While all of the attention at Fenway Park on Tuesday night centered on the Boston Red Sox’ reported use of an Apple Watch to steal the rival New York Yankees’s signs, a different technology made its debut at baseball’s oldest stadium: virtual reality.
Intel has been producing a national game of the week broadcast in VR every Tuesday since June and this week added a four-game partnership with Red Sox regional sports network NESN. The deal includes a pair of home games against the Toronto Blue Jays followed by two more with the Tampa Bay Rays. All four will be available to NESN subscribers using the NESNGo VR App, while the first of the four was simulcast to all Intel True VR viewers.
Virtual reality fans got an unexpected bonus: the game went 19 innings before the Red Sox scored the winning run, meaning NESN viewers got a fifth game’s worth of content. The same Intel VR broadcast crew — the “digital carnival,” as one executive described them — will now remain in Boston through Friday for the remaining broadcasts before continuing on to Cleveland for the next national broadcast between the host Indians and Detroit Tigers on Tuesday followed by Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants on Sept. 19.
As with Intel’s other Major League Baseball broadcasts this season, those watching in virtual reality can choose from one of a few set camera angles to watch the game or follow the VR-cast that mimics a traditional baseball broadcast, albeit one that enables viewers the ability to view panoramic, 180-degree shots of the action.
An Intel spokesperson said the company is exploring similar partnerships with other broadcasters and teams, but there currently are no plans in place for other regional network deals in the final few weeks of the MLB season.