The seats on the sidelines in a Lakers game were such a prestigious thing. But 2020 is a different experience for the NBA thanks to the pandemic, and it does not appear that Jack Nicholson has become a test of video technology in recent practice.
As part of its partnership with Microsoft, the NBA is playing on the pitch with 17-foot video cards to allow a select number of fans to experience upcoming games via Microsoft Teams’ “Together” mode.
A clip of the video collaboration software being tested was shown on Twitter over the weekend as Lakers players participated in a shooter.
Digital fans are here. ???????? ???????? pic.twitter.com/9Uv4XfpKU0
– Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) July 25, 2020
The technology aims to give participating fans “the feeling of sitting next to each other in a live game without leaving the comfort and safety of their homes, while players experience their energy and support on the spot”, according to a press release from last week.
Digitally cropped fans appear as if they were on the same background. They are seen frantically waving on giant screens and at first glance everything seems rather absent-minded. Maybe Microsoft will be able to make all participants the same size and the waving of the hand will not be interrupted.
The cut of the hands and the differences in the size of the head make everything even more false.
If everyone had sat down to normal distances and made sure that their heads didn’t cut, without shaking, things would have looked much more realistic.
Pretty interesting first iteration.
– Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) July 26, 2020
lol, this is both fantastic and terrible at the same time
– incendy (@incendy) July 25, 2020
Do you want to play with a beard or gnaw a sandwich on national TV?! ????
Register now to be in the Pelicans sections for the NBA Virtual fan experience during seeding games! ????
This will fill up quickly.
Register here: https: //t.co/JfEcct6sgq #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/5tOAQUcnIS– Tracy Almeda-Singian (@TracySingian), July 26, 2020
They should hire these guys. Https: //t.co/QwZo5YndYB
– Armand Salmon (@armandsalmon), July 26 2020
NBA teams are approaching Orlando, Florida, before the season restarts Thursday. The screens are visible (without the fans included in Microsoft) in other videos, including some shot with a “railcam” that runs along the field for a unique viewing angle.
???????? Check out the BEST buckets of the railcam and the moments from Orlando’s scenes so far! #WholeNewGame
Thursday, the restart of the NBA is coming! Pic.twitter.com/L5qQQAVusW
