In yet another example of how virtual reality can be an extremely immersive experience for consumers, Samsung recently let select football fans in Portugal watch their favorite sport through the lens of the Gear VR. The Korean manufacturer teamed up with Portuguese cable operator NOS, SPORT TV, broadcasting specialists Mediapro and the Portuguese Professional Football League to stream the match between FC Porto and SL Benfica live, by using five 360 degree cameras to capture everything and turn it into virtual reality.
The cameras were placed at various locations in the stadium, allowing viewers to choose different vantage points throughout the match. We will have to take Samsung's word for it, but the experience was apparently very impressive for the viewers who donned the Gear VR. To be honest, if you have the proper VR content, a virtual reality headset can make things considerably more immersive than the usual flat displays, and making the world's most popular sport available in virtual reality is something we will see becoming quite popular in the years to come.
In addition to the football match, Samsung gave the VR treatment to a surfing event in Portugal. Catching the waves would no doubt be more interesting up close considering most of us can't just take a surfboard and head into the ocean, though there's no video of how Samsung managed the surfing event through their cameras. The Gear VR will become available for regular consumers by the end of this year, and it will be very interesting to see if channels and world sport organizations will be jumping on the virtual reality bandwagon anytime soon.
