In February, Verizon hosted a virtual reality Super Bowl LII experience over a 5G network at a virtual luxury suite at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium. That NFL/Oculus Rift collaboration put viewers on the field in the midst of 3D holographic models, and is only one of numerous examples of the marriage of professional sports and virtual reality. The BBC app, for example, offered a virtual reality World Cup experience, and NBC let viewers pick their camera angles and access data for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Continue reading Sports Leagues Pioneer Virtual Reality-Powered Innovations

In South Korea, where eSports was born, a world championship match-up between the Chinese team Invictus Gaming and European team Fnatic was watched by tens of millions of fans around the world. The two battled out the championship finals of “League of Legends” in a 50,000-seat stadium in Incheon, where the Chinese team won the championship for the first time. Riot Games’ “League of Legends” (dubbed LoL by fans), released ten years ago, is still highly esteemed in the $13 billion global gaming industry. Continue reading ‘League of Legends’ Tournament Highlights eSports Growth

Streaming video tech company Akamai, which has been supporting live streaming for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reports that the tournament is the largest sporting event in which the company has been involved. The World Cup from Russia has experienced a major increase in live-streaming traffic, with the first 10 days surpassing traffic for all 64 matches of the 2014 event in Brazil. According to Akamai, the current tournament has delivered more than twice the streaming video traffic of four years ago and more than 15 times the video delivered in 2010. Continue reading 2018 FIFA World Cup Is Shattering Live-Streaming Records

For the first time, the FIFA World Cup is available in 4K HDR in your living room. Those interested in viewing the world’s single biggest sporting event this way have several choices. Via the Fox Sports World Cup app, cable subscribers can view 4K HDR streams on Hisense’s H6E, H8E or Laser models. Dish is offering 56 of the 64 games live in 4K HDR, and DirecTV is broadcasting all the games that way. Layer3 TV/Altice is also broadcasting in 4K and Comcast Xfinity X1 subscribers can watch 4K HDR on demand the next day. Continue reading The World Cup Is Finally Available in 4K HDR in Your Home

At the HPA Tech Retreat, RealD senior scientist Tony Davis and cinematographer Bill Bennett, ASC shot and mastered imagery in a variety of high frame rates. One of the chief challenges, said Bennett, is achieving a result with a cinematic aesthetic. “As we move towards HDR displays, we’ve discovered that high contrast images tend to judder as they move across the screen,” said Bennett. The two proposed a solution whereby images are acquired at a very high frame rate, but then adjusted in post. Continue reading HPA 2018: RealD’s TrueMotion Finesses HFR Footage in Post

At the HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Desert, California (produced by the Hollywood Professional Association), a panel of industry professionals described the vicissitudes of mastering in an era of dozens of formats, standards and devices. The conversation quickly became interactive, with attendees asking questions that related to their work in the media & entertainment industry. One question, harkening back to the premium for producing and posting HD material when it first came on the scene, was about the additional costs of working with UHD and HDR. Continue reading HPA 2018: Mastering Features, Content in UHD, HDR & SDR

Facebook launched a new section of its website devoted to live updates from big sports events. The Facebook Sports Stadium is a combination of live game data from Sportradar, play-by-play updates, and commentary from both verified experts and regular Facebook friends. This new sports hub is designed for sports fans to use while they are watching games on television. Currently, many of the social conversations surrounding live TV events are taking place on Twitter. Continue reading Facebook Sports Stadium Hosts Live Game Stats, Commentary

Facebook announced that it plans to launch the ultimate Super Bowl experience on its social network with what can best be described as a second-screen, real-time news feed entirely devoted to Sunday’s game between the Patriots and Seahawks. Facebook users can visit the designated Super Bowl page to access a live scoreboard and a running play-by-play of the game, as well as curated posts, photos, videos and ads from media sources, celebrities and friends talking about the game.  Continue reading Facebook To Cover the Super Bowl with Real Time News Feed

According to the new Global Internet Phenomena Report by Canadian broadband network company Sandvine, Netflix continues to reign in the competition for streaming video. The popular video service presently accounts for 35 percent of all bandwidth usage in North America during peak hours. YouTube has the second highest bandwidth usage with 14 percent. Amazon Instant Video is the second highest paid streaming service, and it is growing quickly, along with HBO GO. Continue reading Sandvine Global Internet Report Finds Netflix Still Dominates

According to Adobe’s latest bi-annual Video Benchmark Report, consumers watched 43 percent more free digital videos in Q2 of 2014 than in the same quarter in 2013. Almost 60 percent of those 38.2 billion views came from smartphones. The report also finds that more viewers are becoming interested in TV Everywhere. Authenticated viewing jumped 388 percent from the second quarter of last year to the same period in 2014, and there was an 85 percent increase in the number of viewers accessing these shows. Continue reading Report Points to Major Growth in Online Video, TV Everywhere

Beginning next week, Fox Sports will add a fast-paced, real-time highlight show to its UEFA Champions League coverage. “Multimatch 90” will jump live, or via immediate replay, to the match-changing moments from up to eight contests throughout the group stage. The 32-team tournament is the preeminent competition for club football and represents the first opportunity for Fox to demonstrate its readiness for the 2018 World Cup, its first since outbidding ESPN for the broadcast rights. Continue reading Fox to Debut Real-Time Highlight Show for Champions League

Samsung announced that it is partnering with Amazon to offer Ultra HD content. Samsung plans to offer Amazon’s UHD on-demand service in October, in addition to expanding its pre-existing Netflix UHD service in Europe. Samsung, in collaboration with 20th Century Fox and Paramount, converted 40 movies to UHD over the summer to increase the content collection. It should be in the interest of manufacturers to expand 4K offerings in order to spark consumer interest in the new TV sets. Continue reading Ultra HD: Samsung to Offer 4K Amazon and Netflix Streaming

Netflix reported second quarter earnings higher than analysts’ estimates, and announced that original series “Orange Is the New Black” helped lift its number of subscribers past 50 million. Net income more than doubled to $71 million, while sales grew 25 percent. Netflix added 570,000 domestic streaming customers, bringing its U.S. total to 36.2 million. During the quarter, the company raised fees $1 to $2 a month for new customers of its online service to help finance original content. Continue reading Netflix Reports Strong Q2 Earnings, Unveils International Plans

Slingbox is ready to debut new options to facilitate watching TV over the Internet. The $150 Slingbox M1 allows customers to use a live TV signal via the Internet on any computer, tablet or mobile device. The $300 SlingTV includes the features of Slingbox M1, but also has an on-screen interface that allows users to choose shows and control the television. Both allow users to stream the shows they watch on their cable TV to their Wi-Fi-connected devices. Continue reading Slingbox Introduces Two New Updates for Television Streaming

An estimated 160 million phones sold this year will feature 4K video-capable cameras, while only two percent of TVs shipped to North America will have 4K screens. These cameras will be available on high-end models, including the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Sony Xperia Z2 and the LG G Pro 2. Meanwhile, cable, satellite and telecommunications companies are unlikely to move to Ultra HD for a few years as they wait for more TVs to show up in American homes. Continue reading Increasing Number of Smartphones Are Capable of 4K Video