In an effort to “reinvent the sports experience,” Intel has teamed up with the MLB and a handful of television networks to allow fans and broadcasters to view replays from any angle and location you can imagine.
Say, for example, a center-fielder makes an incredible diving catch for the final out of the inning. During the replay, viewers will be able to completely rotate around the fielder, essentially turning it into an immersive bullet-time highlight reel.
To achieve this, Intel will create a seamless 360-degree rendering of Petco Park using 28 cameras that are strategically positioned around the field. In addition to the cameras, all of which work together to capture practically every angle of the game, an incredible amount of Intel processing power is needed to parse through the insane amount of data being captured.
Below is an example of Intel’s freeD technology, which was also used to capture the 2016 NBA All-Star Game this year:
Intel says that tonight’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby on ESPN will be the first event to utilize the technology, with tomorrow’s MasterCard All-Star Game on Fox being the encore. But baseball is only the beginning.
Intel says it’s already partnered with the NBA, NFL, ESPN X Games and Red Bull to create more freeD content for sports fans around the globe. Below is another example of the freeD technology in use at Super Bowl 50:
The technology still has plenty of room for growth, but Intel is off to an incredible start. Watching sports on television is about to get more immersive than ever before.
