Just because you’re unable to make it to South Korea next month doesn’t mean you can’t make your 2018 Winter Olympic dreams a reality — that is, a virtual reality.
NBC has announced plans to broadcast more than 50 hours of virtual reality coverage from the upcoming games live to viewers in the United States. Not only will this be the first time that any Winter Olympics has been captured in VR, but it will also be the first time that Olympic programming in VR will be streamed live in the U.S. across a plethora of devices and platforms.
While the 2016 Summer Olympic Games were also shown in VR, the vast majority of the content was only made available the day after.The VR coverage will come from Intel True VR technology, which employs multiple cameras for its interactive 360-degree VR footage. Included in the more than 50 hours of coverage will be the opening and closing ceremonies, alpine skiing, curling, snowboarding, skeleton, figure skating, short track, ski jumping, ice hockey, big air, and more. NBC will also provide VR replays of all Winter Olympics events that are otherwise live-streamed, as well as one daily 360-degree video of a sport that was not made available in VR the previous day.
Plus, you’ll be able to check out highlights from the day before in VR, too.Accessing virtual reality content of some of the action in Pyeongchang should be pretty straightforward — you’ll need to subscribe to a TV provider and then just log in using your credentials, as you would to watch just about anything else online these days.You’ll be able to check out VR programming almost every day of the games (February 18 is the one exception). Folks using Samsung, Google, Windows, and Android and iOS devices will be able to access the content via the NBC Sports VR app.
“The Olympics have long been an opportunity to showcase emerging media technology,” Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, said in a statement. “With the help of Intel’s industry-leading virtual reality technology, NBC Olympics will deliver a transformative experience that will bring to Olympic fans an entirely new perspective on the speed, thrills, and excitement of an Olympic Winter Games.”
