Intel To Acquire VR Startup Firm Voke To Broadcast Captivating Sports Experiences To Audiences
What if you could have watched the Cubs break the Curse of the Billy Goat in VR? If you are a sports fan, then Intel has a treat for you. The company intends to acquire VR start-up Voke in order to deliver “immersive sports experiences for athletes, fans, and content producers”.
James Carwana, General Manager of Intel Sports, remarked, “Together, we can innovate and scale our new immersive sports business faster to bring fans the most personalized, fully immersive VR experience ever imagined and change the way networks, sports leagues and teams engage with their audiences.”
Voke was founded in 2004 by Sankar “Jay” and Uma Jayaram. The duo have been working with VR for over twenty years. Before founding Voke, Jay was a professor at Washington State University and he developed their VR lab. Voke was created in order to “give all fans more control over the content they watch through live virtual reality”.
Voke uses a proprietary paired lens, stereoscopic capture system to provide a natural view of the event. Users can watch the events on any device, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and VR headsets. Voke also works with pre-existing broadcaster and league channels.
This, however, is not Intel's first foray into the world of sports. This past year the company offered “data-driven perspective” to fans and broadcasters at events like the the X-Games in Aspen and the NBA All-Star Weekend. It also recently created the Intel Sports unit, which includes the freeD technology team who joined Intel in the Replay acquisition.
When it comes to VR and sports, the NFL plans to launch a nine-part VR series on YouTube and Google’s Daydream. The series aims to create the "the next-generation of NFL storytelling". The first episode will air on YouTube on Thanksgiving Day (November 24th) and will be made available the NFL VR app designed for Google's Daydream platform.
James Carwana, General Manager of Intel Sports, remarked, “Together, we can innovate and scale our new immersive sports business faster to bring fans the most personalized, fully immersive VR experience ever imagined and change the way networks, sports leagues and teams engage with their audiences.”
Voke was founded in 2004 by Sankar “Jay” and Uma Jayaram. The duo have been working with VR for over twenty years. Before founding Voke, Jay was a professor at Washington State University and he developed their VR lab. Voke was created in order to “give all fans more control over the content they watch through live virtual reality”.
Voke uses a proprietary paired lens, stereoscopic capture system to provide a natural view of the event. Users can watch the events on any device, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and VR headsets. Voke also works with pre-existing broadcaster and league channels.
This, however, is not Intel's first foray into the world of sports. This past year the company offered “data-driven perspective” to fans and broadcasters at events like the the X-Games in Aspen and the NBA All-Star Weekend. It also recently created the Intel Sports unit, which includes the freeD technology team who joined Intel in the Replay acquisition.
When it comes to VR and sports, the NFL plans to launch a nine-part VR series on YouTube and Google’s Daydream. The series aims to create the "the next-generation of NFL storytelling". The first episode will air on YouTube on Thanksgiving Day (November 24th) and will be made available the NFL VR app designed for Google's Daydream platform.
