Broadcasters and other media companies, as well as the software development community, will be invited to the lab to develop 5G use cases for the media industry, working alongside Vodafone engineers and Coventry University academics.
The next generation connectivity environment will be powered by a 5G Standalone (5G SA) network. Originally deployed to in 2020 to enable healthcare students to take immersive, real-time AR and VR tours of the human body, Vodafone and Coventry University will now expand the remit of the platform to support digital transformation and 5G adoption within the media industry.
The 5G Standalone environment will offer fast download speeds, near-real time latency capabilities, and network slicing. The lab will support proof of concepts and allow development and testing of end-to-end solutions in a safe and configurable environment.
Danny Kelly, head of innovation, Vodafone Business UK, said, “This is another UK first brought by Vodafone as we continue to explore the myriad powerful benefits of 5GSA, helping the UK to become a leader in this new technology.
“Finding 5GSA uses for the media makes perfect sense as the technology is well suited to this sector. It enables faster speeds, less latency (buffering) and is more reliable and secure. This makes it ideal for media – who create digitally dense content at high volume.
“Especially in locations that are isolated or at large scale events where the public network is crowded. We look forward to working with Coventry University and different media over the coming months to test and explore the different innovative uses for 5GSA.”
Professor John Latham CBE, vice chancellor of Coventry University, added, “We are delighted that we have been able to extend our collaboration with Vodafone following the development of the standalone 5G network that has been so successfully used by our healthcare students.
“This new project will expand our work with Vodafone into the media arena and we are excited to see how our experts can work with the broadcasting industry on how this technology can be put to use.”