NativeWaves looks to audience personalisation to take sports forward in days of isolation

NativeWaves technology was piloted at the MotoGP Austria Grand Prix in Spielberg in August 2019

NativeWaves has stated that after the vital job of keeping family and colleagues safe from infection, the next focus for broadcasters needs to be on audience personalisation for sports.

On the most important message from NativeWaves to its customers and partners around Europe in light of the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, Christof Haslauer, CTO, at NativeWaves, told SVG Europe: “The most important message is ensure that you, your family, your staff and their families stay safe and healthy. While it is going to be a long time before things return to normal (whatever the new normal is), it is imperative that we all follow the advice of health authorities in our own countries so that we face these challenging times together as an industry and as people.”

As to how the company’s technology can help sports media organisations and their workers to continue to produce content in more remote and collaborative ways at this time, Haslauer explained: “Hybrid Multiview broadcast technology from NativeWaves can go a long way in enabling broadcasters to deliver a more compelling experience to their viewers in these trying times. Live sporting events that are still on are mostly being played behind closed doors. Sporting leagues that have suspended their seasons are looking at completing them by playing behind closed doors.

“From both a broadcaster and the sports league perspective, the experience delivered by broadcast of live games from empty stadiums is far from ideal,” he went on. “While NativeWaves cannot recreate the atmosphere of a full stadium, it can most certainly bring audiences closer to the game by enabling viewer personalisation.”

Haslauer continued: “The NativeWaves solution will allow broadcasters to deliver multiple streams of video, audio and data from live games to the viewer’s mobile device; all synced to the main broadcast feed. This lets viewers select the perspective of the game they want to see. On their mobiles, viewers could choose to watch panoramic shots like helicopter cams or spider cams or watch cameras focused on their favourite players, while watching the main live action on their TV. They can enjoy alternate commentary and get access to additional data from the game.

“All of this can be achieved without any changes to the broadcast workflow or without the need to adopt proprietary technology. Most importantly the NativeWaves solution is automated and requires very little human interaction and can be controlled remotely,” added Haslauer.

He concluded: “While we cannot change the atmosphere at the stadium, we can enable broadcasters to safely and innovatively deliver a personalised viewing experience to the viewers while ensuring that their staff are safe. Our team is working remotely and we are available to answer any questions you may have with regard to this solution.”