Planning a last minute trip to Lake Tahoe this weekend to catch Charles Barkley’s swing up close? ALLie Camera has you covered. NBC Sports has partnered with ALLie to bring fans live 360-degree video from the famed Edgewood Golf Course in Tahoe on both the 17th hole and the driving range all weekend long at The American Century Championship.
The tournament boasts both a record purse of $600,000 and an impressive celebrity lineup from The Round Mound of Rebound to Jerry Rice and Steph Curry. Fans will have full control of their view on The American Century Championship’s YouTube channel from July 22 – 24 utilizing the live, always-on functionality of ALLie cameras. Even better still – fans with their own VR headsets will be able to completely immerse themselves in the true 360 x 360 landscape to catch the golfers on Tahoe’s south shore. “This is just the beginning of the sports partnerships we’d like to pursue,” said Dmitry Kozko, CEO of ALLie Camera, “There are plenty of fans that want the most complete view possible when they’re enjoying a game or tournament from home.”
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Kozko is exactly right – the future for these types of partnerships is exciting. Not only will ALLie’s consumer products benefit from the additional exposure, but fans at home will have the option to supplement their golf viewing with virtual reality. As Kozko alluded to, major players like ALLie getting more involved with live sporting events like this should continue to raise the profile of VR among the average fan.
Although a typical golf audience might not seem like your typical headset wearing, VR audience, regularly integrating VR into events like this could be the momentum swing we’ve been waiting for. Golf also acts as a great proving ground for VR projects, with much more open space with which to work and more predictable athlete movement than any other sport. Further, choosing a course like Edgewood to integrate this immediately widens the appeal of checking out the livestream. Sure, some will watch it for the golf, but others? Others may just check it out for…Tahoe.
The application for ALLie cameras in other major sports would raise some interesting questions. It seems it would almost have to begin as a second screen experience, with fans switching back and forth for replays or certain situations. That is – until it gets too damn good to pass up watching full live events in VR. As more partnerships like this are debuted, more homes have access to headsets, and more networks begin to expand their VR capabilities a world could quickly arise where virtual reality accessibility becomes an expected part of watching a live event.