NextVR, the company specializing in live VR sports and entertainment broadcasting, has already begun its public debut of the new high-resolution video format teased back at CES earlier this year, which comes via free, on-demand game highlights of the 2018 NBA Finals featuring the Golden State Warriors vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers.
On the day following each game of the NBA Finals, NextVR is publishing a high-resolution, steroscopic highlights reel on the NBA Finals channel within the NextVR app.
NextVR supports Oculus Go, Gear VR, PSVR, Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets, and Google Daydream. The company also recently announced support for HTC Vive & Vive Pro, and also has its sights on a Rift app soon.
“Improving fidelity and realism is critical for the success of virtual reality media. This upgraded format adds detail, sharpness and enhanced 3D depth to our broadcasts, greatly increasing realism and overall sense of presence,” said David Cole, NextVR co founder and CEO. “While all users will see an immediate improvement, this only scratches the surface of the capabilities of this format and our technology platform. More advanced headsets slated to ship in the future will take even greater advantage of this new VR broadcast technology.”
Cole previously said that, in the best case scenario with 8 Mbps bandwidth, the company has the ability to stream 20 pixels per degree, up from 8.5 pixels per degree previously—done in stereo and at 60 FPS. While it’s uncertain if the current implementation has hit those numbers, it appears at least NextVR is soft launching the high-res capture for on-demand content at the moment, although full event livestreaming probably isn’t far behind on their roadmap.
On the list of other future tech yet to be publicly released is NextVR’s volumetric video capture and playback, which allows the viewer’s perspective to move positionally within the video (rather than just rotationally). While it has yet to debut on the platform, our hands-on at CES 2018 was a tantalizing look forward into what could become a standard practice in VR video.
NextVR also serves as on of the main content streamers for Oculus Venues, an app from Oculus that allows Gear VR and Go users to watch live events in the company of ‘thousands’ of other users—putting the company in a unique position as it gains yet more partners, which currently include the NBA, NFL, FOX Sports, Live Nation, WWE and the International Champions Cup.
