5G first for Beijing International Book Fair

The Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) is to use new 5G technology to project a lifelike 3D image of an author into the Fair this weekend for a remotely conducted author event.

On Saturday (24th August), the first day on which the public are allowed to attend the Fair, author Liu Zhenyun, who is this year's BIBF ambassador, will make a hologram-style appearance to meet readers, while actually holed up in a room elsewhere in the capital.

China Telecom, one of the top three mobile providers in China, has just been granted a 5G licence by the Chinese government, and is BIBF's technology partner this year. In what is a book fair first, China Telecom is hosting a stage at the fair in an experimental project to suggest how the new tech might in future impact the world of reading.

5G's increased speed and connectivity will make new combinations of text and visual content possible, said fair director Liying Lin. She told The Bookseller: "For BIBF, this is a look at how technology could transform the reading experience. On Saturday, it will be an experiment to project an author who is physically not here, in 3D, hologram-style. It is an attempt to bring people the experience of how, in the future, people can expect author interviews to be conducted all over the world."