Telefónica revolutionises the sports experience in its ‘Telefónica Open Gateway’ demo

Telefónica shows in the ‘Telefónica Open Gateway’ demo at its stand at Mobile World Congress (MWC) a totally innovative way of experiencing sport thanks to the possibilities offered by the Open Gateway APIs, the GSMA-led initiative that was presented at MWC 2023 and that is opening a new era in telecommunications networks.

Telefónica is presenting a real use case to experience sport as never before, with a stunning display that aims to recreate the immersive sensation of virtual reality (VR) glasses, allowing users to immerse themselves in a multi-camera sports event, with 180º and 360º views, and with the best quality of service, meaning they can enjoy the best viewing experience without interruption, thanks to the Open Gateway APIs.

The Telefónica Open Gateway demo presents different ways of experiencing a sporting event, in this case the Copa del Rey acb basketball tournament on Movistar Plus+, of which the operator is a broadcaster and sponsor, although the immersive experience can be adapted to any sector. The Copa del Rey acb is one of the most important sporting events in Spain and has just celebrated its 2024 edition in Malaga with a great show on the court and in the stands, which will be transmitted as never before through this demo.

Telefónica’s technological partner in recreating this experience was YBVR, a leading company in the VR sector in the United States, invested by Wayra, the company’s corporate venture capital, which works in the generation of immersive streaming for multi-device Apps. On this occasion, they relied on the AWS Edge offered by Telefónica Tech to broadcast the Copa del Rey basketball competition with low latency and immersive cameras distributed throughout the José Mª Martín Carpena Sports Pavilion in Malaga, capturing all the necessary angles and data to offer an innovative and enriched experience in the ‘Telefónica Open Gateway’ demo.

Visitors to the stand will be able to feel how, from the comfort of their own home, simply by wearing VR glasses and entering the virtual world of the Movistar Immersive Experience, they can experience a basketball game in a totally innovative way, with greater realism and quality. Visitors will be placed at a point on the court of their choice, from where they will enjoy an immersive 180º or 360º perspective. They will be able to see the names of the players, the statistics of the match or personal fouls without having to look away from the pitch by interacting with their hands. The user can also replay a particular play from the game with a 360º view of the action and invite family and friends who are remotely present to join in virtually. All this in real time, with a smooth experience and excellent connectivity, without interruptions, thanks to the Open Gateway API for quality of service within the home WiFi network – called Quality of Demand ( QoD WiFi) – which allows you to configure and optimise the quality of service of devices connected to the same WiFi network in demanding scenarios of high connectivity demand.

Visitors to the Telefónica stand at MWC will also be able to see how watching a match in person from a sports venue will never be the same again. Using their smartphone with the YBVR acb app, they will be able to enrich their physical experience by seeing in detail the actions they want to extend, among other things, in real time thanks to the ‘ API QoD Mobile‘ Quality of Service API, which allows them to control the quality of the network in terms of availability, security and performance, and the ‘ API Device Location‘, which confirms that the user is in the sports venue and can enjoy the immersive experience. In this context, the visitor will be able to opt for premium experiences by purchasing the ability to access the immersive 180º and 360º cameras, thanks to the ‘ Carrier Billing API‘, an API that allows to associate the phone number to make a payment through the mobile phone against the operator bill.

Just over a year ago, at MWC 2023, the GSMA announced the industry-wide Open Gateway initiative. A major industry innovation with global implications, it opened up network capabilities, making them programmable, with the aim of standardisation.

Telefónica has taken the lead from the outset. First, by launching the ‘ Telefónica Open Gateway Developer Hub‘, where digital service developers can create, define and test real use cases with network and telco APIs using hyperscalers such as Azure, Digital Virgo, Infobip and Vonage.

The Telefónica Open Gateway Partner Programme has also been launched to help companies enrich their service offerings and grow their business.

This was followed by the commercial launch in Brazil, through Vivo (Telefónica Brazil), of three APIs focused on digital security and fraud prevention: Number Verification, Device Location and SIM Swap(allows to check if a phone number has recently changed SIM card). And more recently, with the first commercial launch of Open Gateway APIs in Europe. In Spain, the digital security APIs Number Verification and SIM Swap are already available.

For more information: Telefónica at MWC 2024