Football fans will be able to watch this summer’s Fifa World Cup in virtual reality thanks to a trial by the BBC.
BBC Sport has announced that it will trial two new technologies during live matches: Ultra HD and virtual reality.
All 29 of BBC One’s World Cup matches will be streamed in Ultra HD and High Dynamic Range (HDR) on BBC iPlayer for a limited number of viewers on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Fans should grab their seats early,” the BBC said.
Live coverage of all 33 BBC matches will also be available in VR through a dedicated app on iOS and Android devices, as well as the Gear VR, Oculus Go and PlayStation VR headsets.
The technology allows users to switch location to get different views of the game, including a “luxury private box” high up in the stadium, or behind either of the two goals to get up-close to the action.
Viewers can also access a range of live match statistics, or watch daily highlights and other on-demand content when there is no game taking place.
For the best performance when viewing the World Cup matches through VR, the BBC recommends a connection of at least 10Mbit/s over WiFi.
Global spending on augmented reality and virtual reality shows no sign of slowing down, according to new research by IDC.
The latest update to its Worldwide Semiannual Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide predicts that spending on AR/VR products and services will reach $27bn (£20bn) in 2018, a 92% increase from last year.
“Commercial interest in both augmented and virtual reality continues to accelerate as new hardware ships, improved software appears, and more use cases evolve,” said Tom Mainelli, vice president of Devices and AR/VR at IDC.
Tags: Digital entertainment, AR, VR, World Cup, FIFA, iOS, Android, Oculus Go, Playstation VR, Gear VR
