Ericsson, Sony Corporation and Vodafone Germany teamed up at MWC 2026 in Barcelona to demonstrate a breakthrough in 5G-enabled live sports and events photography – tapping application programming interfaces (APIs) enabled by Vonage, part of Ericsson.
Building on previous achievements – including live 5G network slicing trials at a major Stockholm soccer Derby last year with Tre Sverige (Three Sweden), Sony, and Swedish sports photography agency Bildbyrån – the new proof of concept includes a CAMARA-compliant and API-driven on-demand network slice reservation and activation capability which can be used where and when it is needed.
The solution overcomes the challenge of operating amid heavy network usage at large-scale public events, where tens of thousands of attendees are using the network at the same time, when it is crucial for professional photographers to send key action shots to agency offices or sport news desks.
The proof of concept allows photographers and media to access a differentiated connectivity service that provides guaranteed and predictable high-speed upload performance within a defined time window and geographical area – such as during major live events.
In short, it ensures that professional photographers can send images when they want, without delay, through reserved and guaranteed differentiated connectivity capabilities.
The achievement took pace at Vodafone’s 5G Mobility lab, part of the Aldenhoven Test Center in Germany, using Sony cameras and portable data transmitters (PDT-FP1) with a Sony-provided application layer for event and logistics planning, connected to a Vodafone 5G network.
The proof of concept utilized Ericsson programmable network, exposure capabilities, orchestration solutions and the Vonage API platform, providing on-demand access to reservation and activation of CAMARA-compliant APIs.
With the professional photography services sector tipped to grow from USD 60.6 billion in 2025 to USD 93.1 billion by 2035 (source: Business Research Insights) the partners say utilizing advanced and programmable mobile network capabilities is set to be a key enabler.
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