China Telecom took this opportunity to join hands with ZTE in using its 5G Live TV solution to deliver an innovative viewing experience to on-site audience in three distinctive scenarios that include multi-angle views, 4K flexible zooming, and 360-degree free viewpoint. With the corresponding UHD APP based on 5G, the audience could freely zoom in or out 4K UHD videos in real time when watching the games. Moreover, the image stitching function also created an immersive game-watching experience. At the WWC, the 360-degree free viewpoint function was used for live broadcast. Its live broadcast latency was reduced to less than 10 seconds, the rotation of views was very smooth, and there was no latency for rotating to a new view. China Telecom adopted ZTE's innovative technologies such as 4K UHD video real-time transcoding, fast CDN media distribution, and instant video playing on terminal APK to achieve the industry-leading low latency for multi-angle views and 360-degree free viewpoint. This was also the first time to use the 360-degree free viewpoint function on a large-screen TV. People watching games at home could use the remote control to rotate views freely to capture highlights of games, enjoying a brand-new, diverse and personalized viewing experience. Through the live broadcast of this international event, China Telecom provides users with a new video service with new applications and new experience, attracting more users to enjoy a better life brought by E-Surfing Video on a 5G network. With the large-scale deployment of 5G networks, the 5G Live TV solution will get more attention from operators. The solution will also be more widely used in all kinds of large sports and recreational events and continue to innovate in the applications, bringing users a superior game-watching experience.