Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live From Little League World Series: MLB Lets Kids Go Yard With VR Home Run Derby

20/08/2019

Live From Little League World Series: MLB Lets Kids Go Yard With VR Home Run Derby The competition offers a unique multiplayer esports experience By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 12:06 pm

Print This Story

Story Highlights

Every year at the Little League World Series, an overwhelming power hitter electrifies the viewing audience. This year, it's Mid-Atlantic's Yadi Mateo, a 5-ft.-11 231-lb. player from Elizabeth, NJ. Whether players can clear the 225-ft. walls of Lamade or Volunteer Stadium or can't, representatives of all 16 Little League teams joined the virtual world to hit dingers during the second consecutive Home Run Derby VR Little League Challenge.

The HTC Vive system allows Little Leaguers to step to the plate in professional baseball venues.

We have been activating our Home Derby VR videogame experience at ballparks and special events around the world and have been really pleased with fan response and engagement, says Jamie Leece, SVP, games and VR, Major League Baseball. This is our second year here, and the players have been great; the response from teammates, coaches, and family has been electric. It's such a cool vibe that brings you back to your younger years and where we all built our passion for baseball: playing the game with your friends for the love of the game. That connection came right through to the VR experience and was really cool to watch.

MORE FROM LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

ESPN Grows the Game With 4DReplay, Kidscast

ESPN's Joe Rainey on the Network's Commitment to the Spectacle

From an Idea to a Biannual Tournament

With esports entering the mainstream, MLB wanted to get involved in this current trend. The initiative began with the league's partnership with HTC and its HTC Vive system, which includes an HTC Vive Pro headset, a custom-made bat with an attached HTC Vive tracker, and a connection to a high-end PC.

After the groundwork was laid, the MLB team wanted to create an environment that encouraged healthy competition, evoked a feeling of physicality, and immersed the individual who participated.

Engine Shop developed a split-screen layout to highlight the multiplayer aspect.

Last year, we thought it would be really cool to organize a competitive videogame contest at the All-Star Game in Washington, where the highest-scoring fans would face off bracket-style to crown a VR Home Run Derby champion, says Leece. The response was so positive, both in-person and viewership, that we wanted to bring it to Williamsport as part of our relationship with Little League.

When the program's testing was completed at the 2018 Little League World Series, the league and production partner Engine Shop took the process back to the drawing board with a litany of feedback and lessons learned.

It was an incredible eye opener for us to see how the participants interacted both within the events and, specifically, with the HRD VR tournament, says Jamie King, head of esports, Engine Shop. No one walks into the batting cage alone: each person, young or old, male or female, has the support of family or teammates behind them. Witnessing their excitement, encouragement, celebration, and consolation revealed to us very important human narratives that we looked to capture coming back for a second time. And understanding the importance of family, or team, at these events can be done only by personally attending and activating at one.

Inside the Game: Installing New Ideas, Designing a Lifelike Environment

With these new tidbits of knowledge, the project made its next appearance at this year's event. The concept of capturing the stories behind these one-on-one battles placed an emphasis on building tension and drama near the conclusion of the competitions.

The team leveraged game-day photos and past videogame designs to construct a virtual Progressive Field.

This year, says King, we made several visual changes to the in-game display to enhance viewers' experiences when watching two competitors simultaneously, as well as to bring to life interesting statistics and data that we could display in real-time. This enabled us to create a deeper sense of drama around the authentic athletic competition taking place, both for the friends and families in person at the tournament and for the wider online audience tuning into the live stream. We also added a second replay machine in order to recap all the action of two competitors hitting home runs at the same time.

One of the biggest elements of the contest that has raised the most eyebrows is the detailed virtual construction of the real-life location of the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, Progressive Field in Cleveland. The process is aided by experience in other forms of digital media.

At MLB, says Leece, we have been developing digital products, specifically games, for several years. All of the MLB Ballparks are represented digitally in our mobile and console games, such as R.B.I. Baseball and Home Run Derby mobile.

Furthermore, the basis of the animation is grounded by referencing a printed medium and is consistently adjusted to remain accurate.

We are fortunate to start with game-day photos of the ballparks, he adds. On an annual basis, we update the digital ballparks with any physical changes the clubs might make to the structure of the park. For Progressive Field this year, we also had knowledge of how the ballpark would be dressed graphically during All-Star Week and made those adjustments to the grass, bunting, and event signage.

MLB Network's Jackie Redmond and esports content creators RealShelfy and Fuzzy were on the mic for the live stream.

The workflow to bring one of those assets to a 3D VR environment involves a lot of optimizations, he continues. The No. 1 technical challenge when building experiences in VR is frame r
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/08/20/live-from-little-league-world-s...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

09/10/2026

Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026

September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026 New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

11/09/2026

Sony To Showcase Latest Production Technology At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

EKT To Feature New Linux-Based ATSC 3.0 STB At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Jimmy Kimmel Shifts Political Interview to YouTube Over FCC Worries

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Remembering 9/11: 25 Years of TV Tech Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Tiger Group To Auction Equipment from a National Broadcasting Studio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Grass Valley Launches AVORA at IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Survey: Low Latency for Live Streaming Is Industrys Top Challenge

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Atomos Debuts New HDR Monitors at 2026 IBC Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/09/2026

Grass Valley Launches AVORA at IBC2026 Bringing All in On...

New standalone solution gives production teams everything they need to create, produce and deliver live content from one flexible system. Grass Valley today an...

11/09/2026

Wave Central a Domo Broadcast Company Named Recipient of...

Recognition honors the development of FPV drone camera systems for live sports broadcast coverage Wave Central, a Domo Broadcast Company that develops advanced...

11/09/2026

Teradek Launches Bolt 7 A Unified Wireless System for Zer...

Teradek, the industry leader in zero-delay wireless video solutions, announced the launch of Bolt 7, which now includes a unified wireless video and data system...

11/09/2026

ACT Pixel Academy Announces Autumn Courses

The ACT Entertainment tvONE and Green Hippo Pixel Academy has released its autumn course schedule, with hands-on training dates in September, October and Novemb...

11/09/2026

Scientists discover a new way that a disease-linked protein comes apart

LA JOLLA, CA-Transthyretin amyloid disease (ATTR) is a progressive, life-threatening condition caused when the protein transthyretin (TTR) breaks apart and aggr...

11/09/2026

Major Update to Blackmagic Cloud

Major Update to Blackmagic Cloud Brie Clayton September 10, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic Design has announced a major update to Blackmagic Cloud which a...

11/09/2026

Dalet Helps Media Organizations Navigate the Rise of Synthetic Content with NVIDIA AI

Dalet Helps Media Organizations Navigate the Rise of Synthetic Content with NVID...

10/09/2026

First AI-Generated Golf Announcer To Debut During New Mexico Open

Duff Foreman is an AI-generated announcer who will add color to this month's New Mexico Open...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Bitmovin Rolls Out Encoder Version 3

Bitmovin is rolling out Encoder Version 3, the next major release of the technology behind its VOD and Live Encoders. Version 3 is built on a premise every stre...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Net Insight Highlights Open Live Media for Controlled Live Services

At IBC2026, on booth 1.B47, Net Insight will showcase Open Live Media, its architecture for delivering resilient live media services across networks, partners, ...

10/09/2026

PWHL, Scripps Sports Sign National Television Deal for 2026-27 Season

The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and Scripps Sports have announced a national broadcast rights agreement for the 2026-27 season, a landmark par...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Trusted Partner Network Debuts Fix It or Risk It to Tackle Everyday Security Risks

The Trusted Partner Network (TPN), the global content security initiative powere...

10/09/2026

NFL Brings Back Creator Programs to Deliver Access, Original Storytelling During the 2026 Season

The NFL is launching its most expansive creator programming yet, bringing togeth...

10/09/2026

Sportsnet Removes 150 Blackouts for More National NHL Games Than Ever in 2026-2027 Season

Sportsnet is set to deliver its biggest hockey season ever with a national sched...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: LiveU Showcases Starlink for News and Sports Broadcast as Clarus Integrated Reseller

LiveU is now a Clarus Integrated Reseller, bringing Starlink's fast, reliabl...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Mimir Develops Single Layer for Content, Metadata, AI Orchestration

Mimir is the cloud-native media production platform built for teams that need to move media fast across live, archive, web, social, and broadcast workflows. At ...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: ATSC 3.0 To Receive Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for Significant Advancement in Television Broadcasting

ATSC is being honored with a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the Nat...

10/09/2026

Audio-Technica Presents BP880R Contact Transducer for Immersive Sports Broadcast, Production Audio Enhancement

Audio-Technica has introduced the BP880R Contact Transducer, a specialized micro...

10/09/2026

ESPN, ION Team Up to Broadcast WTGL Starting on Nov. 8

TMRW Sports in partnership with the LPGA, today announced multiyear U.S. media rights agreements with ESPN and Scripps Sports/ION to bring WTGL, the new women&#...

10/09/2026

SportsNet Pittsburgh Honors Roberto Clemente Day With Second-Annual Live Spanish-Language Pirates Telecast

SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) in partnership with Major League Baseball and the Pit...

10/09/2026

Tennis Channel Gives Fans Options With Premium Subscription on Roku

Tennis Channel announced today its launch as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel. Tennis Channel offers viewers a single home for Tennis Channel and Ten...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform With New Capabilities

Dolby has announced major updates to Dolby OptiView, its live sports platform, ahead of IBC 2026. The updates include new AI-powered intelligence to better unde...

10/09/2026

Dalet Names Brian Doheny as CEO

Dalet has appointed Brian Doheny as CEO. Doheny joined Dalet as President and Chief Revenue Officer in April 2026. Since joining Dalet, Doheny has led the compa...

10/09/2026

IBC 2026: Sony Demonstrates Various Creative Solutions for Attendees at the RAI

Sony, as well as its partner company Nevion, is starting IBC 2026 with a handful of announcements for attendees to see on the show floor. Sony Announces the 4t...

10/09/2026

SoFi Stadium Solidifies Production Output With Multi-Layered Tech Renovation

The six-year-old venue is expanding capabilities for NFL action, Super Bowl LXI, 2028 Summer Olympics SoFi Stadium, as well as the surrounding area known as Ho...

10/09/2026

Acon Digital introduce Acoustica 8

Editing, restoration & mastering suite upgraded Acon Digital Acoustica 8 audio editing restoration mastering software. Acon Digital have just launched the la...

10/09/2026

Readipop & XOX open XOX Studio

Classic synths & drum machines available to play Based in Reading, UK, Readipop are a music and arts charity with a long track record of innovative, partici...

10/09/2026

Neumann launch the KH 310 II & KH 350

Popular model updated & new addition introduced With many of the models in Neumann's KH family now boasting onboard DSP and support for the company'...

10/09/2026

Arturia launch the AudioFuse Studio Rev2

Improved desktop interface announced The latest iteration of Arturia's flagship desktop audio interface has just arrived, introducing improved preamps, ...

10/09/2026

Progress needs proof: Rohde & Schwarz showcases its trailblazing test solutions at EuMW 2026 in London

Progress needs proof: Rohde & Schwarz showcases its trailblazing test solutions ...

10/09/2026

Nielsen launches CTV ad spend data into its French Ad Intel product

France launch follows UK and Germany as Nielsen expands product across EMEA Paris, France, September 10, 2026 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measuremen...

10/09/2026

Fabric Data, TMT Insights Merge to Create Fabric Insights

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/09/2026

Leading Audio Manufacturers Join Forces on Dialog Intelli...

Leading professional audio manufacturers NUGEN Audio, RTW, Steinberg and Telos Alliance have joined forces with Fraunhofer IDMT to establish a common approach t...

10/09/2026

Setplex Introduces AI Insider for Faster Smarter Video Se...

Built Into Setplex's Zapflex Platform, AI Insider Turns Video Service Data Into Actionable Insights Setplex today introduced AI Insider, a breakthrough new...

10/09/2026

sync labs to Introduce sync productions at IBC2026 Bringi...

Managed service changes dialogue without actor-specific training or facial rigging while preserving the original performance and fitting established post-produc...

10/09/2026

ACT Pixel Academy Autumn Courses PR

The ACT Entertainment tvONE and Green Hippo Pixel Academy has released its autumn course schedule, with hands-on training dates in September, October and Novemb...

10/09/2026

Orange Polska Reaffirms Its Trust in Viaccess-Orca with M...

Orange Polska continues to Rely on Viaccess-Orca for Secure TV Services and the Next Phase of its Technology Evolution Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in T...

10/09/2026

Generate and create directly in your timeline with new AI-powered innovations in Premiere and After Effects

Generate and create directly in your timeline with new AI-powered innovations in...

10/09/2026

Tedial to introduce Media Business Hub at IBC 2026

Tedial is introducing Media Business Hub (MBH) at IBC 2026, a new business enablement platform designed to help media organizations unlock the full value of the...