Fans of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague will now be able to witness what it’s like from a referee’s point-of-view during this upcoming weekend’s Final Four in Istanbul.
In a partnership with Spain-based FirstVision — a provider of body camera technology for athletes and referees — one EuroLeague referee during each game will wear a new FirstVision jersey fitted with a 360-degree recording body camera.
After the games, highlights via the referee jersey camera and courtside cameras will be available for fans on-demand through Euroleague.net so they can watch the action from a different perspective. This Sunday, some fans along with press members will received cardboard headsets in order to check out the footage in virtual reality.
“VR has significantly contributed to bringing sports fans closer to the action than traditional broadcasting,” Roger Antunez, CEO of FirstVision said in a statement. “But instead of re-creating existing content in VR, our goal was to innovate even further and create brand new, action-packed point-of-view content with our body cameras, and the 360-degree technology is a great enhancement tool that will make the EuroLeague viewing experience even more immersive.
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“We are very excited about the introduction of our VR product. It’s a big debut in sports and we couldn’t think of a better place to do it. It will be our third season together with Euroleague Basketball, the Final Four is our favorite event of the year, and we always try to bring our best cutting-edge innovations here.”
According to FirstVision, which participated in TPG Sports Group’s “Sports Tank” competition last month, EuroLeague was the first major professional sports league to test wearing the uniform cameras in 2015 when Real Madrid hosted Zalgiris Kaunas. Additionally, there are current plans to pilot live virtual reality broadcasts with the FirstVision 360-degree body cameras during the next EuroLeague season.
“360-degree body cameras have never been used before,” Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Director, Brand and Communication for Euroleague Basketball, said in a statement. “This marks another stage in the development of VR and sports broadcasting technology. We are very excited to give our fans the chance to live the Final Four from the inside like never before.
“Our previous projects with FirstVision have been extremely successful and we are confident that the use of 360-degree camera technology really will take our coverage of the Final Four to a completely new level.”
To produce and distribute the unique footage, the basketball league and FirstVision partnered with interactive production company Mister Fogg, which specializes in 360-degree panoramic videos.