Optus Demos 5G Mixed Reality Sports Streaming

Watching sports may never be the same if a demo by telecommunications company Optus is any indication.

ZDNet is reporting on a demonstration Optus put on at its headquarters in Sydney, in partnership with mixed reality firm Unbnd, combining the power of mixed reality and 5G. Mixed reality (MR) is the term that covers both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

According to ZDNet, in the presentation Optus and Unbnd demonstrated “a 360-degree ‘virtual theatre’ that allows viewers to experience National Basketball Association (NBA) content in either 2D or 3D, such as live games and replays, while also providing access to additional mixed reality information like scores and statistics, as well as the ability to buy NBA products such as basketball jerseys.”

The technology could eventually allow viewers to watch and essentially ‘participate’ in sports that would otherwise be too dangerous for the average person. As an example, according to ZDNet, the demo “showcased an immersive sportscar racing experience which was streamed to a 5G-capable handset. In that mixed-reality experience, viewers could see three 4K video streams concurrently — ranging from driver POV streams to the main race coverage — in addition to real-time statistics such as the positions of race cars on the track map and the speed of each driver that are tracked by Internet of Things sensors.”

Optus and Unbnd’s demo is an amazing example of what’s yet to come as 5G is paired with other revolutionary technologies, such as MR.