MUMBAI: The Twenty First Century Fox owned video streaming platform is setting new benchmarks. First, it announced that it had become the most downloaded video app in India with the figure at about 90 million. Then it announced that it was looking at a watch time of a billion minutes a day. And then it made it possible for users to download its portfolio of local TV shows, movies and sports highlights to the phone Now it has announced that it will be streaming the upcoming Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad from 7-22 October in stereoscopic 3 D virtual reality, something which has been rarely attempted in more developed streaming markets.
All that viewers have to do to enjoy the 3D VR experience on is don the Samsung VR headsets and Google Cardboard devices while watching the action on both IoS and Android handsets. The VR experience will allow sports fans to get a complete panoramic view of the game and the stadium using touch and gyroscope. Fans will also be able to switch between different cameras in a 360 degree experience, thereby taking full control of their experience
“We owe our loyal and growing platform users the very best video experience in the world,” says Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan. “Fans in India look to Hotstar to set the benchmark for video streaming. We are excited to bring a dramatic new live experience to sports fans.”
To enable this dramatic new experience, the Kabaddi World Cup games are being shot in stereoscopic 3D using two camera pods (in addition to the multi camera setup of the traditional production) including 12 cameras per pod, which allows for an immersive production and stereoscopic capture. Users of Samsung Gear VR will have access to the Hotstar app on the Oculus store, another groundbreaking initiative from the video streaming service.
The live VR stream for the Kabaddi World Cup will be available to fans in two formats: a personalized, 2D user-controlled experience for viewers without headsets, and in full stereoscopic, TrueVRTM for Google Cardboard and Gear VR headsets. It is the first time VR content from a live event of this magnitude will be available on multiple headsets and mobile operating systems.
Hotstar users will be able access the live TrueVR feed by either selecting the Google Cardboard feature in Hotstar’s iOS and Android apps or by downloading the Hotstar Gear VR app from the Oculus Store.
The Kabaddi World Cup will see 12 National teams participating from across the globe. These teams have been divided into two groups, namely A and B. Group A comprises of India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Australia, England and Argentina, while Iran, Thailand, Japan, the US, Poland and Kenya are placed in Group B. Tournament favourites India begin their tournament journey with the first match against South Korea on 7 October , 8 pm IST onwards.
The Kabaddi World Cup, meawhile, has managed to attract five sponsors among which figure Patanjali Special Chawanprash as co-presenting sponsor, Volini, Thums Up, Indo-Nissin as partners with the fifth sponsor being Syska LEDs. Star has made the telecast of the Cup available in four languages: while Star Sports 1 and 2 will provide English commentary. Star Sports 2 and 3 will provide the Hindi feed and Suvarna Plus and Maa Movies will telecast in Kannada and Telugu respectively
