“By 2019, you”ll be able to don on your VR headset and go anywhere on the field… and watch the game with maybe a two-second delay,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told Axios at Recode’s Code Conference on Thursday — the day Intel’s partnership with MLB was announced.
Krzanich earlier in the day on stage at the conference presented a vision of what that could look like from a fan’s perspective.
“Because we voxel-ized everything, you could go down and sit on the pitcher’s mound,” he said. “You’ll be able to sit behind the catcher at home plate. You’ll be able to stand out in the outfield.”
A voxel is a pixel with volume that at this time enables Intel 360 replay technology to render highlights in 3D, enabling broadcasters and viewers to take a spin around the action.
“We had approximately 50 high-definition cameras up right around the box level of that stadium all going back to a massive server complex that then basically stitches together in what we call…a voxel,” Krzanich said. “We built billions of that cube real-time. We’re constantly two terabytes of minute of data pushing off this system. What that allows us to do now is completely digitize.
“What we do is we go down into one of those voxels that’s sitting at his eye level, and we look out digitally.”
The goal, Phillips told the publication, is to eventually supplant the traditional broadcast experience with a fully immersive, real-time VR viewing experience that can put fans right in the middle of the play.
