VR may feel like an overnight sensation for the casual media consumer, but, for folks like Sankar Jay Jayaram, co-founder/president/CEO, VOKE VR, the medium's burst into the (relative) mainstream has been a long time coming.
Jayaram and his wife, Uma, have been working on the science of VR since their days as Washington State University professors more than two decades ago. He still has a good laugh over a VR helmet he built in 1993 that - at 18 in. long and 6 lb. in weight - resembled more the helmet Luke Skywalker trained in in the original Star Wars film than the sleeker goggles of today.
Jay Jayaram: Fundamentally, the important thing to recognize [with VR] is how people are going to consumer this content.
VOKE VR has emerged as one of the major players in the crowded VR space, working with Turner Sports as the VR vendor of choice for the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game. You may have seen on various digital and social-media platforms the VR highlights of Kris Jenkins's buzzer-beating shot that won the title for Villanova. VOKE is continuing to grow, most recently with the hiring of David Aufhauser, who formerly headed digital at Pac-12 Networks, to serve as chief strategy and product officer.
Jayaram recently sat down with SVG to chat about the latest developments at VOKE, why he's excited about the prospects of virtual reality, and why storytelling is the main thing lacking in today's VR experiences.
What's the latest with the company, and what is the state of VOKE in your opinion?
From our perspective, the whole VR industry is exploding even faster than we expected over the past year. I think the expectations were that it would probably be a year or so before people were really ready to start consuming content at home. In April, we had our coming-out party by streaming the Final Four and National Championship Game to viewers at home in a partnership with Turner Sports and Oculus. It was a great, successful event. It tells me the world is ready for these immersive experiences at home and, the faster that we can ramp up, the better it is for everybody involved.
So, today, we are building out our team and our technology platform. Our products are ready for use today, but it's also about having the right team behind it. We were very excited to bring David Aufhauser aboard. He comes with such a deep understanding of content and has built out the digital segment of the Pac-12 Networks. He was a perfect fit for us to lead the strategy and product side of it. Adding him alongside our Chief Commercial Officer Jeff Jonas, we really are building a powerhouse on the sports-business side.
VR is growing very rapidly. As you said, the growth has been faster than you anticipated, and that's with a lot of optimism behind it. How early are we still? There are still a lot of people who haven't seen VR; the headsets on the market are limited. What growth would you like to see?
Personally, I have been doing VR for 23 years. From my perspective, VR is not about the devices, it's not about the computers, it's not about the phones. It's the change in how one perceives and consumes content. When you think of how sports are broadcast today, it's a very well-told story. You have talent that is really good at putting the pieces together, adding graphics, and weaving everything together. Now, you try to take that background and tell that person to put on a headset and look around, that experience might last only one or two minutes. So, fundamentally, the important thing to recognize is how people are going to consumer this content.
One of several camera pods that VOKE VR puts on the field to allow users to choose the perspective for watching
This is a mindset change way more than it is a physical-device change or a content and media change. We are moving from a passive experience of viewing what is on TV to an active and interactive experience where you can choose what you see and when you see it. But the storytelling still has to come along with it. The storytelling side is nowhere near where it needs to be for VR. I want to be able to participate in the content I am viewing, not just be a passive observer. That's what our platform is designed to do.
How about the differences between live VR and post-event VR. Do you see a brighter future in one or the other, or is there room for both?
There's room for both. Again, it all comes down to the storytelling. It's not really in either of those formats right now, and it needs to be in both. Storytelling in prerecorded [content] is easier because you have the control over how you want to produce it and [can use] the control to go back and edit the storyline. But, for sporting events and other events where seeing the event when it happens really matters, the charm of it can be lost in a postproduction environment. From my perspective, in sports, live is critical.
But VOD can certainly have success. Our highlights from the Final Four is still getting viewed every single day. We were lucky to be the ones streaming it live in VR for probably the best finish to [an NCAA] Championship Game ever. We lucked out on that one! No question about it. Now, instant replays are great in VR, but you've got to be able to produce good live VR in order to produce instant replays as well.
Tell us about your workflows for an event. How are you acquiring content? Do you have a single rig? Do you have multiple rigs that you are cutting between? What is your style of production?
We believe that giving people just one point of view - like putting someone at the 50-yard line of a game - isn't enough. The action is not always at that location. If you are wearing a headset and looking around and the action is at the other end of the field, you wish you were somewhere else. Sometimes you wa
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
VR may feel like an overnight sensation for the casual media consumer, but, for folks like Sankar Jay Jayaram, co-founder/president/CEO, VOKE VR, the medium's burst into the (relative) mainstream has been a long time coming. 
