Future Tech: XR Sport Throws its Hat in the Ring

The project, Real-Time XR Sport Edge, will build on the latest findings surrounding interactive digital athletes, motion capture, AI and high-speed edge content delivery for live XR sports workflows for 3D metaverse worlds, and the potentials into OTT platforms.

The multi-company team will be demonstrating their challenge, objectives and discoveries as part of the Accelerators Media Innovation Programme, amongst seven other projects who have crafted a fast-track innovation framework for solving complex challenges across the M&E eco-system.

With Participants: D&B Solutions, Salsa Sound, Sparkup, HAND, AMD, HearMeCheer; and Champions: Kings College London, Trinity College Dublin, Immersive Combat, BT, Outernet Global, Vodafone Group, University of Southampton, RVPA, this revived 2023 Accelerator will build on R&D from the previous award-winning 2021 Accelerator project that started to explore 5G location-based XR.

“Brand new sports formats utilising interactive, 3D extended realities with real-time game engine and location based venues are back on the rise, with fans hungry for this integrated media more than ever before.” says Muki Kulhan, Innovation Co-Lead for the IBC Accelerators. “This project will focus on capturing and streaming professional MMA fighters and commentators as 3D assets into multiple platforms, to explore how this data and metadata can run over a 5G/edge network, but enhanced with creative spatial audio and immersive ’social audio’ fan interactivity across devices, from anywhere in the world. In addition, talent ID tagging will also be a top priority, to better understand how to protect the legal, digital likeness and images of our athletes and on-air talent in a safe and responsible way… a very, very hot topic for 2023, and beyond!”

Digital Twin Challenge

The project’s aim is to broadcast digital twin XR Sports using combat MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) into live, immersive high-end graphics, spatial and social audio and real-time, edge-compute deliverability to fans in a 3D virtual world via VR headsets, computers, mobile devices and also simultaneously to an outdoor Location-Based Experience venue at The Outernet in London.

The project team will lead this innovation by targeting a list of objectives including:

• Real-time capture of high-speed XR sports (Mixed Martial Arts) with two or more athletes and participants
• Low-to-no latency delivery via edge technologies
• Creating and using virtual avatars of real-world athletes, that can be augmented with VFX
• High-quality, photorealistic graphics in immersive environments
• Audiences in virtual 3D worlds can view on multiple devices (VR headset, mobile, computer)
• Audiences will participate and spectate on multiple devices (VR headset, mobile, computer, LBE venue)
• Interoperable Talent ID labelling for Provenance Verification & Automation

Real-Time XR Sport Edge will take the stage in Hall 3 on 18 September from 12:15 - 13:15, in the free-to-attend Accelerators session hosted by Mark Smith, Innovation Co-Lead for IBC Accelerators.