Panasonic has conducted two recent experiments that could fundamentally change the way fans experience sporting events.
At a March 20 blind football match in Saitama City, Japan and at the 2017 Panasonic Open Golf Championships from April 20-23 in Noda City, Japan, Panasonic used French startup VOGO and its VOGO Sport app to provide multiple video transmission technology to transmit images of what was happening on the field of play onto the smartphones and tablets of the spectators watching.
For the free second-screen experience, fans only needed to download the VOGO Sport app and connect to Wi-Fi only available in the venue in order to access the full capability of the program. Users were able to watch the match and choose from a wide variety of camera angles, while also being able to view replays, slow motion and zoom in on that same live footage. The zooming was especially important where spectators of a blind football match with weak eyesight could better see the action.
At the Panasonic Open for golf — an Asian Tour event — viewers had similar live video access and were able to simultaneously watch two holes at once on their phones — allowing live viewers the opportunity watch, for instance, hole No. 1 in front of them, live, while watching holes No. 2 and No. 3 on their smartphones in between.
The golf experiment showed that VOGO Sport could cover a larger field of play after Panasonic had previously used it at the blind football match and also rugby matches in December. After the rugby testing, Panasonic signed an agreement in February to distribute VOGO’s sports presentation system for personal devices in Japan.
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In many spectator sports, some play on the field can be hard to view from your seat in the stands. With VOGO Sport, you are afforded the opportunity to switch your camera angle at will, allowing viewers to follow all the action. With VOGO Sport’s zoom in feature, binoculars at sporting events could be a thing of the past.
The hassle of missing the action to use the restroom or hit the concession stands could evaporate should VOGO Sport’s technology proliferate to its full potential. The program would give you the opportunity to catch the excitement from your desired vantage point as you wait in line for a hot dog or unload the five beers you just downed from your system.
While these experiments are in their nascent stages of development, VOGO Sport’s ability to build a second screen for spectators at a sporting event could change live sports for the better.