Verizon's Hans Vestberg Delivers kick-off keynote at CES 2021

Verizon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg took to the virtual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) stage to deliver the 2021 kick-off keynote address.

This marked his second appearance on the CES keynote stage in two years. In 2019, Vestberg promised that Verizon’s 5G would usher in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” And today, he brought the impact 5G is having to life through compelling present-day 5G use cases across sports, education, connected communities and live music.

“Our world has experienced significant change since we last took the keynote stage at CES in 2019. There’s been an extreme acceleration in the digital revolution, and at the heart of that transformation is 5G technology. The future of work, learning, telehealth, retail and streaming are very much our current realities. And we are just getting started. 5G isn’t just another tech innovation, it’s the platform that makes other innovations possible,” said, Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO, Verizon.

During the presentation, Verizon made announcements with several partners including the NFL, UPS, Live Nation Clubs and Theaters, The Met and the Smithsonian. Details on these announcements can be found below.

Featured partners and announcements
Changing the Game
Partner: NFL

Guests: Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner and Deion Sanders, NFL legend and head football coach at Jackson State University

Verizon commits to 5G Ultra Wideband in 28 NFL stadiums by the end of 2021 with expanded coverage in select stadiums.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Deion Sanders, NFL Legend and head football coach at Jackson State University, joined Verizon’s CES stage today to discuss how 5G is changing the fan experience by delivering immersive ways to watch and engage with the game. Verizon’s 5G SuperStadium in the NFL app allows fans with certain 5G-enabled devices to engage with select games with up to seven different camera angles, bringing them closer to the on-field action. Augmented reality (AR) overlays let fans project virtual players and layers the NFL’s Next Gen Stats proprietary tracking data on-screen with enhanced games stats for players during each play.

Verizon also confirmed availability of 5G Ultra Wideband in Raymond James Stadium, home of Super Bowl LV, and announced 5G Ultra Wideband will be live in 28 NFL stadiums in 2021 with expanded coverage in select stadiums.

Next Era of Immersive Learning
Partner: Smithsonian

Verizon is building upon our use of the Smithsonian’s Open Access platform to bring even more 3D artifacts into augmented reality.

Guest: Secretary Lonnie Bunch, Smithsonian Institution

Verizon announced an expansion of its relationship with the Smithsonian by supporting its upcoming “Race, Community, and Our Shared Future” Initiative. Over the next five years, Verizon will provide high fidelity scanning of collections and artifacts along with the creation of new digital experiences that bring history and culture to life regardless of where the viewer is.

Verizon has been an early innovator with Smithsonian’s Open Access platform helping to bring existing 3D artifacts into augmented reality, like the Apollo 11 Columbia Command module. Now as part of the Smithsonian’s efforts to broaden access to diverse collections, a few never-before-released AR artifacts will soon be launched, including objects from two exhibitions at the National Museum of American History: Girlhood (It’s Complicated) which explores girlhood in the U.S. and how girls changed history in politics, education, work, health, and fashion and ¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas which shows how Latino communities played, celebrated and changed the game of baseball.

With Verizon’s support, the high fidelity of these artifacts allows the learner to experience the object up close, while hearing from museum curators the stories that contextualize their cultural significance.

Partner: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Verizon Launch Interactive Virtual Art Experience

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Verizon today launched The Met Unframed, an immersive virtual art and gaming experience, with enhancements available to those connected by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, that features more than a dozen one-of-a-kind digitally rendered galleries and nearly 50 works of art from across The Met's vast collection. At a time when access to one of the world’s greatest art collections is limited, The Met Unframed brings a creatively reimagined Met experience to people wherever they are.

TheMetUnframed.com invites online visitors to explore digital galleries and play games that unlock augmented reality (AR) versions of the art on view that can then be displayed virtually at home.

The Met Unframed is accessible from any 4G or 5G smart device, and is available for free for a limited five-week run. Within the experience, four of the AR works of art are enhanced with activations accessible to users on Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband. These users can watch the objects come alive in AR by utilizing high-speed responsiveness and ultra low lag.

Building the New Smart City
Partner: UPS & Skyward

News: Verizon, UPS, and Skyward announce connected drone delivery

Guest: Carol B. Tomé, CEO, UPS and Mariah Scott, President, Skyward, A Verizon Company

Skyward, a Verizon company, and UPS Flight Forward announced collaborative efforts to deliver retail products with drones connected to Verizon 4G LTE, as well as 5G testing and integration for delivery. The companies aim to deliver retail products via connected drones at The Villages in Florida.

In 2020, Verizon, UPS Flight Forward, and Skyward started testing 4G LTE in delivery drones to demonstrate cellular reliability and performance at altitude.

For a busy logistics hub that includes fleets of drones, trucks, and planes, the low latency of 5G Ultra Wideband and edge compute is ideal for monitoring traffic and freight locations. With the rise of autonomous aerial and ground vehicles, 5G will be essential.

UPS has operated more than 3,800 successful flights for drone delivery since the creation of UPS Flight Forward, its drone delivery company, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2019. But in 2020, drone delivery emerged as much more than rapid delivery of essential healthcare items — during the global pandemic it provided high-risk seniors a rapid and contactless delivery option to remain healthy at home.

The 5G Age of Entertainment
Partner: Live Nation Clubs and Theaters

News: Verizon has partnered with 15 iconic Live Nation Clubs and Theaters to deploy 5G Ultra Wideband across the country, including The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Fillmore in Miami, The Masonic Theater in San Francisco and Irving Plaza in New York.

Guest: Black Pumas

Verizon has partnered with 15 iconic Live Nation Clubs and Theaters to deploy 5G Ultra Wideband across the country, giving audiences new ways of experiencing music both in person and virtually. 5G’s capacity and speed will provide access to multiple camera angles for fans to enjoy live streams of shows as if they were seated in the front row, while also powering new tools being developed to manage crowd flow and more in-venue elements.

The Wiltern in Los Angeles is the first 5G Ultra Wideband-enabled music club. Today, CES attendees were given a sneak peek of a special performance by 4-time Grammy Award nominees Black Pumas at The Wiltern featuring their hit singles “Colors” and “Fire,” which included a multi-cam viewing and a 360-degree portal experience. The full concert will be available to members of Verizon’s loyalty program, Verizon Up. More details will be announced at a later date. The Fillmore in Miami, The Masonic Theater in San Francisco and Irving Plaza in New York City are some of the venues that will integrate 5G Ultra Wideband. Additional clubs and theaters will be announced at a later date.