VR Coverage of March Madness Was Dramatically Accelerated This Year With More Games, Release of New Production Truck

VR Coverage of March Madness Was Dramatically Accelerated This Year With More Games, Release of New Production Truck Sapphire, Intel's new True VR mobile unit, debuted during this NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - 2:57 pm

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The 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament will be looked upon as a coming of age tale for the team at Intel's True VR. VR coverage of March Madness jumped for four games in 2017 up to 21 this year and the company rolled out its new 53-ft. production truck, Sapphire.

There were 12 camera rigs deployed throughout the Alamodome to producer the Intel True VR experience in the NCAA March Madness Live VR app. One of the rigs (circled) is a six-lens rig which is smaller than the traditional 12-camera rig.

This was one of the more robust single events that Intel has pulled off in VR. Those who have followed Intel True VR's growth are familiar with their classic 12-lens camera rig. A few of those were used on site here in San Antonio, but the company also rolled out a few of its smaller, 6-lensed rigs to bolster this production.

The VR show grew with each weekend of the tournament. During the first two rounds, there were six rigs deployed, which for comparison's sake is the size of Intel's VR productions that it does for the NBA throughout the regular season. The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight saw Intel boost the rig total to eight. Here at the Final Four there was a whopping 12 rigs.

Each rig is fed back to the truck to its own dedicated server (which, in classic Intel fashion, are prominently displayed at the center of the mobile unit). There the cameras are stitched together and colored.

Each live VR show had an embedded score bug and, at times, would even provide a picture-in-picture look at the announce team, which calls the game from a suite positioned in the back of Sapphire.

Intel finished building its new True VR mobile unit just in time for its work at this NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Talent is used to sitting on the sideline to call a call but we don't want them calling the game as they see it on the court, says Nadia Banks, Experience Manager for Intel Sports. We want them to see it from what the cameras are seeing. They feel in there as part of the same experience as the viewer.

The VR productions featured play-by-play man Spiro Dedes (who handles the call on the NBA's VR productions) and analyst Steve Smith.

Inside the truck on the front bench were producer Bobby Hayden, director Russ Lathrop, and coordinating producer Rusty West who is one of the chief creative minds behind the Intel True VR experience.

The show is largely made up behind-the-scenes of production and operations talent that have lengthy experience in the traditional broadcast world. According to Banks, the new truck (Sapphire), was built in the model of a traditional mobile unit to make that environment feel familiar to them.

The NCAA March Madness Live VR experience was available in the Oculus and Google Play stores and featured live coverage of games, 360-degree replay content, a full interactive bracket, and highlights of all games, even including those that didn't receive the VR treatment.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/04/04/vr-coverage-of-march-madness-wa...
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