Ever since Apple released the groundbreaking $3,500 Vision Pro headset two years ago, I’ve been waiting to see what apps and experiences might help me make the most of it. One of them is live sports.
Using my headset, I recently watched parts of a Lakers-Bucks game, part of Apple’s first wave of live NBA immersive games that debuted via Spectrum on Jan. 9. After this year’s CES show in Vegas, which was full of attempted visions of the future, Apple and Spectrum’s NBA presentation was expected — but not quite immersive enough.
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In a recent column by Ben Thompson of Stratechery, he argued that the Vision Pro immersive sports experience isn’t flexible, but rather falls somewhere between TV broadcasts and “being there.” He’s not wrong. In fact, what strikes me is how this all reminds me of experiences I had many years ago.
Once, a decade ago, I watched a boxing match in a Gear VR headset, which made me feel like I was on the edge of the ring. I also watched a presidential debate. In these moments, on Oculus headsets, I felt trapped between the promise of immersion and the desire for interaction.
Those feelings of something falling short returned here at courtside, applied to live sports. While the camera and video quality are impressive with the Vision Pro, it’s not that different from Apple’s other immersive video offerings currently available.
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Spectrum’s immersive recording and streaming of select Lakers games involves camera placements at the front-row courtside center seat and at each of the baskets, alternating between them. Most of the viewing is courtside, and like all Apple Immersive videos, it’s a 180-degree experience. The video domes out and around, almost like being in The Sphere in Vegas (which I just tried), but in 3D, and at home.
The live viewing experience is available with a Spectrum SportsNet subscription if you live in Southern California, Nevada or Hawaii, or with next-day viewing elsewhere using an NBA app login.
You also need a $3,500 Vision Pro, of course.
The illusion can be fun, sure. But then I wondered how I could browse stats, text friends, share things or take photos on my phone as I watched, just as I would at a real game. Or how I could even just stay hyperconnected, as I’d do on a TV broadcast at home. The Vision Pro NBA app actually has a deep, multiscreen, stat-studded viewing mode with a tabletop 3D court map view to satisfy this urge.
As a sports fan, I’d want it all. I’d want a Jets game where I was both present and above it, seeing all the stats and heat maps, and sharing things with friends. I would want any means of interacting and “being there” while still benefiting from the flexible control of home viewing. I would want instant highlights and beat reporter comments on my phone. I experience sports across multiple screens.
While wearing a Vision Pro headset, I could, in fact, use my phone. When set up to unlock with Vision Pro, my phone screen bleeds through the immersive video, allowing me to type on it through the pass-through camera. But that’s not the same as staying in the illusion. It breaks the fourth wall a bit.
And, sure, the immersive broadcast does have basic score readout statistics when I look down, and I can see them on the court screens above me. But why not have a way to tilt my wrist and see all the pop-up stats right there, in layered reality, while in-broadcast?
Not being able to shift views is also frustrating. The broadcast is treated as a single network-cut feed, so you’re the one who’s being shifted around. At least it doesn’t jump-cut too much.
This marks Apple’s early steps in immersive sports broadcasting, so I could be more forgiving. At the same time, it’s also two years into the Vision Pro’s life cycle, and this device is no closer to being more affordable or more “pro” for most people’s needs.
If Apple creates a less expensive way to wear Vision-quality displays and also advances how these events can be felt and interacted with, I’ll be singing a different tune. Currently, they’re just one more demonstration of high-quality immersive cameras and displays.
I want more proof of how these moments of near-telepresence can elevate beyond just footage, and into something far more amplified than I’ve already experienced. It’s fun, but it’s not the ultimate way I’d watch games I deeply care about yet.
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