NEW YORK — LiveLike CEO Andre Lorenceau recently argued that the latest technology advancement from the company is a feature that live virtual reality around sports needs as an overall broadcasting medium.
LiveLike and FOX Sports are currently streaming a series of three CONCACAF Gold Cup matches live in VR including the championship match on July 26. Now, there’s the added element of “social,” with users of the FOX Sports VR app being able to communicate with friends via Facebook. The second match offered in social virtual reality is tonight’s semifinal between the United States and Costa Rica at 10 p.m. ET on FS1.
Lorenceau told SportTechie last month that with the new integration, he expects usage time of the LiveLike platform to increase as well. While fans can have the full immersive experience through a Samsung Gear VR or cardboard headset, viewers can watch the game and engage in the social element via a 360-degree smartphone experience, too.
“There’s no one else who has offered (social virtual reality in sports). It makes all of the other stuff we’ve built in there — the suite system, the highlights, replays, etcetera — be twice as useful because they become ammunition for a conversation,” Lorenceau said.
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Added Michael Davies, FOX Sports Senior Vice President of Technical and Field Operations: “I think the technology has always been there to gather people together and put them in social. The real ingenuity comes with how you get them to do that. We’re still working on a little bit, but that was the cheap hurdle. It’s going to take a couple of times to get it right.
“You’ve got to put this stuff out in the wild to see how it works. There’s only so much testing you can do before you just draw the line and say, ‘You know what, we’re going to go with this.’”
Once fans download the FOX Sports VR app and connect to Facebook, they’ll see other Friends who’ve previously logged into the FOX app. They can then invite them to their Friends list to experience the game together, although they won’t see each other’s faces, just an avatar. For the first iteration, users can only deliver verbal exchanges. Additionally, if a fan doesn’t want to chat with his or her first-degree connections, they can select a random match-making feature and communicate with a stranger. As Lorenceau explained, future goal include building filters for the random selection and also connecting users who have developed specific allegiances for certain teams. For the three matches, group hangouts will be capped at four users.
“The promise of social is essentially for specific use cases of people who can’t enjoy sports together in person to share those experiences virtually,” Lorenceau said, adding that the feature could be ideal for parents and children who are attending college in another state, long-distance friends or deployed servicemen and women to connect with their families.
Buffalo Wild Wings is the presenting sponsor of the Gold Cup matches live in virtual reality, and fans can even turn their heads in the virtual suite to look at the wings and be taken to a Buffalo Wild Wings page where they can buy and have wings delivered.
The shared experiences can also be between different devices (i.e., iPad and Samsung Gear VR headset or smartphone and iPad). Users must currently use headphones for the social feature.