With the Super Bowl just around the corner, there is no doubt the demand for data will be huge. The College National Championship game set a record for data usage last month. This Super Bowl could be even more demanding. Service providers are looking for ways to keep up with this demand.
LTE Broadcast could be the answer. And it just might change the way you view the big game.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T have been flirting with the technology at other large sporting events. AT&T recently tested their version at the College National Championship at AT&T Stadium.
Verizon Wireless tested the technology at last years Super Bowl and Indianapolis 500.
MobiTV was the mobile delivery platform on both those projects. Kerry Travilla, the senior director of technology at MobiTV, says the multicast technology could give in-game users a whole new perspective at the big game.
The technology allows service providers to deliver content in a more spectrally efficient way, giving seamless connectivity to all. In the past carriers had to divide spectrum between users.
While Travilla wouldn’t reveal if they would be testing the technology at this year’s Super Bowl, he did say big events are perfect for the what the technology has to offer.
“Give me a lot of users, a stadium is a great choice, give me something everybody is interested in, okay, they’re all there for one reason and let me show a one to many versus a one to one. You couldn’t ask for a better situation like that.”
It takes a collaboration between carriers, app makers, infrastructure providers, device makers and content providers to make the multicast work.
ESPN was the content provider for the National Championship game. A demonstration by AT&T showed how LTE Broadcast allows customers at the game to be able to access stats and angles in real time that they otherwise couldn’t have seen.
“What we did is we scraped ESPN because they take statistic during the game, we packaged that up then we delivered that not through a video channel, but through what LTE Broadcast calls a file delivery service,” Travilla explains.
This allows users to watch the angles that they choose such as the skycam, coaches cam or any other content that the broadcast partner wants to provide.
“Take that same content where somebody can literally tune in and all of the sudden you have a lot of happy people because they can get it where they couldn’t get it before.”
There are obstacles to overcome before the technology can become widely available. Travel says a major obstacle for the technology is “getting people who own the rights to the content to agree to it. You must get the rights.”
For instance, at this year’s Super Bowl, NBC would have to give the carrier permission to access their content.
It remains to be seen when customers will have access to the full LTE Broadcast experience, but if the tests are any indication, this may be the beginning of a whole new viewing experience.
