Introduction to Virtual Reality in Sports
Sports fans, think you like a snack-filled TV den to the mayhem of the stadium now? Wait until virtual reality matures. You may never leave the couch. As the countdown to Super Bowl Sunday continues in San Francisco, visitors to football-themed pavilions on the Moscone Center and Super Bowl City are being exposed to VR demos that transport fans onto sidelines, beneath huddles, and into locker rooms.
The Virtual Reality Experience
Jaunt VR and NextVR showcased NFL game footage that immediately makes regular TV appear like radio. One moment you’re in the long run zone as a kicker is being rushed, the subsequent you’re on the sidelines next to a 6-foot-5 linebacker as he vents a few botched play. Microsoft produced a video as a part of a panel discussion about tech’s impact on football that envisions how users of its forthcoming augmented reality HoloLens glasses will have the option to collect with friends and watch a game with virtual features overlaid over a live television experience.
Companies Leading the Charge
SAP brought its Quarterback Challenge kiosk up from Super Bowl venue Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, where all 12 months fans have used VR to feel what it’s wish to be a quarterback under pressure from a tricky defense. “VR can offer you a special ticket, supplying you with access to athletes and what they do in a very unique and unforgettable way,” says Jaunt VR spokesman Miles Perkins. Although there’s the promise of a combined $120 billion annual market by 2020, these remain early days for the technology.
The Future of Virtual Reality
High-end hardware from the likes of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Sony has yet to roll out to consumers and can achieve this at prices as much as $2,000 for computer and goggle combos. While lower-cost options resembling Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR exist, these smartphone-based VR experiences remain less sophisticated than what’s on display here. What’s more, the content itself stays in a largely experimental phase. VR corporations proceed to construct out camera and pixel-processing tech while courting enterprises resembling the National Football League for what might be lucrative licensing deals.
Enhancing the Fan Experience
But judging even from transient football-in-VR clips, the prospect of experiencing a live sporting event in virtual reality stays tantalizing. "It’s about connecting fans to the sports they love in ways we could never dream of before," says NextVR co-founder DJ Roller, whose company was behind the VR broadcast last fall of the primary game of the season for NBA champions Golden State Warriors. That means not only sooner or later having the ability to call up your selected game stats or fantasy football information in your field of view, but additionally possibly collecting virtual autographs of players while visiting locker rooms in VR.
The Potential of Virtual Reality
Virtual reality also shall be used to make the stadium experience more fun for fans, offsetting the traffic hassles and costs of coming to the sport. SAP’s Quarterback Challenge, which tasks viewers to finish a game-winning fourth-down-and-eight-yards pass via a joy-stick controlled Oculus Rift headset, often has long lines at Levi’s. “Something like this will create a stronger call to motion for fans to really come to the sport,” says Ward Bullard, vice chairman of product management for SAP, the German-based enterprise software company.
The Future of Sports Viewing
But only 50,000 to 80,000 people can fit into an NFL stadium. So the largest opportunity for VR stays in the house den. As live streaming improves, image compression rates speed up, and VR technology gets lighter and cheaper, it could get tougher to persuade fans to hit the road. “Its about sensors and the senses, and the one thing that shall be missing at house is the smell and touch of being on the stadium,” says Chris Carmichael, chairman of Ubiquity Studios, which helps clients starting from NFL Films to the Air Force develop digital assets.
Conclusion
The Super Bowl is fertile ground for VR experimentation due to appeal of not only the sport itself, but additionally its multi-million-dollar commercials. Many people watch the Super Bowl only for the ads, in order that’s an important opportunity for an organization to supply something really engaging and disruptive, which VR excels at. As technology continues to advance, we will expect to see much more progressive uses of virtual reality in sports, changing the best way we experience and interact with our favourite games and teams. With the potential to revolutionize the sports industry, virtual reality is an exciting development that fans and corporations alike shall be keeping an in depth eye on within the years to come back.
