While it’s been a while since we’ve seen the “Nokia” branding on a smartphone, the Finnish telecom giant has hardly been idling by. In fact, in addition to its phones, Nokia also works on a ton of hardware for online connectivity and 5G technologies, to name a few. Speaking of 5G, the company announced the arrival of a rather “unexpected” product – a 5G-enabled 360° camera. It also comes with support for 8K-resolution footage, making it one of the most capable remote-controlled cameras in the industry.
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Now before you go around looking to buy one for your vlogging channel or what have you, it should be noted that the camera is designed for industrial and business use, so we don’t exactly think that this is some sort of DJI competitor or such. Nokia says that it’s the result of long-term “multimedia research” and comes with a lot of the company’s own innovations.
The company says that the camera’s built-in capabilities for video and audio transmission via both public and private networks allows for real-time remote control, with the reduced likelihood of accidents and better operational efficiency for users. The camera also comes with Nokia’s Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM) software, which essentially allows it to function as an end-to-end solution for tasks which require remote inspection, teleoperations, and equipment monitoring.
Given that it’s built for industry purposes, it’s then unsurprising that the camera is designed to withstand external conditions with its rugged design. It comes with IP67 dust and water resistance, and it also features shock resistance to keep it safe from most bumps. More interestingly however, the camera also packs built-in 5G connectivity, so it’s able to receive and transmit data whenever needed, with support for spatial audio via 5G, WiFi and Ethernet connections. There’s a WiFi-only variant of the camera, although this of course does limit connectivity.
There’s also another model of the camera which Nokia refers to as the “Extreme Temperature Variant”, which as one could tell from the name is designed for deployment in environments with extreme temperatures and conditions.
Going back to Nokia RXRM, the platform does provide customer AI systems with APIs that allows them to tap into the camera’s 360° video and 3D OZO Audio. This includes anything from analytics implementation, overlays, extended reality and other features which use immersive live video. Nokia adds that RXRM customers in different fields have been using the technology for different purposes for cost efficiency. Sami Ranta, General Manager for RXRM at Nokia comments:
“Nokia RXRM allows industrial customers to enhance their business processes, saving costs from product support to field operations. Adding a 5G-enabled industrial camera product to RXRM now offers a complete solution for real-time remote use cases such as situational awareness, remote monitoring, teleoperation and stadium scale sports and entertainment events.”
We can expect to see Nokia’s new rugged camera in action soon, although the company hasn’t mentioned a specific release timeline, at least for non-enterprise consumers.
