Major League Baseball has been one of the areas of professional sport that has been eager to embrace virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree film to grow its audience. Having previously worked with Jaunt VR for a series of 360-degree videos, Google is now partnering with Major League Baseball to produce On The Verge.
On The Verge is a behind-the-scenes VR video series following the lives of rising young MLB stars. The various videos in the series will follow various young athletes on the field, in the clubhouse and in the batting cage to show the growing careers of Josh Bell (Pittsburgh Pirates), Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox), Manuel Margot (San Diego Padres), and Jose Berrios (Minnesota Twins).
The episodes of the series are available using the MLB.Com At Bat VR app, which is available on Google Daydream, and offers Baseball fans the ability to watch live games in VR as well as see real-time stats.
Google captured the content for the On The Verge videos using its new VR video platform Jump. Jump cameras are compact 360-degree rigs that are capable of capturing high-quality footage and the Jump platform can automatically stitch the footage together for a complete 360-degree video.
The first four episodes of On The Verge are available through the At Bat app now, and will soon be available to view on MLB’s official YouTube Channel. Additional episodes of On The Verge will go live at certain key points through the Baseball season.
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