"In industry the new 5G mobile telephony standard will unleash a new wave of innovation," said Dr. Jochen Köckler, the chairman of the Managing Board of HANNOVER MESSE organizer Deutsche Messe AG. "At HANNOVER MESSE, international visitors will be able to experience the dawn of the industrial use of 5G telephony first-hand."

For one thing, the displays of several big-name companies will feature applications that are designed to run on the new 5G standard. As well as this, HANNOVER MESSE is running an entire display area dedicated to the standard: the 5G Arena , in Hall 16. "If you want to know more about 5G test beds and initial applications of 5G in industry, then you should visit the 5G Arena," Köckler said. "In Hall 16 we and our technology partners at Nokia and Qualcomm are setting up a real, functional 5G network that will span eight showcases. For visitors, our arena will be the first time they have ever had the chance to experience 5G in action in an industrial setting and gain an understanding of its many benefits."

Among the 5G Arena highlights will be an inline process control system for the auto industry by Zeiss. The Zeiss AICell measures all key characteristics of every single car body component as it passes through the production line, thereby delivering much more accurate and reliable process monitoring and control data than random testing. It is equipped with an array of inline sensors that inspect and measure all key car body features and topographies, checking for cracks, flushness and other characteristics.

Bosch Rexroth's lineup of exhibits includes a mobile control panel which enables human-robot collaboration and integrates Industrial Ethernet over 5G.

Meanwhile, industrial connectivity specialist Weidmüller will be at the arena with its 5G-enabled energy monitoring solution for use in welding control applications. The system's analysis unit receives data directly from the welding process and feeds it via a 5G modem and 5G network to a Weidmüller energy flow visualization unit.

Swedish networking and telecommunications company Ericsson is celebrating 5G rollout year and Sweden's status as Partner Country with an enlarged presence at HANNOVER MESSE. It will be presenting its latest 5G-related research projects and products at three separate locations: at the 5G Arena in Hall 16, at its large central pavilion in Hall 8, and at the Swedish Co-Lab pavilion in Hall 27.

Other organizations and companies taking part at the 5G Arena include 5G ACIA (5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation), ASTI, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Festo, Götting, Harting, HMS Industrial Network, Ifak, Phoenix Contact, R3 Communication, SICP, Siemens and VW Commercial Vehicles.

The 5G Arena is part of HANNOVER MESSE's commitment to showcasing truly pioneering technologies. Köckler: "The world has never seen such a diverse range of 5G industrial use examples in a real, working 5G network, all under one roof."

Of course, not all of the networking taking place at the 5G Arena will be of the technical variety. The exhibits will be supported by a forum and conference, where the various opportunities and challenges of 5G will be discussed by more than 50 international speakers from business, science and politics

The 5G Arena Forum and Conference will be held in Hall 16. Together they comprise five days of quality programming, running from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. The forum will run on the Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, while the conference will be held on the Wednesday (3 April). The conference will have as its official patron Dr. Bernd Althusmann, the German state of Lower Saxony's Minister of Economic Affairs, Employment, Transport and Digitization. It will explore a range of potential 5G-related business models and investigate the strategic importance of the new 5G standard at both a macro-economic (with respect to Germany) and business level.

The concept and content of the 5G Arena was developed by Deutsche Messe in partnership with 5G ACIA. Founded a year ago, 5G ACIA is an initiative by the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI). Its membership includes companies from classic automation and manufacturing as well as leading organizations from the ICT industry. Gunther Koschnick, head of automation at ZVEI, explains: "HANNOVER MESSE is the best platform for presenting the first 5G applications at this very early stage of the technology's development. It is also the best forum for quality dialogue at a subject-specific, technical level."

The program for the 5G Arena Forum and Conference is available online .