The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.
Name: Michael Davies
Company: FOX Sports
Position: Senior Vice President, Technical and Field Operations
Michael Davies oversees and manages all day-to-day aspects of live broadcast operations and oversees integration of new and emerging technologies for FOX Sports and FS1. With over two decades of experience in sports television, Davies specializes in technical production and innovation for large sporting events.
As the head of field and technical operations, he manages a team responsible for the thousands of live sports broadcast yearly at FOX, including the technical execution of Super Bowls XLII, XLV, XLVIII and LI.
In 2016, Davies oversaw FOX Sports broadcasts of the Daytona 500, the U.S. Open, MLB All Star Game and World Series as well as the productions of various live VR events. In addition to technical design and oversight, Davies works within the FOX SPORTS LAB, a designed approach to exploring technical partnerships that give viewers a fresh perspective and ad sales teams more targeted sports integrations.
Before joining FOX Sports in 2006 as Director of Field Operations, Davies was with HBO Sports for 10 years. Davies has won multiple Sports Emmy Awards for his work with both FOX Sports and HBO including technical team remotes for NASCAR, MLB and NFL coverage and long form sports programming.
1) FOX/FOX Sports has heavily invested in virtual reality over the past 18 months, with work around NASCAR, MLS, college football and other sports. What one or two particular projects pushed VR forward at FOX from an overall production and quality standpoint? How so?
We have spent a lot of time exploring different facets of how VR works within our industry. It’s fair to say that “organic, in the headset” VR has not caught on in the rapid way that some had predicted. That said, we have tried to hedge in different ways inside and outside of the goggles — the magic window experience is evidence of that. I think that in so doing, we have been pushed by the MLS game in incorporating live stats into the experience, along with a method of replay as well as the Super Bowl, where we were able to come up with a workflow which churned out UHD VR highlights in a quick turnaround environment. All of these elements we have added into the VR experience have gone to subsidize some of the shortcomings of the medium.
2) If you had to invest in one technology that would alter the sports landscape, what would it be and why?
I think what Intel is doing with the freeD technology is a compelling technology with a lot of potential. In working with them in the “BE THE PLAYER” enhancement, we have seen the tip of the iceberg as to what volumetric capture can do. The holy grail has been to put a camera anywhere at any time, and this is quite possibly the beginning of the road to that end.
3) If money were no object, what technology would you build or buy to help you do your job better?
I actually think I need to refer to the previous answer. I think that this kind of technology has a limitless ceiling that can help our industry and create value in many different ways. From productions large and small, creating this kind of volumetric capability would be a highly exciting and disruptive technology that would have implications for traditional broadcast, virtual reality and augmented reality, not to mention a new method of viewing and reviewing highlights and history from any given viewpoint.
4) How would you classify the current state of virtual reality in 2017?
It is progressing slowly. I think that there has been a variety ideas that have been presented seeking to define what VR is. These exhibitions have started to build the case for the technology such that it is, but in doing so in different ways, although none of it right now can be seen as definitive in the way that it will wind up in its mature form.
From 360 video that can be viewed on Facebook and YouTube, to the kinds of glasses-less proposals that our partners from LiveLike are doing, as well as looking at the AR potential in companies like ODG in the augmented space, VR may have made its public debut a bit pre-maturely. However, unlike other technologies like 3D, the upside is such that there isn’t the same kind of ceiling. VR will be ready for prime time eventually, but it may not look quite like we thought it would.
5) If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most fans watch their favorite sports teams?
It could be more choice in medium, just like it is now. As different technologies mature, VR and AR notwithstanding, they will be layered into the broadcast and the audience will have more methods of customizing their broadcast. With the new generations of consumers who will be much more demanding of a multitude of information, I think there will be methods of being able to deliver it in custom levels to personalize to each view in any number of ways. But on the whole, people will still want to digest these events as stories, told to them through words and pictures as they are now, but potentially in a more customized and immersive fashion.
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6) Give us your bold prediction about a form of technology (outside virtual reality) that will be integral to sports in general over the next 12 months and why?
One word: Smell-o-vision, for obvious reasons.