Elisa, Nokia and 5G Power Remote Audience Participation for Andrea Bocelli Concert

Andrea Bocelli’s concert at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland on 4 April was the world class commercial concert where the audience were able to participate live in 360-degree VR over the 5G network.

Going forward, the highly capable 5G network constructed by Elisa and Nokia at the venue opens up new possibilities for people to take part in events at the arena regardless of their physical location.

The virtual concert experience was produced with the help of 360 cameras installed in Nokia Arena, the 5G network, and VR headsets located in Helsinki, some 175 kilometres away. The audience were able to move around different parts of the arena in VR and follow the concert thanks to the 360 cameras.

The high-quality 8K video from the 360 cameras and stereo audio were transmitted almost in real time over Elisa’s 5G network. The cameras located in Nokia Arena utilise a highly capable 5G mmWave network enabled by Nokia’s network technologies, which permits the latest gigabit data uplink and downlink speeds as well as an extremely high-capacity network to be used during events at the arena. The transfer of data between Nokia Arena and the audience in Helsinki took place over Elisa’s public 5G network. The Finnish streaming services provider Kepit Systems provided the software technology for streaming the concert.

Now that technology is making it possible for the audience to experience concerts and other events regardless of location, the imagination is the only limit to what will be possible at the arena events of the future. Not all artists’ tours reach Finland, and VR could offer a solution to this.

“Elisa has been a pioneer in bringing 5G to consumers and corporations in Finland, and it’s great to see the kinds of innovation that can arise thanks to this highly capable mobile network. Now, the 5G network offers the possibility to attend arena-scale live events from anywhere. I believe that this is just a taste of what’s to come in the future. Nokia Arena is a great place for arranging world class events, as digitality has been built into the experience right from the start”, explains Business Director Joni Oksanen from Corporate Connectivity Business at Elisa.

“The Nokia Arena is a state-of-the-art, programmable 5G-enabled digital stadium like no other. Through the combined strengths of Nokia’s equipment portfolio and Elisa’s network we can deliver low latency, high-capacity and ultra-high data speeds via 5G mmWave that enhance the experience of every person attending events like this. Through VR headsets it is possible to experience live performances in 360º even when not physically there. This is yet another example of our ground-breaking and game-changing partnership with Elisa,” says Ari Kynäslahti, Head of Technology and Strategy at Nokia Mobile Networks.