HBS leads XR Sports Alliance to deliver fan experiences no longer constrained to the limitations of TV By Adrian Pennington
Monday, July 1, 2024 - 13:10
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Accedo debuted an XR sports streaming application during Euro 2024 as a showcase for MagentaSport
If extended reality (XR) is the next field in sports broadcasting it could jump into the mainstream come summer 2026, when the FIFA World Cup lands in the US, Mexico and Canada.
HBS is one of three founding members of a new XR Sports Alliance designed to accelerate research and bring to market immersive sports applications for a new generation of consumer device.
Speaking to SVG Europe, HBS director of digital, Johannes Franken points to past VR experiments at the FIFA World Cup in Russia and the AR service offered at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
While these were mostly used as marketing or proof of concept type of use cases, when we look forward we believe that these are the technologies where we need to be successful, he says.
It's no secret that there is [not a huge] amount of headsets in the market but we see that there are some roadblocks to create a viable business case for that. That was one of the reasons why we thought we should found this alliance and bring many parties together, because solving those roadblocks can only be achieved as a group.
Taking knowledge from content creation and service delivery out of social media productions and transferring that into the XR world is our goal in the alliance.
It is very, very hard to define XR rights today. How do they differentiate from traditional AV rights? Are they a subset of AV rights? How do you separate volumetric data within data rights? Every big sporting federation has their own definition.
While HBS explores ways to produce immersive XR sports content, the other partners in the alliance chip maker Qualcomm and OTT video solutions provider Accedo lead on device manufacture and distribution.
Accedo will explore monetisation, data intelligence and would build the user experience. It will also advise on the kind of features sports rights owners should test first and experiment with and create a user testing panel.
Initially we were thinking about prioritising the in-home use case, but more and more we're hearing that rights owners and stadium or venue owners are also looking at how to enhance the in-venue experience, says Lucy Trang Nguyen, business development director, XR, Accedo. The technology and test framework that we're building for in-home could potentially also be leveraged for the stadium experience.
Patrick Costello, senior director for business development at Qualcomm, says sports XR applications are a top three interest among its users.
We've been investing in XR R&D for over 15 years and that manifests itself today in a very robust hardware and software roadmap. We have a dedicated XR silicon roadmap and we address all sorts of types of devices and architectures. The aim is to scale XR to the size and scope of something like mobile at some point.
Qualcomm is even considering developing a purpose-built device for XR sports viewing , says Costello.
We see the XR market developing a little bit differently than mobile. We are already seeing purpose-built devices for the medical vertical, for defence, and fitness and health devices. We really want to collect input from alliance members and see if there is room for more of a dedicated sports viewing device for this market and run that through the test framework.
Carving out XR rights
XR is a nascent term in media and requires some pinning down. This is part of the problem that the alliance says it wants to solve.
XR is the companion to all the immersive technologies available today and something Apple has called spatial computing, explains Jose Somolinos, solutions strategist and XR lead at Accedo. Most headsets available now are not only VR or AR but also MR, meaning they are equipped with cameras that let you see the outside world (or passthrough) as if you were wearing glasses and displays that on a screen in front of your eyes.
There are a host of technical problems from compression to delivery as well as improving the comfort level of XR wearables, but there are commercial issues that the alliance will address too.
It is very, very hard to define [XR] rights today, stresses Franken. How do they differentiate from traditional AV rights? Are they a subset of AV rights? How do you separate volumetric data within data rights? Every big sporting federation has their own definition.
Not only is there a fragmented definition of XR as a media, there's confusion over the marketing implications too.
How does a virtual can of Red Bull compare to a board advertisement? These kinds of definitions are all very fragmented and scattered over the market. What we are trying to do is help federations and to define a more streamlined approach, says Franken.
XR at Euro 2024
In an example of the type of solution it brings to the field, Accedo has debuted an XR sports streaming application during Euro 2024 as a showcase for Deutsche Telekom's sports streaming service MagentaSport.
The solution uses Xtend, Accedo's solution for XR applications complemented with tech from Ateme and HISPlayer. It integrates live streams and data feeds and includes interactive features such as live statistics, multi-camera feeds, player cards, and 3D sponsored experiences.
In a release, Accedo said the activation introduces fans to a viewing experience that is no longer constrained to the physical limitations of the TV screen.
It described how the application will blend fans' physical and virtual worlds by displaying the match in the space around the fan, while also introducing a new layer of interaction where fans can access supplementary informati
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HBS leads XR Sports Alliance to deliver fan experiences no longer constrained to the limitations of TV By Adrian Pennington 
