hankyoreh

Oh Sung-mok

The world’s first black-and-white live televised coverage of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The first color satellite broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The first mobile-based live broadcast with the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. The first-ever live YouTube broadcasts with the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Four-screen (TV, internet, smartphone, and tablet) broadcasts for the 2012 Summer Games in London.

In the past, the Olympics have been a forum for technological competition, drawing on the cutting edge of the day’s information and communication (ICT) and broadcasting technology. Now the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are set to bring a test run of 5G mobile communication services. Self-driving cars, ultra-high definition (UHD) live broadcasts, virtual reality, and other state-of-the-art technologies will also be on display. South Korean businesses are gearing up for an all-out push to make the most of the Olympics as an opportunity to share their technological capabilities and brands.

5G is a next-generation mobile communication technology with download rates 40 to 50 times faster than the currently used LTE fourth-generation technology and processing capacities roughly 100 times larger. New technologies like self-driving cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, cloud computing, and drones rely on 5G-level communication speeds to function smoothly. This explains why 5G has often been referred to as the “infrastructure for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Major telecoms and telecom device companies in South Korea and overseas have set the goal of commercializing 5G by around 2020. The South Korean government announced on Nov. 30 that it planned to “commercialize the world’s first 5G by 2019.” It is currently working with KT, Samsung Electronics, and others to ready infrastructure and equipment to unveil 5G pilot services for the Pyeongchang Olympics, with KT as an official partner in communications for the Games and Samsung Electronics as a worldwide partner.

In late October, KT finished building a pilot 5G network including towers and relay stations in areas of Pyeongchang and Gangneung and some Olympics venues, including the ice arena in Gangneung. Samsung Electronics is providing exclusive 5G tablet PCs. During the Olympics, the South Korean government plans to provide test frequencies in the 5G 28-GHz range.

Some of the 5G-based services to be provided at the Olympics including state-of-the-art live broadcasting and self-driving cars. At venues with 5G networks, viewers can use 5G devices to enjoy Sync View, a technology relaying high-definite real-time images from the athletes’ point-of-view through ultra-small wireless cameras and communication modules attached to bobsleds; Omni View, a multi-perspective streaming system that allows viewers to access information and real-time images from the desired perspective during matches; 360-degree VR photographed with virtual reality cameras; and Time Slice, which offers images that appear to stop time and rotate the camera around objects like a scene out of “The Matrix.”

“With the whole world’s eyes and ears on Pyeongchang, we want to use the 5G pilot services to once again let them know about South Korea’s outstanding ICT and hasten the commercialization of 5G,” said Kim Hyeong-joon, head of KT’s Pyeongchang Olympics team.

5G services will be operating in parts of Pyeongchang and Gangneung during the Games. Hyundai Motor is to provide Level 3 self-driving cars (partial self-operation requiring driver intervention in dangerous situations). The automaker also plans to unveil eco-friendly car technology during the Olympics with its next-generation hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV).

By Ahn Seon-hee, Kim So-youn, and Hong Dae-seon, staff reporters

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