Apple Vision Pro Launches With New Spatial App From PGA TOUR, Compatible Apps From MLB, MLS, NBA, and More Mixed-reality headset promises to reinvent the way fans watch live sports By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Friday, February 2, 2024 - 2:25 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Launch day has finally arrived: Apple Vision Pro is officially available and, with it, more than 600 apps and games designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the much-hyped new mixed-reality headset. With ultra-high-resolution displays delivering more pixels than a 4K TV for each eye, users can watch content on a 100-ft. screen. At launch, Vision Pro offers a wealth of new sports-focused spatial apps - such as PGA TOUR Vision - on top of immersive experience in compatible apps like the NBA App, MLB App, Red Bull TV, MLS Season Pass, and others.
With the NBA app on Apple Vision Pro, basketball fans can stream up to five live or on-demand games simultaneously and easily rearrange games within their space.
In addition, with compatible apps from top cable services - Charter Spectrum, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Contour, Sling TV, Verizon Fios - and sports broadcasters - ESPN, CBS, Paramount+, NBC, NBC Sports, Peacock, Fox Sports, the UFC - Vision Pro users can watch a wide array of live sports content in a personal theater environment.
Apple's new spatial computer seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world to create an infinite canvas where apps can scale beyond the boundaries of a traditional display, according to Apple. In addition, Apple Vision Pro features an intuitive three-dimensional interface that users can navigate with their eyes, hands, and voice.
For example, PGA TOUR Vision layers real-time shot tracking on top of 3D models of real golf courses alongside key stats - leaderboards, scorecards, schedules, course information, and other tournament details - to bring the tour to life in a user's space.
With the NBA app on Apple Vision Pro, basketball fans can stream up to five games live or on demand simultaneously and easily rearrange games within their space. They can also access real-time team and player stats, see the status of other games, and toggle between broadcast and language options for every game, live or on demand.
Apple Vision Pro enables fans to access real-time team and player stats, see the status of other games, and toggle between broadcast and language options for every game - live or on demand.
MLB immerses users in a ballpark with a view from home plate and stats on each pitch, providing users a new level of agency that allows fans to customize the way they enjoy baseball. Red Bull TV pairs 3D maps of races with high-quality video and immersive environments. And soccer fans can access MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app, home of Major League Soccer.
Experience Golf Like Never Before: New PGA TOUR Vision Spatial App The new PGA TOUR Vision app was built from the ground up to enable golf fans to experience golf and follow PGA TOUR tournaments like never before. Developed for Apple Vision Pro, it is now available to download from the brand-new App Store.
Users will be able to bring the best moments of the PGA TOUR in spatial reality through the Apple Vision Pro. (Photo: PGA TOUR Vision)
With PGA TOUR Vision, golf fans can transform their space into immersive, spatial golf experiences that bring them closer to the action. At launch, the app will debut with the iconic par-3 seventh hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, site of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and expand to include additional holes each week leading up to THE PLAYERS Championship, when all 18 holes will be covered.
PGA TOUR Vision for Apple Vision Pro brings golf fans inside the ropes and directly onto the tee boxes and greens of the world's most iconic courses, no matter where they are, says Scott Gutterman, SVP, digital operations, PGA TOUR. The PGA TOUR is proud to be the first professional-golf app on this revolutionary new device, offering fans an innovative and immersive way to watch professional golf. Our fans can look forward to more unique, spatial experiences as the FedExCup season progresses.
PGA TOUR Vision displays key tournament information and video in 2D windows on top of a user's space, and 3D-rendered models generated by Virtual Eye map real-time trails from live shot data captured during the tournament. Within 2D windows, fans can view leaderboards, scorecards, course information, schedule, and tournament details, as well as video highlights. Live shot data is provided by ShotLink powered by CDW and made available to the app using the PGA TOUR's AWS infrastructure. The app was developed by Quintar, the Official Mobile AR and XR Developer of the PGA TOUR, with UX and design led by digital-product supplier Work & Co.
Harnessing Quintar's powerful spatial experience platform from prototype to launch and beyond, says Dr. Jeff Jonas, president/chief business officer, Quintar, we are excited to be partnering with the PGA TOUR to bring PGA TOUR Vision to life.
Fans can immerse themselves in a 3D model of Pebble Beach Hole 7 as if they were physically there and can watch real-time shot trails for players currently playing the hole or replays of shots from earlier in the day or previous rounds. Whether from the tee box or right on the green, key information - shot distance, apex, speed - is always available for overlay within the experience to provide context to each shot trail. Inside PGA TOUR Vision, users can also live-stream the CBS simulcast of the third and fourth rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as well as future FedExCup events televised on CBS/Paramount+.
With Apple Vision Pro and the power of spatial computing, adds Gutterman, Apple is teeing us up to deliver an innovative and immersive way of experienc
