T-Mobile announced today that it is deploying its 5G Advanced Network Solutions (ANS) to enhance the fan experience as well as CBS Sports’ live coverage of the PGA Championship taking place at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., May 15–19. The carrier is partnering with PGA of America to deploy what it tags “golf’s FIRST 5G private network in the U.S.” to enable operational efficiencies during the broadcasts.   

For the first time in golf, 5G will be implemented into a live broadcast with CBS Sports using 5G-connected cameras connected via a T-Mobile 5G private network for new angles of the iconic Hole 13, and cinematic quality footage, giving fans more hero shots of their favorite players at Valhalla.

Fans will also be able to watch brand-new pre-championship coverage live on PGA digital and social channels. T-Mobile’s 5G private network and 5G POV cameras will bring fans an exclusive, up-close look at the action on the practice range while PGA coaches and expert commentators provide valuable insights and analysis on the players’ warm-up sessions. Fans will also get detailed stats, including ball speed, apex, curve, distance and more.

"Sports organizations typically come to T-Mobile to see if 5G can help them enhance operations, the fan experience, or the event broadcast, and we’re delivering all of the above and more at the PGA Championship," said Callie Field, President, T-Mobile Business Group. "5G firsts are always exciting, but it’s so rewarding to see how our T-Mobile for Business solutions are making a tangible difference—from making it easier for producers to capture and create amazing new broadcast moments to helping fans experience even more action.”

T-Mobile says bringing more wireless cameras will declutter the golf course during live broadcasts, freeing up thousands of feet of wiring and cabling, resulting in faster setup and teardown, and saving money. Plus, the private network is portable and can be deployed without a major installation effort and also adds capacity to make other systems—like security cameras or ticketing—wireless as well, the company said.

Up until recently, wireless cameras have also been limited to HD, instead of 4K resolution, but T-Mobile says it has partnered with Sony to use Sony’s PDT-FP1 portable data transmitters combined with Sony’s ultra-low latency encoders/decoders to lower the latency to less than 100 milliseconds, which can open capacity to support more wireless cameras and give production teams creative freedom to provide new angles all around the course.

In addition, by carving out a dedicated channel within the broader 5G macro network, a network slice can help optimize performance and increase the reliability of the concession payment terminals as well as ticketing scanners and ensuring that they run smoothly and deliver peak performance and customer experiences, all while the fans onsite at the tournament use their phones without any interruptions, T-Mobile said.

"We’re thrilled to introduce groundbreaking technology to one of golf’s most significant events through this partnership with T-Mobile,” said Jeff Price, Chief Commercial Officer of the PGA of America. “T-Mobile has paved the way for unprecedented innovation that will continue to thrill our fans. And this is just the beginning.”

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Dish Network Corporation has announced that Samsung Electronics was selected for the deployment of 5G Open Radio Access Network solutions across Dish Wireless’ Smart 5G network. 

As part of the multi-year agreement, the companies will collaborate to deploy Samsung’s 5G O-RAN-compliant virtualized RAN (vRAN) solutions and radio units in markets across the U.S., supporting Dish’s 5G commercial services.

In addition, the companies said that the agreement will extend to retail wireless customers, providing them with leading-edge 5G devices for use on Dish Wireless’ Smart 5G network.

Dish is currently testing its 5G network using the Samsung Galaxy S22, and plans to continue using Samsung phones as a reference platform throughout the network deployment process.

“Samsung’s 5G solutions will play an integral role in our network expansion, giving us the flexibility to deploy our cloud-native network with software-based solutions that support advanced services and operational scalability,” said John Swieringa, president and chief operating officer, Dish Wireless. “We look forward to working with Samsung, whose industry leadership in vRAN and O-RAN innovation will help support our vision of delivering open, interoperable cloud-based 5G services to consumers and enterprises across the U.S.”

Samsung Networks Business will supply Dish Wireless with its 5G and RAN solutions, vRAN software and a variety of O-RAN compliant radio units, including Massive MIMO radios. 

Samsung’s vRAN can operate on any commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) server, while still delivering performance on par with traditional hardware-based equipment, the companies said. 

With its cloud-native architecture, Dish Wireless’ Open RAN deployment is based on open interfaces, allowing for multi-vendor interoperability and various deployment scenarios. The Samsung radios will also support all of Dish’s Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum bands (including n71, n29, n66, n70, n48 and n77).

LAS VEGAS—A team effort between Keysight Technologies and MediaTek offered CES attendees a chance to see just how 5G can help power 8K video streaming content during a special presentation.

In a joint demonstration, Keysight and MediaTek uses 5G wireless connectivity to showcase 8K video streaming to a smart TV. Using Keysight’s 5G emulation solutions with MediaTek’s Dimensity 1000 5G mobile system-on-chip, the demonstration delivers data rates of up to 1 gigabit per second, which helps ensure continuous 8K video streaming to an 8K smart TV without a wired connection.

MediaTek uses Keysight’s 5G platform to establish a new 5G new radio connection using the non-standalone mode. The connection will also use dual connectivity to generate an aggregated data stream created from both LTE and 5G signals.

“This demonstration highlights the application diversity our 5G solutions support, which enables a connected ecosystem to deliver products that depend on a reliable 5G connection,” said Jeffrey Chen, general manager of greater China wireless application engineering at Keysight Technologies.

This demonstration is a result of collaborations between Keysight and MediaTek for more than three years.

The demonstration will take place throughout CES 2020, and will be shown at MediaTek’s booth, 3601 in the Tech West Pavilion.