Vodacom demonstrates 5G live sport broadcast at 2018 Vodacom Durban July
This year’s Vodacom Durban July saw Vodacom partnering with Nokia to showcase the future of Virtual Reality (VR) through two different 5G powered experiences at Africa’s Greatest Horseracing Event.

The first VR experience showcase the high speed and low latency capabilities of 5G and used 4K video cameras to record and stream live, immersive footage from two different positions at the Greyville racecourse where the annual Vodacom Durban July horserace will take place on Saturday, 7 July.

Each of these cameras broadcasted a live, 360 degree feed over 5G back to the Vodacom hospitality suite, where guests experienced the feeds from the racecourse through VR headsets, and were virtually transported into the live scenes from the day’s races.

The first camera was positioned in the Parade Ring, which enabled guests at the Vodacom hospitality suite to have a live, virtual view of the horses paraded before each race. The second camera had been positioned at the finish line, and enabled guests to watch the action packed finish of each race in VR, as if they were at the finish line themselves.

The images from the cameras were streamed in real time over a Nokia Airscale 5G base station, and uses 100MHz of Vodacom’s own spectrum in the 28GHz frequency band.