Ever since Mobile World Congress, tech giants and start-ups alike have vied to outbid each other on who can produce the gadgets that make Virtual Reality and UHD accessible to all and adopted by the masses.
But there is something that these companies and those early trialists of the technology are failing to mention.
Whether delivering the top-class experience of 4K or a revolutionary Virtual Reality VR video service which transports the end-user from their living-room to the other side of the world, all of these revolutionary services require ultra-broadband to deliver the experience they promise.
Without this key piece of kit, the overall effect would be disappointing to say the least, with users potentially experiencing basic problems they had assumed were a thing of the past, such as buffering and poor image quality.
Surely in our increasingly digital world, though, where telcos boast of superfast services and even copper has been given a boost with g.fast technologies, this isn’t an issue?
While it is true that Fibre-to-the-Premises has been deployed in some countries, other regions have relied on Fibre-to-the-Cabinet, and the ultra-broadband experience and speeds that technologies like UHD and Virtual Reality rely on has not yet been delivered universally. In order to maximize the full potential of these technologies, speeds of at least 1Gbps are needed, while low latency and ubiquitous coverage is also essential.
Until now, operators have had doubts about investing in ultra-broadband due to a lack of applications and the rate of investment required but now, as consumer demand rises for technologies which rely on it, that is looking set to change.
And for those techies thinking of throwing their Virtual Reality headsets out the window or at least putting them away in a cupboard for a few years there is more good news – the technology to achieve the gigaband era is already being developed. Huawei,
for example, is researching and innovating access technologies for upgrading broadband from 100M to 1000M. It has also adopted the vMOS system to quantize video experience indicators and form a unified video experience standard to assess and measure the quality of operator networks using the high-quality video experience benchmark.
Of course, there is still work to be done – which is exactly why Huawei will also host its third Ultra-Broadband Forum in Frankfurt, Germany, from Thursday, September 29 to Friday, September 30. Jointly organised by the UN Broadband Commission, the event will create a platform for communications between carriers, content providers, consumer electronics vendors, Internet service providers, and regulatory agencies worldwide. Representatives from the UN Broadband Commission and industry leaders will be invited to attend the forum and deliver speeches, sharing their experience on topics ranging from industry policy, ultra-broadband coverage, cloud-era network transformation, user experience for 4K/ VR video to Smart Home.
With events like this and the joint efforts of industry players and governments, the ultra-broadband era is just around the corner, bringing with it an unparalleled user experience and the key to unlock the full potential of even the most bandwidth-hungry up-and-coming video trends.
Source: http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=494979&G=1&C=1&page=2