When TNT color commentator Reggie Miller, seated courtside, donned a Virtual Reality headset while broadcasting a Warriors–Spurs playoff game this week, Basketball Twitter predictably lit up with questions and skepticism. “Isn’t the point of VR to have the feeling of being in the arena?” one viewer asked. Another opined: “Marveling at VR while *at the game* really rings hollow. There’s no way the VR can surpass the experience of actually being courtside.”
Miller’s stunt, of course, was blatant product placement. After all, the NBA, Turner Sports and Intel launched a new VR partnership earlier this season, airing seven games in VR during the regular season and at least 12 more during the playoffs. As the new technology has yet to achieve mainstream acceptance, using a Hall-of-Fame talent to market the gizmo in front of a large and captive national TV audience was a corporate suit’s dream scenario.
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BENJAMIN GOLLIVER
Underlying most of the online pushback was, frankly, a lack of knowledge. What does the NBA in VR even look like? How could it possibly be useful to a broadcaster like Miller? To explore those questions, I donned a headset and put the NBA in VR to the test during Cleveland’s Game 2 win over Indiana on Wednesday.
Here’s a full review of how it went from unboxing to the final buzzer. Note: Intel provided the phone and headset used for this product review.
GETTING STARTED
For this product test, I used a Samsung Galaxy S7 phone ($469) and a Gear VR Oculus headset ($129) in conjunction with my cable TV subscription and 5G home Wi-Fi network. Much to my chagrin, the NBA in VR is not currently available for Apple iPhones.
Getting started involved four quick steps: 1) fully charging the phone, 2) connecting the phone to my Wi-Fi network, 3) downloading and installing the Oculus VR and NBA on TNT VR apps, and 4) opening the NBA on TNT VR app so that I could sign in with cable TV login information.
At that point, the phone prompted me to switch over to the headset, so I attached the Galaxy S7 to the Gear VR headset using the phone’s power slot. The phone snapped snugly into place. I adjusted the headset’s Velcro strap to fit my head, turned the top dial to sharpen the image, and used the phone’s side-button controls to turn up the volume.
Within minutes, I was ready to launch the app, which loaded in roughly 20 seconds. A straightforward content menu popped up, including an archived version of Golden State’s Game 2 win over San Antonio, a live broadcast of Cleveland’s Game 2 game against Indiana, archived content from All-Star Weekend, and a listing of future games that will be broadcast in VR. I found the app’s hands-free interface to be very intuitive: I directed a cursor with my eyes towards one of the options—the live broadcast—and the app loaded it in short order.
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THE VIEWING INTERFACE
As soon as the game started, it became clear that I was watching a full-on production rather than a sideshow. Think of the NBA in VR like TNT’s dorkier younger brother: There were TNT graphics and highlights, TNT-quality intro videos, and well-known TV commentators in Kevin Ray and Sarah Kustok. The centerpiece of the production was the VR Cast mode that featured a director controlling the action by alternating between camera angles and cueing up replays. Just like a traditional TV broadcast.
I was also able to select my own camera angle, choosing between Intel panoramic cameras stationed at courtside on the sideline, on each of the two basket stanchions, and on the suite level at the back of the lower bowl. The following video clip shows Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns dunking from the basket stanchion angle.
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Source: The Crossover