Airtel rolls out a digital Kumbh experience for customers

Airtel smartphone customers will able to stream the Kumbh proceedings – including important Snans and Aartis – on the Airtel TV app. A special channel, dedicated to Kumbh Mela 2019, has been created to on the Airtel TV app to bring all the action excitement from the event to the smartphone screen. Airtel has tied up with VR Devotee, India’s leading devotional content provider, to bring this exclusive content to Airtel TV app.

This tie-up will allow millions of Airtel customers to stay digitally connected with the Kumbh, wherever they may be. This special channel on Airtel TV app, powered by VR Devotee, is already LIVE and will run through till March 4, 2019. To access this digital service, customers need to download the Airtel TV app (available for Android and iOS) on their smartphones.

In addition, Airtel in partnership with VR DEVOTEE is putting up special kiosks at the venue (in Prayagraj) to offer Virtual Reality based immersive experience to visitors, who will be able to enjoy real life like display of proceedings right from the kiosks.

VR DEVOTEE is the market leader in bringing mobile app driven religious and spiritual experiences to devotees all over the world.  VR DEVOTEE has partnered with 200+ major temples and spiritual leaders in the country and has live streamed large events like Mysuru Dussehra, Mahamasthakbhisheka, Ganesh Visarjan and many more. The company Kalpnik Technologies, creators of VR DEVOTEE is based out of Bangalore.

Sameer Batra, CEO – Content & Apps, Bharti Airtel, “Kumbh is amongst the biggest and most important events in India and our endeavour is to bring it closer to our customers. Airtel TV app will allow users to enjoy the Kumbh experience on their smartphones anytime and from anywhere in fast emerging Digital India. We invite Airtel customers to enjoy this special digital experience on Airtel TV app and also discover a wide range of exclusive and exciting content including 400 LIVE TV channels and over 10,000 movies and shows.”

Ashwani Garg, Co-founder & CEO Kalpnik Technologies, “The Kumbh is the largest pilgrimage gathering in the world with approximately 130 million people expected to arrive for the same. We are privileged and delighted to exclusively collaborate with UP Tourism and Kumbh Mela Authority to make 2019, the first Kumbh where virtual reality experience will be streamed online and at the venue so that millions who are unable to visit Kumbh can experience the largest spiritual and cultural gathering in a very unique way. The VR experience developed by Kalpnik  is so immersive that it gives the viewer the feeling of almost being there.”

Network boost at the venue 

Airtel is also boosting its mobile network at the venue to serve the connectivity needs of millions of visitors at the Kumbh Mela. It will be deploying state-of-the-art Massive MIMO technology at the venue to massively enhance its network capacity. Massive MIMO, a pre-5G technology, expands network capacity by five to seven times over the same spectrum and helps a large number of concurrent users to enjoy a seamless high-speed data experience. Airtel had also deployed this technology at all major IPL venues last year.

In addition, temporary sites and small cell sites will also be deployed at the venue.