Tampa Bay Buccaneers Allowing Fans to Tour New Facility with Virtual Reality.

Recently, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ organization has gone under a $140 million renovation of there stadium and facility. This includes, new seats, new club rooms, and brand new video monitors. Their new video screens combine for 28,000 square feet, which is the third biggest in the NFL. With these brand new renovations, the organization wants to give their fan base a unique opportunity to see the newly updated stadium from the comfort of their own home. This also allows the Buccaneers’ organization to influence others to come to football games because after seeing the virtual reality tour, it would make the fans come see it for themselves while also cheering on their home team.

Part of the tour is lead by the face of their franchise, Quarterback, Jameis Winston. Jameis leads you through some of the newest additions to their facility, simulating a one-on-one experience for the viewer. As seen in the picture above, it gives a very unique perspective of what it is like to be on the field of a professional football team. An experience that, normally, very few would get to be a part of.This is the website that the Buccaneers launched that allows the fans to participate in the virtual tours. Because of the constant construction going on to get the stadium ready for the NFL season, this gives fans the ability to view it before the season starts. From select views being on the field, in the stands, and in the box suites, it gives fans a look at the stadium that they may never have had before. “Virtual reality is a great way to transport fans to places they’ve never been before. We’ve had customers post simple content to social media, and they’ve recorded a lot of views just because of how engaging the video is,” said Matt Bairos, CEO of XOS Digital.

Because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have embraced the new technology, they also have a virtual reality experience made mobile thanks to their new RV. While at away games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will also bring the RV as well to give all fans the experience of the new and improved Raymond James Stadium, most likely the first time many people will see it first person.

Below is a picture of the new club seats that have been added as part of the renovation to the stadium.

To read into the new experience made possible by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and see what the men behind the scenes think of it, click here.

Music Festival Allowing Festival Goers to Experience Being on the Main Stage via Virtual Reality

Popular music festivals often bring thousands upon thousands of music lovers to their event grounds. For some, the ticket to the event and standing in a crowd is too mainstream. But thanks to one of the most popular, annual music festival, Lollapalooza, they are allowing event goers to experience what its like to be on the stage with a virtual reality experience.

Lollapalooza has a sponsorship with Samsung, so Samsung is proving the event grounds with virtual reality booths. The booths hold up to 400 people and supply VR headsets for audience members who have Samsung Galaxy products, while those without Samsung Galaxy products can stream the same experience to their phone. The idea of this experience is to make music festival experiences even better. With The Red Hot Chilli Peppers as one of the bands the festival goers can be on stage with, it changes their experience completely. With this breakthrough, there can be only more to come.

Read the rest of the article here

 

360 Degree Videos and Pictures Giving Users a First Person View From Their Computer, Tablet, or Phone

A new technology, commonly seen on Facebook and Youtube, is allowing companies, artists, and anyone with a smart phone, to take a video of their surroundings or upload a picture that allows a person on their computer or phone to look around as if they were there. The idea of virtual reality is becoming more mainstream, so the ideas are coming faster and faster on how to immerse everyone into it. While scrolling down Facebook, you may see a video of a beach, park, or concert and you are able to move the video around and view the surroundings as if you were there.

Here is a link to Maroon 5’s youtube page using this technology. They are using a 360 video of them at a concert in Bucharest and in it, the user is able to viewnot only the crowd, but they are able to turn the camera around the view the band during the performance. This is a very smart idea because it allows the fans of this band to view their concert even though they are not there. Be it because they didn’t have money for a ticket, or the concert was not in their town. It allows them to appreciate the concert from a unique vantage point.

There have been popular Youtube users who have used this technology on their page while playing games with friends or normal videos in general. A Youtuber with over 3 million subscribers has used this 360 technology to his advantage while he, and a bunch of his friends played the game “never have I ever”. You can see that video here as well. This breakthrough in the aspect of virtual reality has modernized the idea of what this technology actually is capable of and has brought users closer together to take advantage of it.

The use of 360 degree cameras are available for purchase normally, but they are not cheap. Ranging from $75 to over $1000, they give people the ability to take their friends and family and place them in the same room as them. This can benefit families who live in different states, cities, or even countries. A possibility I can invision, is companies or businesses using this to their advantage with recruiting or getting the company and audience closer together. This can be done by have 360 views in the offices, lobby or meeting rooms. The possibilities of this new technology is endless with how it can bring people together and promote others, and people are trying to take advantage as soon as possible.

Cardboard Reality is Invading Sports

Recently, the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team has implemented the use of augmented reality into their practices along with other sports such as football..What the Rays have begun to do is have video of the opposing team’s pitchers on video with the baseball field in the background. This helps the team prepare better for upcoming match-ups because they are able to see that movements and special things to look for as if they were batting, rather than seeing a video with a birds eye view or how the audience sees the videos.

To read more about this and also read about other sports teams that are using similar technology, click here

 

Virtual Reality Arcades are Finally Here!

Are you bored of normal arcades with simple claw machines, boring racing games, and typical ski ball? Well have no fear, Ctrl V is here with a full virtual reality arcade to fully immerse you in what now seems like the future everyone was talking about back in the early 90’s. Ctrl V has combined consumers love for gaming, arcades and the idea of virtual reality into their goal of which they say is “to help advance the adoption of the groundbreaking VR technology by giving as many people the opportunity to experience it first-hand, without the prohibitive expense and space requirements.” The virtual reality arcade is located in Canada and is the first one in said location. They have already had a bunch of positive reviews from players who have been there before and seem to be growing each day, along with the idea of virtual reality. Ctrl V has games to immerse yourself in such as Space Pirate Trainer, Job Simulator, Minigolf, and Lightblade VR. These and the the rest of the games at Ctrl V allow the users to enter a new world and fight, run, play, and enjoy the newest technology.

This arcade hub has been active only since April of 2016 but the ideas have been in the works for years. The technology Ctrl V is using to allow it’s users to enter these new worlds are the HTC Vive VR equipment, Rogue Z gaming machines, VR keyboard and mouse, VR gaming camera, and VR headphones to really get the full immersion of the user into their game of choice. The pricing ranges based on group size, but at Ctrl Z, for one user and for one hour with all of the equipment and game of choice, it is $24.99/hour. That may seem like a stretch to some, but if you were to consider what you are doing and how far technology has come, this whole experience could be priceless.

Because this arcade has just opened recently, there is still much more to come, from Ctrl V and virtual reality as well. The idea of virtual reality arcades could possibly branch out into other common activities such as a gym to increase the idea of a healthy lifestyle by achieving it a new and exciting way. Virtual reality has already come a long way from its most popular launch with the Oculus Rift in 2015, and it has a long, bright path ahead of it.

To see more of their amazing technology and company of Ctrl V, their website is located at http://www.ctrlv.ca/.