SVG Europe Sit-Down: CEO Marcel Hasenrader on how NativeWaves is personalising the live sports viewing experience

NativeWaves allows the user to choose perspective for favourite live events and brings multiple camera views to the mobile device. It is perfectly synchronised across multiple screens so that the user can enjoy additional content without limitations in front of the TV at home.

For the benefit of our readers, can you let us know what NativesWaves does — what service do you provide?

Our Multiview Platform enables delivery of multiple streams of video, audio and data, from live events to viewer’s mobile devices, all synched to the main broadcast stream. Broadcast, today, is a one-way street. Multiple cameras capture the live action on the field but in most cases only one camera angle is broadcast at any time.

Viewers can neither personalise their viewing experience, nor watch an event from their preferred perspective. For the broadcaster, apart from not delivering the experience that the customers wants, a ton of content that has already been captured is simply being wasted.

Marcel Hasenrader, NativeWaves, chief executive officer

Our innovative solutions empowers broadcasters to engage their audiences by delivering all this extra content and allowing them to have a personalised viewing experience. Additionally, we deliver savings by driving synergy between broadcast and streaming productions and give broadcasters the opportunity to explore potential new revenue streams such as targeted advertising on the additional screens. Broadcasters receive data relating to viewer behaviour and screen usage allowing them to fine tune their productions and deliver complete viewer satisfaction

What makes the NativeWaves product different …what is it that gives you an advantage?

Numerous attempts to deliver multiple streams, and additional information from a live broadcast event, to the ‘second screen’, have been made over the years and they have met with limited success. This is primarily due to issues with synchronisation.

Solutions currently available in the market either deliver no sync at all, require manual time alignment management to achieve some sort of sync, or need modification of content, which disrupts the workflow. Our automated synchronised solution delivers synced multi-view experiences automatically adjusted to milli-seconds, without making any changes to the content, existing workflows, or having to adopt proprietory CDNs and players.

Our solution also uses the native player on both Android and iOS. NativeWaves synced Multiview platform allows broadcasters to meaningfully use the additional content that is already being produced and deliver viewer personalisation by providing additional perspectives and data from live events.

How does your solution fit into the live sports environment?

Consumer viewing habits are changing. Mobile devices are becoming the primary device to consume Live Sport broadcast, especially for the millennial generation. Our solution works as a conduit between the passive viewing experience of Live sport on traditional TV, and the active personalised viewing experiences demanded by the modern day viewer.

We deliver a flexible, agile and efficient solution that is easy to adopt and can be implemented either at the OB truck level or at the broadcaster’s production studio allowing for delivery of an experience that meets the demand of all audiences

What kind of applications in live sport would work best with the addition of a NativeWaves solution?

Our Multiview Platform has a wide variety of applications in live sport. Consumers can use it in-stadia to instantly get replays and watch different angles of the action, while watching the game live at the stadium. Broadcasters can use this solution to deliver multiview video, audio and data to their viewers enabling personalisation. The solution can also be used for remote production.

Can the solution be applied to eSports — and in what ways?

Our solution can be used to enhance the esport viewing experience, inside event venues, at home, or at out-of-home event viewing locations. Broadcast of eSport tournaments by TV channels and screening of these events in cinemas is becoming very common and the viewership for these broadcasts are growing exponentially. Our solution can not only be used to deliver multiple video feeds focussed on each individual player, but also to deliver real-time data of their individual performance, ranking and position in the game.

Can you share with us one or two of your most compelling/high profile use cases to date, and how they are working?

Red Bull Media House (ServusTV) is the first broadcaster to use our technology by enablng their viewers in Austria to enjoy a personalised viewing experience of the Austrian MotoGP Live from Speilberg. Viewers also enjoyed a personalised experience for all the subsequent races of the MotoGP season. We are currently having very fruitful discussions with a number of leading broadcasters, service providers and leagues, so watch out for interesting announcements very soon.

Why did NativeWaves decide to join SVG Europe as a sponsor?

SVG brings together all the major players involved in live sports broadcasting, and provides us with a perfect platform to meet key industry stakeholders. Discussions with these professionals gives us key insights highligthing industry challenges and plays a major role in defining our product roadmap.