The NBA Is Committed to Virtual Reality. Are Fans?
A screen in the on-site trailer, where a production crew stitches together the broadcast, shows the left- and right-eye views from NextVR’s eight cameras.
Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun for Bloomberg Businessweek
On the last Thursday night in October, David Cole, chief executive officer of NextVR, sits in a small room beneath the stands at Golden 1 Center, the home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. Through the cinder-block walls come the muffled sounds of the crowd as the Kings and the San Antonio Spurs begin the first regular-season game at the new arena. Under the circumstances, Cole seems pretty calm. He and his company are streaming the game live in virtual reality, one of the biggest tests yet for his equipment and personnel. “Tonight, we rolled out everything,” he says.
Earlier in the month, the NBA said it would give viewers a VR streaming option for one game in each of the 25 weeks of the 2016-17 season. It’s the first sports league to commit to a regular VR schedule. The NBA chose NextVR, a California startup specializing in live streaming, as its producer.