Lifecycle updates of technology in our infrastructure are often not receiving as much attention as things that are a little closer to consumers, like a new laptop or smartphone from your favorite brand, for example. However, suppose you begin to look at the innovation in the deeper levels of technology. In that case, you quickly start to understand that what might seem irrelevant at first to some is an enabler for new solutions not only for consumers but for enterprises just as much.
We’ve been talking about 5G as a future enabler since 4G was out and about. By now, 5G has found its way from the drawing board to the endpoints of consumers and into commercial technology just as much. The innovation here is not to be found in a new or faster network connection. The innovation becomes apparent when you see what some companies offer to their users by leveraging platforms supported by 5G.
Checking into the 5G Things Summit
To better understand not only how 5G works and what it does, but who managed to leverage it into new solutions and how existing use cases look like, we joined the 5G Things Summit, organized by experts from Ericsson. The event took place on the 16th and 17th of November, and across those two days, there was a large number of exciting presentations done not only by people from Ericsson but as well as key opinion leaders from companies such as AT&T, Cradlepoint, Dreamscape Immersive, McKinsey & Company, Intel, Meta, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Red Hat, T-Mobile, Verizon, Wevr, and many more.
Why would you want to check in to such sessions? Well, it could be that you’re simply a geek like I am and can’t help but wanting to know the latest updates. But beyond that, there are more good reasons to join, I would say. The talks and presentations at the 5G Things Summit are a testament to the business case of leveraging 5G right now and in the future. They demonstrate clearly how these companies harnessed 5G not only to provide the best network to their clients, of course. The value and potential go further. Seeing how that can be done and seeing that monetization could help lead to a return on investment from day one is undoubtedly useful if you’re a professional in the telecommunication world. Other than that, it’s certainly inspiring to hear how smart people work their ways to solve problems for the greater good.
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I don’t want to take away too much, and I certainly recommend you check out the full lineup of sessions that Ericsson made available as on-demand videos, but here are some of my favorite sessions and those that I think are the best fit for the TechAcute audience as well. Below you can find a selection of four sessions that I want to show you today
5G accelerating the pace of innovation
In the fireside chat with Niklas Heuveldop, President & CEO Ericsson North America, and Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, you hear about how 5G provides the platform for entirely game-changing approaches to not only improve what exists but to introduce completely novel solutions that were unthinkable in a 4G world. Want to hear how Industry 4.0 benefits from all of this? Curious how this impacts first responder performances? Or want to know more about IoT sensors that support smart building operations? This is an excellent session to start with before you check into the other 5G Things Summit talks.
5G transforming the experience for sports fans
Thinking about 5G, some directly think about innovation that happens somewhere in the world of B2B, in manufacturing, or is only something for carriers to provide to their customers. I found it very interesting to tune in to the fireside chat session with Yossi Cohen, COO & Executive Vice President, Ericsson North America, and Brian Mecum, Vice President of Verizon. In the session, Brian Mecum shares how they enabled new services and new experiences for sports fans by leveraging 5G in stadiums. Still, giving the sports audience a better experience is not the only advantage here. They are also working on services for the athletes and their coaches to use these tech stacks to augment the training and support the performance analysis with facts and figures.
Extended reality use cases for the entertainment industry
XR (extended reality) experiences have been on the rise in recent years. There are some applications in the world of entertainment, such as augmentation for movie experiences, but there is also a strong push for gaming to be increasingly immersive. But what about the business side of things? On the one hand, you have advantages by levering XR technology to enable remote maintenance or reducing risk for technicians by sending drones into dangerous environments and letting the experts do check-ups and fixes from a secure remote location. On the other hand, the increased adaption rate for remote work forced the workforce to think about collaboration in new ways.
Working together in a kind of virtual reality environment might sound far out, but really, how far are we from that? Knowing that Meta (Facebook) is certainly pushing things like the metaverse a lot keeps us wondering about the details. Check into this panel with Aaron Grosky, President & Chief Operating Officer at Dreamscape Immersive, Jay Cary, Vice President, 5G Product, and Mobility Innovation at AT&T, Anthony Batt Cofounder of Wevr, and Pernilla Jonsson, Head of Consumer & Industry Lab at Ericsson Research, to learn more about where we are in the world of XR and where we are moving.
2022 in the Rear Mirror
Not many details were disclosed about this keynote in advance of the event, and I also don’t want to tell you too much about this talk before you click through to watch it. If you click on the thumbnail below, you can watch Mischa Dohler, Chief Architect at Ericsson, sharing his visions about what sorts of technology will be game-changers in the future and how they could be used to improve our daily lives. The whole session is as curious as it’s exciting and inspiring. If you care for future technology and visions, this is a clip you shouldn’t skip.
What else is there to check into?
If you think these were interesting, you should also make use of the other content that Ericsson made available on-demand. I know very well how everyone’s calendars are filling up with more and more meetings and deadlines towards the end of the year, so having the luxury to check into content at your own time is certainly an advantage.
What’s on the menu? You can find videos and talks as part of the sessions that showcase 5G innovations, you can watch some technical sessions and dive into 5G architecture, you could see how 5G supports Industry 4.0 use cases, see how XR solutions are relevant not only for the entertainment sector but also watch how the North America ecosystem is doing beyond 5G. I’m sure there’s something for everyone.
Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic has been done by Dmytro Zinkevych. The pictures in the body of the article are owned by Ericsson.
