Technology is bringing Fifa 2018 to your homes. As you are reading this, a lot of people across the world are bound to their VR headsets enjoying the various moments of the World Cup, as if they were at the stadium. Not only are a few channel broadcasters involved in giving away immersive experiences to the football fans, but also an array of apps developed for the purpose. The idea is to make it worthy for the fans, who won’t be able to join the others at the stadium.

FIFA & VR

Imagine tuning into your favorite TV channel, and getting an immersive experience as a result. In There are only select matches that will be live-streamed, and you can watch it using your VR headset. Again, the TV channels will host the live-streaming for certain countries only. BBC SportVR will be available in UK only. DIRECTV Sports VR will help offer VR Fifa experiences in Chile, Columbia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentia and Ecuador.

Fox Sports and Telemundo will combine to offer immersive experiences to the American football fans. The VR streams require your VR headset, either the Google Oculus or similar device, an app that runs on both iOS and Android and a smartphone. Telemundo is one such app that has been developed for the VR experiences alone.

With Fifa, the world of VR is getting closer home, and has opened up several gates of opportunities. The VR technology will allow fans to view the live streaming as well as 360-degree video-on-demand of the matches being screened.

So, how are they planning to work this technology out?

The matches will be covered with the help of 37 cameras, of which eight will be UHD/HDR with 1080p/SDR dual output. There will another eight set of cameras that will focus on capturing the slow motion, and they will have a 1080p/SDR dual output. This hybrid cameras will help capture an array of video formats, which will eventually help in creating the immersive experiences. The image quality will not be compromised owing to the progressive scanning, which the production format and the HDR will provide, thus taking VR to another level altogether.

VR is definitely the highlight of the occasion; however, it is not the only technology that will make viewing the Fifa 2018 World Cup interesting.

Video Assistant Referee:

This is the second best technology aspect of Fifa 2018 that you ought to understand, if you want to know how technology is redefining the whole football watching experience.

Remember, the goal line technology, the most talked about technology aspect of the last Football world cup? Yes, it helped to take a decision, whether the ball had hit the goal post or not. In some cases, despite hitting the goal post, the naked eye cannot determine if it was inside or outside. The technology boosted the inference and was able to deal with goals with better precision.

In this world cup, you will see technology assisting referees with their decision making. The Video Assistant Referee has better eyes and knows whether a foul was at play or not. This review process will occur within a video operation room, located centrally, and this room can access all the cameras as well as the offside cameras.

So, who are the people involved in the VAR team? From the top FIFA officials, a VAR and three assistant VARs are chosen to help with on-ground decision making. The final decisions are explained to the viewers by commentators and broadcasters. Each person in the VAR team is assigned a camera or angle that they need to look into carefully.

Machine Learning:

Along with VR, there is this other technology that is gaining momentum, and this would be Artificial Intelligence combined with machine learning. The aim is to combine these technologies to understand the outcome of the World Cup. They have come up with a algorithm that uses a complex and intricate decision tree, where the potential outcome of each match is calculated based on the available data. The data includes past rankings, team statistics, including players who have been playing the Champions League. The outcome is as of now dependent on past data, and will evolve with the new data made available with each match.

NFC:

Telestar 18, the new match ball by Adidas, has received a redesign. The new ball has six machine stitched panels with a latex bladder. The ball is said to perform without constraints at any altitude or temperature. However, the most interesting aspect of the ball is the inclusion of the NFC chip, which allows smartphones to connect with the ball at a close range. Currently, the NFC technology allows fans to access content such as information that is unique to the ball and name details. However, with time you will also get information regarding the ball’s height and speed, which will help in training the players. There was also a plan to install 12 micro cameras that would give a view of the ball from all angles. This was however not part of the final design. Probably, you will see it in the future versions of the ball.

Conclusion:

With each World Cup, the football fans are gaining access to better experiences with technology. This year too, you will see better decision making and analysis at work, which will help in creating wonderful moments for the fans.

Technology is disrupting quite a few industries, of which gaming is currently at the top. With VR at the core, combined with other technologies, you can redefine the user experience for other industries as well. If you have an idea of what you want to achieve with technology, we can help you achieve your objectives with our VR Apps development expertise and understanding of your niche.

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