SoftBank and Huawei have showcased several practical applications for a 5G network, demonstrating how the technology can transform industries through its high throughput, low latency, and edge computing capabilities.
Key demonstrations included real-time UHD video transmission exceeding 800 Mbps, remote control of a robotic arm using ultra-low latency links, and remote rendering via GPU servers at the network edge. These examples highlight how 5G can support bandwidth-intensive, delay-sensitive, and compute-heavy services for business customers.
For the UHD video demo, a high-resolution camera installed inside the demonstration room captured outdoor views of Tokyo Bay in Odaiba. The camera feed was encoded in real time, streamed over the ultra-high-throughput 5G connection, and decoded on the receiving end to recover the original UHD signal, which was displayed on a UHD monitor.
The stream successfully reproduced the outdoor scenery on the UHD display by leveraging the 5G network’s high capacity. Such capability has clear use cases in telehealth and remote education, where high-quality, low-latency video can improve diagnostics, training, and collaboration.
To demonstrate panoramic capture and multi-view distribution, the setup used four wide-angle lenses mounted in a single 180-degree camera unit, each pointing in a different direction. The individual video streams from those lenses were stitched together to form a continuous 180-degree panoramic image that could be delivered simultaneously to smartphones and tablets over the 5G network.
This approach enables multiple concurrent camera views and immersive experiences suitable for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, where a wide field of view and synchronized streams are essential for realism and low motion latency.
In addition to the technical demos, Huawei and Microsoft announced a memorandum of understanding at Huawei’s Connect 2017 event. Under the agreement, Microsoft applications would be made available on Huawei’s cloud platform as part of a deeper public cloud collaboration. Guo Ping, rotating CEO of Huawei, stated their vision for the global cloud market: they expect five leading public clouds worldwide and intend to build one of them in partnership with other companies, leveraging Huawei’s technology and expertise.
Overall, the demonstrations underline how 5G’s combination of ultra-high throughput, ultra-low latency, and edge computing can support advanced video services, robotics control, and immersive media across healthcare, education, enterprise, and entertainment sectors.