Category: FC Barcelona

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This Week in VR Sport: Atlanta Hawks Use Eye-Tracking and FC Barcelona Create AR Fan Experience

It’s cold, it’s wet and it’s Saturday – well here in the UK it is – so that means sitting on the sofa to spend all day watching your favourite sporting events. Or you would be if you weren’t more interested in the world of virtual reality (VR) and all the immersive goodness it has to offer. So its time for VRFocus’ weekly roundup of all things sport, VR and augmented reality (AR) technology related.

NBA Atlanta Hawks to Adopt SyncThink’s EYE-SYNC Technology

SyncThink, the specialist in eye-tracking analytics has announced that the Atlanta Hawks are adopting the SyncThink platform. The team will deploy the EYE-SYNC technology to be used by both performance and medical staff to monitor the players for the accumulation of fatigue during the season

“The Atlanta Hawks are an ideal collaboration for us in many ways,” SyncThink CCO Scott Anderson said in a statement. “As we partner with more cutting-edge organizations, we’re realizing they too have novel ideas about how they want to utilize and interpret the data they’re collecting, in an effort to better understand fatigue and the risks associated with poor visual attention. It’s very exciting to consider the possibilities.”

The Hawks join NBA Champions the Golden State Warriors in utilizing objective eye-tracking metrics to evaluate performance readiness and quantify the risk of injury to players with poor dynamic vision or those that sustain a visual impairment during the season.

EyeSync

Viber, Vivoom and Dugout Collaborate on AR Experiences for FC Barcelona Fans

Messaging app Vi9ber, in conjunction with Consumer Activation Platform Vivoom and online football media company Dugout have launched a new partnership to provide FC Barcelona fans with a unique AR video experience.

Fans will be able to create videos of themselves using Viber’s app to put them in a press conference with the media, using AR filters to make it look like they’re the next major signing. This is achieved by Viber integrating Vivoom into its FC Barcelona chatbot.

“Brands today are constantly seeking new ways of strengthening the relationship and engagement among their fans,” said Djamel Agaoua, CEO of Viber. “This partnership is a perfect example of how brands can leverage technology to deepen their interactions with their audiences. With this powerful combination, we can deliver inspiring user experiences for businesses around the globe.”

“For Vivoom, the partnership with Viber is a natural extension of the impact our platform is delivering to brands across the globe, as we have already seen with the upcoming FC Barcelona activation,” said Katherine Hays, CEO of Vivoom. “The combination of Viber’s reach, popularity and high level of security and Vivoom’s unique Consumer Activation technology and User-Generated Advertising platform open a myriad of possibilities for our companies, allowing each organisation to play to its strength while helping brands deepen their touch-points with their consumers in a way that delivers value versus detracts from the consumer experience.”

FC Barcelona

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This Week in VR Sport: A Sporting Rivalry Broadcast Live & When 360 Degree Video Gets Awkward

Sometimes when it comes to writing our weekly feature on the various things occurring as the world of sport meets that of virtual reality (VR) – or indeed augmented reality (AR) for that matter –  there is only one or perhaps two stories.  However, this week we’re flush with four items to cover football, American football and more. So let’s get into those, shall we?

NextVR Bring ‘El Clásico’ To VR

We start with football, where for the majority of leagues it is the off-season, certainly those in Europe. It’s a time here managers and coaches make their plans for the season ahead but also a time where clubs engage in a variety of lucrative tours, playing in one-off exhibition games, fundraisers, as well as leagues and cups with other clubs from around the world.

NextVR have pounced on an opportunity with one of these tours which will see, today, the two biggest teams from Spain’s top flight, La Liga, battle it out. Those are of course the great footballing powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid. Eternal rivals, their matches long ago given the nickname ‘El Clásico’. For once it is the American audience who will get the opportunity to see the game take place at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. But you can too if you’ve got a Samsung Gear VR.

Head on over to the Oculus Store and subscribe to gain access to the ICC Channel in the NextVR app where you’ll be able to enjoy the broadcast either in Spanish or English.

Reading Welcome Their New Kit (Sort Of)

You may recall last week’s edition of This Week In VR Sport (if you see what I mean) where NBA side the Sacramento Kings unveiled what would be their their new Nike uniforms using an augmented reality (AR) app. Well, over in England Championship football club Reading have also been revealing their kit for the 2017-2018 season. But they’ve done so using 360 degree video.

Filmed in the dressing room, members of the squad got to see the kit they’ll be wearing next season for the first time whilst players Joey van den Berg and Liam Moore model play the somewhat reluctant models. Actually the whole thing is notable not for the announcement but just by how… off it feels. Like no one’s comfortable being filmed in this way.

Still, one for the footy fans and that orange away kit actually looks really nice.

AltSpaceVR’s Brazilian Swansong

Yesterday we brought you the sad news of the closure of VR social app AltSpaceVR. One of the early trail blazers in what could be possible in VR, the company revealed on Friday morning that owing to funding issues they could not “afford to keep the virtual lights on anymore”.

Quite the shame because at the end of last week AltSpaceVR had one of their most mainstream media appearances – and it had to do with sport.

As reported by SVG News, AltSpaceVR and LX Sports Group announced a new partnership with top sports broadcaster ESPN Brazil. Hosting the virtual programme ESPN & Cairo Santos in VR, Santos being a Brazilian player for the Kansas City Chiefs. In the programme ESPN used AltSpaceVR, for its intended purpose – a social platform where people can meet others from all over the world.  Producing an interview with what was essentially a live audience from around the world.

Erica Booze, the CEO of LX Sports Group said on the initial announcement: “Shortening the distance between an athlete and their fans through technology has motivated us to broker this unique experience for sports fans. By uniting the visibility of ESPN with AltspaceVR technology, we expect an excellent experience in both Brazil and the United States.”

ESPN Brazil’s VP of Journalism and Production João Palomino added, “ESPN wants to bring sports fans into our studios, creating a unique kind of interaction and taking a step forward in offering multi-platform content. We are driven to innovate in ways that will allow us to serve our fans better.”

It will be interesting to see if ESPN will attempt similar broadcasts in the future with altenate services – perhaps Facebook’s Avatars system?

Stanford University’s Experiments Continue

Back to America now where the Stanford University’s sports department have been utilizing 360 degree video to bring students a new way of interacting with the various sports and athletics teams. Covering everything from American football to a very interesting video on fencing in which the viewer takes on someone one-on-one with additional effects, to wrestling. This is the latest use of VR by the university who have featured on VRFocus numerous times, including their work performing tests with the NFL, appearances at conventions to discuss the uses of VR, and investigating how VR can be used to combat phobias.

Faculty discuss their efforts at length in this piece by SportTechie where they  do note that people may be losing out on the experience, simply by not using a compatible VR head mounted display (HMD) to view the footage.

“This is a good example of the biggest problem with any VR that we’re producing or anyone else is producing — most people don’t watch it as it is intended.” Said Heath Trabue, Stanford Athletics’ Director of video services ruefully. “A very small percentage of folks are watching VR content on a headset. It’s going to be mostly on a phone or on not so good 4G. There are a lot of bad experiences with it in that sense.”

You can see the fencing video below.

 

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This Week in VR Sport: LiveLike & Fox Sports, FC Barcelona v Real Madrid C.F and SAP Catamaran VR Experience

It’s the start of a new month but the end of June had plenty to offer in the way of virtual reality (VR) sporting announcements. LiveLike has teamed up with Fox Sports to broadcast three Gold Cup games, later this month NextVR will broadcast El Clásico live for the first time and German tech company SAP has created an immersive experience on board a catamaran.

LiveLike and Fox Sports to Broadcast Three Gold Cup Games in 360 as Part of new ‘Virtual Suite’

Fox Sports has been a regular on This Week in VR Sports, having partnered with another regular NextVR on boxing as well as other sports including American Football. This week however is the turn of traditional (European) football – or soccer if you like – with Fox partnering with San Francisco-based startup LiveLike to showcase three Gold Cup matches in 360-degrees.

This is all part of a new virtual suite powered by LiveLike called Fox Sports VR App, with the CONCACAF Soccer Gold Cup being used to promote the app. Users get to overlook the field, being able to select different camera angles, checkout the suite and chat with friends – represented by basic avatars, view pre-produced content, and more.

To see what it’s all about take a look at the video below. The matches begin at the end of the week with the US team playing Panama on 8th July.

NextVR to Live Broadcast FC Barcelona v Real Madrid C.F This Month

Regular VRFocus readers should be well aware of NextVR by now, as the company tends to be fairly prominent in the field of 360-degree sports broadcasting. Later this month El Clásico Miami will be taking place, featuring football heavy weights FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F., and naturally NextVR will be livestreaming the proceedings.

La Liga rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F. will be going head to head on 29th July, 2017 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, with Real Madrid C.F. making a record fifth appearance in the International Champions Cup (ICC), having played in every year of the tournament’s history.

NextVR will be broadcasting El Clásico live in 360-degrees for the first time. It’ll feature dedicated announcers, the halftime show experience and behind-the-scenes footage exclusive to VR headsets. Multiple cameras positioned along the pitch and throughout Hard Rock Stadium will transport fans into the heart of the action.

Fans with a Samsung Gear VR headset or Google Daydream View, can download the free NextVR app from the Oculus Store  or the Google Play Store respectively.

El Clasico Miami Logo

Go Extreme Sailing with SAP+You: The Smarter Skipper Experience

Ever wanted to see what extreme sailing on vessels like a catamaran is all about but never quite fancied all the pressure and stress that goes with it? Well SAP, a German tech company that’s fond of sponsoring this type of sport has created an immersive experience called SAP+You: The Smarter Skipper experience.

The experience puts the viewer on a replica catamaran, getting up close and personal with the extreme sailors. Fans of extreme sailing will get be able to get greater insight into the sport, watching the sailors race whilst being fed relevant data such as real-time wind conditions, boat speed and water currents.

“When you get to sit on the boat virtually, you almost feel how it lifts up and picks up speed,” said Milan Cerny, the technology and innovation lead of SAP’s Global Sponsorships business, reports SportTechie.

“In virtual reality, you’re in the middle of the action,” Cerny added. “You’re getting the thrill, understanding what’s going on and how (sailors) are interacting with what devices on the boat and deciding where they should go. You could see how far competitors are behind you, if they’re approaching the boat. It’s an interactive way and playful way to understand the measures that are important to win a race.”