• Shared Access worked with a football club to power headsets for visually impaired fans.
• It has deployed a private 5G network for fast connectivity and near-instant streaming.
• This article “5G and Connectivity Playbook,” a series that explores one of the most important technological innovations of our time.

This article, as told, is based on a conversation with Sam Jackman, chief development officer of Shared Access, a European company that develops mobile connectivity solutions. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My company, Shared Access, has been working with Crystal Palace Football Club in London for years. connection Its home stadium is Selhurst Park.

It all started when Vodafone turned to Shared Access to help create a system that provided excellent service for the stadium, even as all 30,000 fans struggled to provide excellent service to the stadium. use their phones at the same time.

Last year the Crystal Palace team came to us to support a particular group of fans: the visually impaired. as partners GiveVisionThey were working on the distribution of headphones broadcast live match footage They directly reached fans with partial vision, allowing them to sit anywhere in the stadium and see every moment in sync with the action on the field. faster connection to make this happen.

Existing networks just weren’t cutting it

The team working on the project tried to operate the headphones over WiFi before coming to us, but there was a lot of delay. People using headphones experienced everything with a slight delay; The fans around them reacted to something on the field before they even saw the match.

The 4G network we previously established with Vodafone and even the public 5G networks would not be able to do this job. Public networks have numerous firewalls and protocols that create additional delays, such as the need for data to travel from the stadium to a mobile operator’s core network outside the stadium and then back to the user. It’s also difficult because the number of other users in the venue using the network slows things down.

We decided to make an installation private 5G network with a core in place at the stadium. This enables completely closed connectivity within the venue, preventing external data transfer and eliminating the security protocol challenges of major mobile network operators. It delivers near-instant performance, with speeds faster than 4G and even purer 5G speeds than most mainstream users experience. Additionally, since the club has complete control over who can use the network, it can ensure that all bandwidth goes only to those headphones.

We officially launched the program on 21 September, making Crystal Palace FC the first football club in the world to introduce a permanent vision enhancement system at its stadium for visually impaired fans. Since we started, we’ve seen more fans with visual impairments who previously didn’t think it was worth coming to a game and have had a great experience.

Future applications for private 5G networks

While helping these fans see is more than enough justification to implement this particular network, there are also many other reasons. opportunities on how technology can be used.

For example, food and beverage vendors can use the private network to power its cases, allowing the stadium to expand its food offerings to areas that previously did not have strong enough connectivity. Security cameras can be installed in places where power and fiber cabling are physically very difficult. Broadcasters can use dedicated 5G to stream images faster and without the need to place a lot of equipment in the stadium. carbon footprint their work.

It doesn’t have to be just sports. I recommend all kinds of venues to consider: What are your issues? What are the things you want to do but feel like you can’t because of the connection?

After all, having the foundation of this private network gives a lot of room for creativity in what you can add on top of it. Twelve months ago I had never heard of GiveVision’s headphones and had never considered using a private 5G network, so this collaboration turned out perfectly. Who knows what other apps there are? I hope other partners and vendors will collaborate in the same creative way to unlock the possibilities.