Sports were watched and experienced like never before. Sports and technology
Although 8K broadcasting is not scheduled to begin until 2018, SHARP has already made the decision to bring this type of TV to market (1). Japanese public television has been recording sporting events in 8K for several months now. No matter how futuristic it may sound, we are still talking only about television. Meanwhile, ideas for displaying sports go much further...
1. Sharp LV-85001 TV
A revolution awaits us in this area. Functions such as pausing or rewinding live broadcasts are already in order, but after a while we will also be able to select the frames from which we want to see the action, and special drones flying over the stadium will allow us to track individual players. It is possible that thanks to mini-cameras mounted on ultra-light tapes, we will also be able to observe what is happening from the point of view of an athlete. 3D broadcasts plus virtual reality will make us feel like we are sitting in a stadium or even running between players. AR (Augmented Reality) will show us something in sports that we have never seen before.
VR broadcasts
Euro 2016 matches were filmed on cameras with a 360° viewing angle. Not for spectators and users of VR glasses (virtual reality), but only for representatives of the European football organization UEFA, who have tested and evaluated the potential of the new technology. 360° VR technology has already been used during the Champions League semi-finals.
2. Nokia PPE Camera
UEFA decided to take advantage of Nokia's offer, which is estimated at 60. dollars apiece The OZO 360° camera (2) is currently one of the most advanced devices of its kind on the market (Nokia OZO is already being used, among others by Disney). During Euro 2016, Nokia cameras were placed at several strategic locations in the stadium, including the pitch. Materials were also created, recorded in the tunnel through which the players exit, in the dressing rooms and during press conferences.
Similar materials were published some time ago by the Polish Football Association. On the channel PZPN "We are connected by a ball" There are 360-degree scenes from the Poland-Finland match, which was played this year at the stadium in Wroclaw, and from last year's Poland-Iceland match. The film was created in cooperation with the Warsaw company Immersion.
The American company NextVR is a pioneer in carrying out direct broadcasts from sports events to VR goggles. Thanks to their involvement, it was possible to watch the boxing gala "live" through the Gear VR goggles, as well as the first public VR broadcast of a NBA match (3). Previously, similar attempts were made, among others during the Manchester United - FC Barcelona football match, the NASCAR series race, the NHL hockey team match, the prestigious US Open golf tournament or the Youth Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, from where a spherical image from the opening ceremony was presented, as well as competitions in selected sports disciplines.
3. NextVR equipment at a basketball game
Already in 2014, NextVR had a technology that allowed you to transfer images at an average speed of an Internet connection. However, for now, the company is focused on the production of finished materials and the improvement of technologies. In February of this year, Gear VR users watched the aforementioned Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) boxing gala. The live broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles was recorded by a 180° camera positioned just above one of the corners of the ring, closer than the audience in the hall could reach. The producers decided to limit the view from 360 to 180° to ensure the best transmission quality, but in the future there will be a small obstacle to present the full picture of the fight, including the view of the fans sitting behind us.
4. Eurosport VR app
Eurosport VR is the name of the popular sports TV station's virtual reality app (4). The new Eurosport app takes inspiration from a very popular similar initiative called Discovery VR (over 700 downloads). It allows fans from all over the world to be at the center of important sporting events. This can be done using a smartphone and mobile virtual reality glasses such as Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR.
At the time of writing this article, Eurosport VR featured a daily summary of the most interesting events of the Roland Garros tournament, interesting games by tennis players, interviews with players and behind-the-scenes materials. In addition, you could watch there, available for some time on YouTube, 360-degree recordings made in cooperation with Discovery Communications, the main topic of which is winter sports, including a ride of the famous Bode Miller on the route in Beaver Creek, where last year's world championship in alpine skiing was held.
French public broadcaster France Télévisions also broadcast some matches of the Roland Garros tournament live in 360° 4K. Main court matches and all French tennis matches were made available through the Roland-Garros 360 iOS and Android app and Samsung Gear VR platform, as well as the YouTube channel and the FranceTVSport fanpage. The French companies VideoStitch (technology for gluing spherical films) and FireKast (cloud computing) were responsible for the transfer.
Matrix Match
Virtual reality - at least as we know it - does not necessarily satisfy every need of a fan, such as the desire to take a closer look at what is happening. That's why Last year Sky, the satellite television provider, was the first in Europe to offer its customers in Germany and Austria a pilot service that allows them to watch major sporting events from any angle and with unprecedented accuracy.
The freeD technology used for this purpose was developed by Replay Technologies and uses the huge computing power provided by Intel data centers. It allows you to upload a 360-degree Matrix-style image that Sky's producers can freely rotate to show the action from every possible angle. Around the field, 32 5K cameras with a resolution of 5120×2880 are installed, which capture the image from different angles (5). Video streams from all cameras are then sent to computers equipped with Intel Xeon E5 and Intel Core i7 processors, generating one virtual image based on this huge amount of received data.
5. Distribution of freeD 5K technology sensors at a football stadium in Santa Clara, California.
For example, a football player is shown from different angles and with unprecedented accuracy when he is kicked on goal. The playing field was covered with a three-dimensional video grid, where each piece can be accurately represented in a three-dimensional coordinate system. Thanks to this, any moment can be shown from different angles and magnifications without a significant loss in image quality. Collecting images from all cameras, the system produces 1 TB of data per second. This is the same as 212 standard DVDs. Sky TV is the first broadcaster in Europe to use FreeD technology. Previously, the Brazilian Globo TV used it in its programs.
6. Visualized design of the fence
See the invisible
Perhaps the highest level of sports experience, however, will be offered by augmented reality, which will combine elements of many technologies, including VR, with physical activity, in an environment filled with objects, and maybe even characters from the sports competition scene.
An interesting and effective example of this direction in the development of visual techniques is the Visualized Fencing Project. The Japanese film director and two-time Olympic medalist Yuki Ota signed his name to the Rizomatics concept. The first show took place in 2013, during the election of the host of the Olympic Games. In this technique, augmented reality makes fast and not always clear fencing transparent and spectacular, with special effects that depict the course of blows and injections (6).
7. Microsoft Hololence
In February of this year, Microsoft presented its vision for the future with Hololens mixed reality glasses using the example of watching sports broadcasts. The company chose to use the largest annual sporting event in the US, which is the Super Bowl, i.e. the final game of the American football championship, however, ideas such as introducing individual players who enter our room through the wall, displaying a model of a sports facility on a table (7) can whether an effective representation of various types of statistics and repetitions is safe to use in almost any other sports discipline.
Now let's imagine a VR world recorded during a real competition, in which we not only observe, but also actively "participate" in the action, or rather in the interaction. We run after Usain Bolt, we receive an application from Cristiano Ronaldo, we try to collect the favor of Agnieszka Radwańska ...
The days of passive, armchair sports spectators seem to be coming to an end.
