5G |What SMEs simmer |The press

The 5G network may be embryonic in Canada, hundreds of companies are trying to take the lead to take advantage of what will be the next technological revolution.Futuristic visor for firefighters, intelligent city, creation of virtual reality at La Minecraft: unprecedented products of more than 200 Quebec SMEs are tested in particular thanks to the facilities of the Encqor 5G organization.Here is a selection.

De la « vraie»» 5G

The 5G which is offered at more than 45 % of the Canadian population since January 2020, notably by Rogers, Bell and Telus, is only a taste of this technology which is far from being completely deployed.The speeds, the communication times and the density of connected devices are still far from the possibilities of this technology which promises 20 GB/s, less than 1 millisecond of latency and 1 million devices connected to the square kilometer.One of the explanations: this 5G still uses the frequencies allocated to the old 4G, around 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz.The higher, much more promising frequencies are not even attributed to Canada.

This is where the five innovation centers of the Encqor 5G organization come in, two of which are located in Quebec.This is an acronym for "evolution of cloud services in the Quebec-Ontario Corridor for Research and Innovation".Founded in 2018 with funding of $ 400 million by governments of Canada, Quebec and Ontario, in partnership with five large companies in the sector, including Ericsson, IBM and CGI, Encqor 5G will soon have reached 500 SMEsparticipants.Essentially, these companies have access to financing and laboratories, in particular Centech in Montreal and the Intelligence Institute and Data in Quebec, where they can play with "real" 5G.The frequencies available here are 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz.It is this last frequency, which will probably not be offered on a large scale for several years, which represents the Eldorado for telecoms.

Smart city

No need to be a little techno business freshly born to board 5G.Kalitec, Laval firm with around forty employees, specializes in road signaling since 1988.It has undertaken a technological turn for eight years, investing 5 million and developing products such as its "educational radar" which prevents motorists and compiles statistics, pedestrian crosspieces which synchronize on both sides of the road and snow removal panelsActivated by remote control or from a web platform.

"Right now, our system is on 4G because it is everywhere and compatible, but we choose to make sure that our micrologists are ready to welcome 5G when it is deployed," explains Jean-Roch Lafleur, directorGeneral of Kalitec.The heart of this project is a platform called Dynamik, already used for the most advanced products such as smart panels and pedestrian passages, but which could become with 5G a real real -time control center for a municipality.

This technology is essential for two of its capacities, explains M.Lafleur: extremely reduced latency and the ability to considerably increase the number of connected devices.Examples: "Summer a motorist that a pedestrian is going through, I could do it with 4G, but the response time would have been too long.If I want to coordinate all activities at an airport, I can't, I don't have enough reliability on response time.»»

According to its estimate, the 5G network will be ready in two years for this deployment of large -scale connected devices which will really allow municipalities to follow what is happening on their territory in real time. « Nous, on est prêts»», affirme-t-il.

Factory

Automation and real -time control in the factory or in a mine are based on two conditions: low latency and high reliability of networks.How to ensure these two elements at all times?This is the task that Latence Technologies, Montreal firm founded in 2020 by BenoitGendron, has been given four employees.

Essentially, the company platform, the marketing of which is aimed at next April and June, analyzes the communications network at all times, establishes its performance and its failures and suggests fixes.The first customers we target are the major operators like Bell and Rogers, who will be able to give companies the insurance of 5G Robust network insurance.These reports.Gendron, are interested in such a tool."They told me that they were theoretically capable of doing what I offer, but they find it difficult.If I am able to solve the problem, they are takers.»»

It considers possible to guarantee, in the medium term, a latency of less than 10 milliseconds in companies, where 4G is difficult to better than 16 milliseconds, but varies enormously, reaching by phases the 100 ms.

"I think there will be a great revolution in the coming years...And that I am a little in advance, said M.Gendron.I present myself a bit like the “latestnce speedtest”, I am able to analyze and explain variations.Prediction, further analysis with machine learning will be my battle horses.»»

Create your reality

OVA's objective is to allow any user to create virtual reality experiences as easily as we designed a PowerPoint presentation. « C’est un peu une inspiration à la Minecraft ou de blocs Lego, dans un contexte d’entreprises»», précise Harold Dumur, président d’OVA.The star product of the small Montreal business is Stellarx, software that has all the attributes of a video game - it is even found on Steam - which allows you to use thousands of 3D and sound visual elements, inlibraries or downloaded, and combine them in virtual environments.

We can for example create an aircraft repair workshop in which an employee in training can walk, with a virtual reality headset or in front of his computer screen.He can repair, move, build his own modules.Small funny detail, the environments created by Stellarx can be visited by several people at the same time. « C’est là-dessus que nous avons fait le party de Noël d’OVA, c’était bien amusant»», rapporte FélixThe White, vice-président aux partenariats.

The platform already works, and rather fluid, could see the press during a presentation.What would 5G be more about, then?Essentially, a constant data flow of 1.7 GB/s which allows a computer to emit to a helmet or another computer, which no longer has any processing to do."Virtual reality requires a lot of power from the computer's graphics processor, the helmet must be connected, explains Harold Dumur.The 5G will allow you to go beyond download, open directly without downloading.»»

En langage d’informatique, la 5G et sa diffusion continue permettent d’être « agnostiques»», d’envoyer le contenu autant à un PC sur Windows qu’à un casque sur Android. « Il reste encore des points à régler, mais il n’y a aucun soubresaut [lag], ça fonctionne»», se réjouit M.The White.

Enriched environment

One of the applications most frequently associated with 5G is mixed reality, where real elements mingle and interact with digital objects.You have to be able to count on the bandwidth and the deadlines for the imperceptible response of 5G to obtain satisfactory experiences, and it is this furrow that the Wallrus Creuse agency.An example: you are walking in Athens, you point your phone on the Parthenon and it appears as a Greek saw it 2459 years ago.In Paris, Notre-Dame cathedral finds its tunes before the fire.

Spécialisée dans l’« affichage social»», où le public peut interagir et influencer ce qui apparaît à l’écran, impliquée dans 30 000 évènements depuis sa fondation en 2015, Wallrus veut utiliser la 5G pour « redéfinir l’engagement en développant des expériences qui vont transformer les gens et les émerveiller»», lance Jean-PhilippeGardens, PDG et cofondateur.

Obviously, with 5G which is not yet completely deployed, the projects presented by Wallrus are of the order of research and development for the moment.It is essentially a question of presenting functional concepts which can then be used by agency customers.In parallel, we are in the process of designing an ambitious house project, a standard bearer for Wallrus, where the public can interact with a virtual creature.The release of the secret life of monsters is scheduled for the summer of 2022.

"My opinion is that 5G will be widely adopted in three to five years," says Mr..Gardens.At the moment, it empties your cell cell, which tends to overheat, the infrastructure and the passenger bands are not fully established.»»