NBA Will Resume Games Without Fans This Friday, and Fans Can Use Microsoft Teams to Interact on Site
The 2019-2020 NBA season will restart on July 30, Eastern Time. In order to maintain social distance, the NBA has made many adjustments this time and reached a cooperation with Microsoft Teams to bring fans a new immersive viewing experience.
Affected by the epidemic, the NBA has suspended its games for the sixth time in history since March 12. Recently, it was announced that the regular season of the 2019-2020 season will be restarted on July 30 this month.
After the restart, social distance still needs to be controlled, and the NBA will implement the form of "empty-seat games", that is, fans are not allowed to enter the stadium to watch the game.
The lively scenes of thousands of people gathering in the stadium and the deafening noise of the past will not be able to be reproduced in the short term.
To solve this problem, the NBA cooperated with Teams, a team collaboration tool under Microsoft, to use interactive live broadcasts to enhance the on-site atmosphere and fan experience.
According to the official cooperation announcement released by Microsoft, during the 2019-2020 regular season, Teams will create a more interactive live broadcast experience for teams and fans who cannot attend.
The audience seats are replaced with large screens to allow players to experience interaction
In order to reduce the travel of the league's 22 teams and lower the risk of infection, the NBA chose to cooperate with the Orlando park of Disneyland, stationing the teams in various Disney hotels, playing in the park's professional sports stadiums, and the largest sports network in the United States, ESPN, providing full media digital signal live broadcast.
In order to transform the interactive experience of the venue, Teams and ESPN set up three super-large LED screens in the audience seats of the stadium. These screens are as high as 17 feet (about 5 meters).
These three large screens will display more than 300 fans connected to the venue through Teams Together mode during the game.
In order to facilitate the management and control of fans accessing the big screen on site, Teams will limit the number of users to about 300. At the same time, administrators will remove fans with inappropriate words and deeds from the big screen viewing area at any time.
ESPN and Turner Sports are also re-arranging cameras at arenas.Bring it closer to the court and provide more viewing angles.
This camera adjustment involves more than 30 cameras, many of which have been changed to automatic following cameras.
In addition, the microphones around the stadium will also improve the sound reception capability, and even small sounds such as the friction between sneakers and the floor, and the impact of the basketball on the floor will be recorded.Improve fans' online viewing experience in multiple dimensions from the aspects of sound and visual perception.
Fans watching the game at home can participate in surfing and cheering through the hashtag on the NBA APP, website or NBA Twitter account.
The effect of fans' support and cheering will be displayed in the form of graphics and animations on the big screen in the stadium.The players on the field can definitely feel the passion and motivation overflowing the screen.
Live broadcasts should also create an atmosphere and increase natural interaction among fans
Teams is a team collaboration software that Microsoft has been promoting recently. With the help of Teams' "Together" mode, the participating players can feel the cheers and interactions of more than 300 fans on the LED screen on site.
Teams added in the official blog that this is not a simple cutoutBy adopting cognitive and social sensing technologies,Allowing participants to be in the same scene strengthens the physical connection between people.
The natural eye contact and emotional infection can bring fans an immersive collective viewing experience, just like being there on the scene.
Teams also makes it possible to watch the game in a civilized manner.In the past, when live spectators were allowed, fans often engaged in extreme behaviors such as swearing, throwing objects, and rushing onto the field.
After watching the game through Teams, the organizer can set up an administrator. Among the more than 300 fans on the screen, if anyone suddenly swears during the game and affects the viewing experience of others, he or she will be removed by the Teams administrator immediately.
NBA is desperate to find a new profit model amid severe epidemic
According to the prediction of TicketIQ website,Since the regular season was suspended for more than three months, the NBA has lost approximately $690 million in ticket revenue.This does not include income from broadcasting fees, sponsors, and stadium expenses.
The NBA's total revenue last season was $8 billion, which means that ticket losses alone will cause total revenue this season to drop by at least $10%.
With the strong support of Disney and ESPN, the regular season has been resumed, and new forms of live broadcasts can be explored on Teams.
Both the NBA and Microsoft spoke highly of this move, believing that this innovative way of watching games perfectly achieves “killing two birds with one stone.”
Microsoft Twitter listed the many advantages of this model
| 1 | To the 300 fans on the screen,You can immerse yourself in the wonderful scene of watching live broadcasts with other fans and friends without leaving the comfortable and safe environment of your home; |
| 2 | For the players on the field,During the game, you can feel the reactions and emotions of 300 fans on the big screen; |
| 3 | For other viewers watching the game at home,When you see the virtual stands filled with fans, you can also feel the energy and passion of the audience. |
In fact, this may be a smart move for the NBA to reduce losses during the epidemic.
At present, it seems that offline viewing will not be allowed in the short term, and there will be no ticket revenue. Major sponsors have also reduced their advertising budgets. In addition to expenses such as venue use and high player salaries, the NBA has also suffered a lot due to the impact of the epidemic.It is urgent to develop new profit models to reverse the current predicament.
It seems that the NBA is eager to resume the game and may be able to find a new profit model from online live broadcasts.
The effect of fans connecting to the big screen
Some problems can also be seen in the video, such as: fans' screen delays, freezes, frame drops, different sizes of avatars, and strange sitting postures.Netizens exclaimed, "It's so weird" and "Aren't the players distracted by looking at these screens?"
As for the final effect presented to the audience and players, we will find out in the live broadcast at 6:30 am Beijing time on July 31.
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