NEW YORK — NextVR had a successful first year in partnering with the NBA to deliver regularly scheduled broadcasts of live games in virtual reality this past season, and executive chairman Brad Allen has the numbers to support that.
Last October when the San Antonio Spurs faced the Sacramento Kings, the game in VR saw fans average seven or eight minutes of time spent watching the action in the headset, according to Allen. By April, that average had grown to 45 minutes in the 25th and final VR broadcast of the season.
It was the culmination of a trial-and-error period that was designed to make the viewer experience better with time by engaging fans using dedicated VR broadcasters, highlights and stats that enhanced the action seen on the court.
“We’re building the product together, and I think we’ve seen incredible results,” Allen said of partnership with NBA Digital at Hashtag Sports.
And there’s more to come. When asked about the future of VR viewing in sports, Allen listed three ways in which the experience will further improve.
Social VR
The ability to watch an NBA game in VR with friends who aren’t in the same room is coming “soon,” according to Allen, because sports is ultimately about community and socializing about the game. The league is counting on that as well to happen.
“I think probably the biggest complaint or concern that we hear is, ‘It’s great, it’s immersive, but it’s also very isolating. You’re in your living room. You’re transported somewhere else. If you don’t know someone when you walk in the room, you can’t communicate with your friend,'” NBA VP of Global Media Distribution Jeff Marsilio said. “Those are kind of software problems really, and those will be resolved actually pretty quickly.”
Asked about social on the day FOX Sports and LiveLike announced they would debut Social Virtual Reality, enabling Facebook friends or random viewing partners to experience select CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in VR together, Allen said NextVR was working on engaging multiple people at once. He wouldn’t put a date on NextVR’s launch, but called it the next big thing.
“So whether it’s at a live concert or at a game, whatever it may be, we’re (virtually) sitting next to each other and we’re talking to each other while we’re at the event (while physically on different coasts),” Allen said.
VR glasses, not goggles
Allen said he wasn’t concerned about the adoption of VR headsets given the figure that more than six million of them shipped in 2016, excluding cardboard. And then what happens when it’s no longer VR goggles, which could one day be cast aside for VR glasses that are being developed?
“The device, which when they are a pair of glasses you’re picking up — like a pair of sunglasses you’d wear today and those are your VR glasses — that’s going to change everything,” Allen said. “Right now, it’s big and bulky and all the rest of that stuff. Fortunately we’ve got the biggest companies in the world — electronics companies, technology companies — that are building these VR glasses.”
Already, VR headsets are shedding weight and enabling new possibilities. Google has announced that Daydream will have standalone headsets where VR can be experienced without a cell phone being inserted. Announced in conjunction with those standalone devices is WorldSense, a headset tracking technology that lets the user move naturally in VR by leaning, dodging and ducking without external sensors. What might watching an NBA game in VR look like with more freedom of movement?
“For instance, you are watching our center court camera feed and something obstructs the camera like a ref stands in front of the camera, you can physically move your body and look around it,” NextVR co-founder and CEO David Cole told Digital Trends last month.
Better resolution
The best camera view that NBA fans watched games from is the one from the stanchion under the basket, rather than the courtside view, according to Marsilio. The resolution from that angle is better, and once the resolution is improved, more could be drawn to VR broadcasts.
“The resolution is going to be so good that it’s going to be like looking at each other right now,” Allen said. “You’re not going to know the difference between being virtually there and actually being there. That is going to be kind of crazy actually because all of a sudden you’re transported — here I am now courtside or next to the goal.”
For Allen, the exciting thing about the future of VR is that he expects to arrive in a relatively short amount of time.
“I don’t think those are 10 years out,” Allen said. “They’re probably not even five years out. They’re probably within the next couple years. Those things are happening right now.”
