SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive Experience for Daytona, The PLAYERS, and March Madness Immersive lens and spatial audio are new technology being developed By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 2:58 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The world of immersive entertainment is evolving rapidly, and Cosm is at the forefront of redefining how fans experience live sports via its Shared Reality venues in L.A. and Dallas featuring immersive an 87-foot diameter LED dome and 150-foot-wide LED display. From courtside seats at the NBA Finals and World Series to front-row views of the UFC and Super Bowl LIX, Cosm pushes the boundaries of what it means to be there without physically being there. Now the company is taking on a variety of new challenges, including NASCAR's Daytona 500 last month, the PGA TOUR's PLAYERS Championship this week, and the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments beginning next week.
SVG sat down the Devin Poolman, chief product and technology officer, Cosm, to explore how Cosm approached its first NASCAR event at Daytona, its expansion into golf at THE PLAYERS Championship, the company's ambitious plans for March Madness, and how its proprietary technology is shaping the future of sports viewing both inside and outside its venues. From custom-built immersive lenses to innovative audio-capture techniques, Poolman discusses how the company's technology not only serves the Cosm experience but also benefits leagues and broadcasters.
Cosm's Devin Poolman: We look at everything we're doing right now as Phase 1, and we're excited to build up [our portfolio of] events.
Let's start with Daytona. Obviously, motorsports and larger speedways are very different from many of the sports Cosm has covered thus far. Why did it make sense to deliver NASCAR in the Cosm experience?
It's a less obvious fit [for the Cosm experience], for sure, but there are huge opportunities with [NASCAR] as well. [For] events that are more intimate, Cosm experience can bring a level of visceral reality: UFC is a great example; you are truly in the midst of it. Other [events] bring you the grandeur of the live environment or iconic destination: Daytona is very much that.
The same goes for NFL stadiums or the World Series at Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium. Those are less obviously made for immersive capture in that you think you want to be close. But the other part of immersive capture is, you want a sense of place; you want to feel like you're there. Those factors - being up close and having a sense of place - can play together and make an event great.
I thought Daytona was incredible because you felt like you were in the grandstand. Our team captured the essence of that event and gave you that feeling like you're incredibly, even uncomfortably close to the action while still giving you the excitement of being in the grandstand.
How did your production strategy change in covering Daytona compared with stick-and-ball sports?
I think the biggest difference was that Daytona gave us an opportunity to push the boundaries in terms of audio. I always say that we're still in the early days of finding ways to drive the experience forward. [With] Daytona, we wanted to capture not just the visuals of being on the turn but the thrill of that audio as well.
The Cosm experience gave fans feeling of being in grandstand at the Daytona 500.
In a typical production, we're relying on the broadcaster to provide a great 5.1 audio mix. But we knew that, for the NASCAR experience, just having the announcers and the program audio coming in from the broadcaster - FOX, in this case - wouldn't be enough to capture the experience of sitting on that turn watching cars flying by. Especially, if FOX is covering pit lane and you're supposed to be sitting on turn watching these cars fly by 200 mph, there's going to be a total disconnect if you don't have the sound of the cars.
Our team worked hand in hand with FOX to pull all their unique audio stems and create a per-camera mix of audio, so we could cut around the track, covering a few corners as well as that high wide shot.
We did a custom immersive-audio mix on a per-camera basis and brought that into the Cosm experience. The sound was amazing, but it was the first time we were trying that on the ground so we were building the plane as we were flying. Thankfully, we have an awesome team, and they did a great job. After the first few laps, the audio was great.
What was the camera-coverage plan for Daytona?
For Daytona, we used a single capture system, typically four or five cameras and an onsite crew. Daytona was three shots on the corner and a high wide, as well as a secondary high wide, and we had audio stems for each of those positions. We're looking forward to doing more NASCAR in the future.
You're starting another chapter again this week with golf at THE PLAYERS Championship. How are you bringing a sprawling golf course to the Cosm immersive experience?
This will be our first golf tournament, and golf presents a unique challenge because, unlike with most of the events we cover (even a big racetrack like Daytona), there isn't one place where all the action is taking place. Instead of one vantage point, there are 18 or more events going on at once. It's up to us to find the best way to capture the action.
We're going to try to give the fans the best of both worlds, similar to the old days of going to the baseball game and bringing a handheld radio so you could be there in person but also follow the storyline of the broadcaster. That's going to be the focus for golf.
Just like going to the tournament [in person], you're going to pick your hole. The good news is,
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive Experience for Daytona, The PLAYERS, and March Madness Immersive lens and spatial audio are new technology being developed By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
