Sports in VR sound cool but can feel distant

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It took years for sports TV to become the medium it is today: Early television was essentially radio with pictures, and it took decades for producers to figure out the right camera angles, graphics and instant replays to deliver, eventually crafting the experience millions enjoy today.

Sports is going through a similar transformation now with VR, a format that holds the promise of putting fans right in the middle of the sporting action – on the 50-yard line, in a ringside seat, or standing behind the catcher as the umpire calls strikes.

Tech companies are working to bring a variety of sports to VR. /AP Photo

But today’s VR sports have an empty and distant feel to them. Watching through a headset sometimes feels like being there in the stadium – by yourself, with no cheering fans, hot dogs or beer. And it doesn’t get you close enough to the action to compensate.

For now, the zoom lenses of television cameras do a much better job of showing a pitcher’s intensity or a free-throw shooter’s concentration.

Yet Intel, NextVR and other companies are working to bring a variety of sports – boxing, golf, soccer, and more – to VR. To enjoy it, it’s best to think about what VR could be, rather than what it is now.

The trouble with VR

There are several weird artifacts of VR. Many sporting productions don’t actually give you a full 360-degree view, one of the main attractions of the medium. Instead, they often black out what’s behind you. The reasoning is obvious – you are focused on the game and not other fans – but even television has cameras pointed at the stands.

Worse, VR camera placement is often downright odd. During the March Madness college basketball tournament, for instance, a coach or another camera operator would sometimes stand right in front of the VR camera, blocking the game play.

The VR camera was also at floor level, which leaves you feeling as if you were watching while lying down by the court.

A VR camera in a baseball dugout should offer a unique perspective on the game, but in practice, what you often see are players’ legs as they walk by. Any competent sports cameraman could have framed the shot better. Intel Sports executive David Aufhauser claims those blemishes add realism, much the way people can walk in front of you at a stadium.

In Intel’s baseball coverage, in fact, some of the best views come from a standard camera that captures the pitcher, batter and catcher in one shot. It’s sequestered in a box within the virtual environment, which itself is sometimes just showing the catcher’s back from behind home plate.

What’s to come

Intel integrates footage from dozens of cameras surrounding the field to depict how a play would have looked to a player. /AP Photo

Some of what VR does really well comes in the form of highlight videos and player profiles, which are usually just a few minutes long.

And because these were produced during practice and other non-game settings, the VR camera can take you to more interesting locations. For a series on up-and-coming baseball players, one camera was just in front of second base, and another was in the bullpen during a pitcher’s warmup. It feels as though you’re getting access you wouldn’t get on television or in person.

So why couldn’t a VR camera show relief pitchers warming up during games too? In an interview, Aufhauser says Major League Baseball and the individual teams will need to get more comfortable with VR before expanding camera access.

For now, he says, producers look for other places that won’t get in the way, such as the swimming pool near center field at Arizona’s Chase Field or the tall “Green Monster” wall at Boston’s Fenway Park.

And forget about placing cameras in the middle of the field. Instead, Intel has alternative technology that integrates footage from dozens of cameras surrounding the field to depict how a play would have looked to a player.

Television networks are now using this in instant replays. Computers aren’t powerful enough yet to do this live, but Aufhauser says that’s the hope one day.

Source(s): AP