Eurosport offers live VR Winter Olympics
January 30, 2018
Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport is offering fans the first ever live Virtual Reality (VR) coverage of the Olympic Winter Games across Europe. The Winter Olympics Eurosport VR app will be the only destination in Europe for fans to fully immerse themselves in the Games using VR, with more than 50 hours of live coverage available which will include some of the biggest moments from PyeongChang.
A wide range of sports will be available live in VR, including alpine skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, short track, ski jumping, skeleton, snowboarding (big air and halfpipe), as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Eurosport will also share full on-demand replays and daily highlights packages in VR. The coverage is provided to Eurosport by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), its partner at the Games.
Fans will be able to personalise fully their viewing experience, selecting their preferred viewing point from up to six camera positions and immersing themselves with all the sights and sounds within a venue during the live sport. The VR experience will be delivered by Intel True VR, which uses multiple cameras at the selected events to create a 360-degree virtual reality environment for fans to get closer to the action than ever before.
“Discovery has set out to transform the Olympic Winter Games viewing experience, so being able to offer viewers across Europe every minute of the Games and now every angle of some of the biggest events in live VR goes a long way to delivering this promise,” commented Ralph Rivera, Managing Director, Eurosport Digital. “We want to do this to engage more people, on more screens, with the Games than ever before, offering something new to attract younger audiences. In this way, we hope to make fans care even more about the sports they are passionate about.”
The app is available on iOS and Android phones from February 1st 2018 at a cost of €0.99. It is also available on Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and Windows Mixed Reality headsets from their respective apps stores.
Within Eurosport’s comprehensive coverage of the Games, Olympic-first technology will be used as part of its production. One example being the Eurosport Cube, an innovative studio that will use augmented reality and enhanced data to create an immersive and interactive 360-degree environment for Eurosport’s team of winter sports experts. The studio will create a unique setting to deliver best-in-class analysis of the best moments from up to 900 hours of live action, showcasing the detail and margins that dictate how the champions will win gold.
Eurosport’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 starts on Thursday February 8th live and on-demand on all screens.