Even though the virtual reality industry is growing, there is still a growing demand for more content. Especially sports watching in VR is quickly becoming very popular. As such, the NBA is looking to break more grounds in this regard. With dedicated commentators for VR broadcasts, things are slowly coming together.
The NBA Takes VR Very Seriously
It is good to see one of the world’s biggest sports franchises pay attention to virtual reality and continue to improve upon the existing product. For the National Basketball Association, VR is the next logical frontier. Several games this season have been broadcast in VR, with a few more to follow.
More specifically, the upcoming Western Conference finals games between Golden State and Houston will be coming to VR. This is courtesy of Turner Sports, which partner with the NBA and Intel earlier this year to make good things happen. For the announcers and broadcasters, experimenting with VR is quite appealing, but it also poses a different ruleset entirely.
NBA Analyst Stephanie Ready comments on this new medium:
“The beauty of virtual reality is I can say ‘Look to your left. Steve Kerr is livid because his players missed a defensive assignment,’ and the fans at home can turn to the left and look at Kerr in real time. If it were a regular television broadcast, I’d have to press my talkback button on my headset, get my director on the line and say ‘Get me a shot of Steve Kerr on the bench,’ and by the time that is on the screen for viewers at home, hopefully he’s still doing what he was doing when I noticed it. But probably not.
While these new challenges are clearly visible, it seems analysts such as Ready are quite keen on this technology. A VR view of a live game – or even a game-on-demand -is completely different from traditional broadcasts. It is complete with texture and depth perception, which is exactly what users want at this stage. It will be interesting to see how things play out moving forward.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
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