A new Apple Immersive Video on Vision Pro cuts together four minutes from the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.
Apple's video of the event from February joins previous releases including the Super Bowl and the first scripted project for the format, Submerged, as Apple continues to build out a library of content "only on Apple Vision Pro".
The video is notable because it recalls the work of NextVR, which Apple acquired after it used industry-leading 180-degree 3D streaming technology to live-stream a significant number of NBA games to a range of VR headsets. The long-dead NextVR app, for example, still has a listing on Meta's storefront, where the page serves as a reminder to Quest owners that Apple has so far kept its high-quality immersive content exclusive to its own $3,500 headset.
Shots in the new NBA All-Star video take Vision Pro owners up close to the action, including onto the court, behind-the-backboard views of dunks as well as a particularly memorable shot on the court when a ball flies directly at the camera. But as Bloomberg correspondent Mark Gurman notes, "the only thing that will matter is live. For now it’s just a gimmick."
Reporting suggests Apple may be targeting $2,000 for its next Apple Vision headset, but even now Apple is ignoring a market of potentially millions of Quest owners and even PSVR 2 and PC headset owners which are generations improved beyond the Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go headsets on which NextVR spent so much time and money live streaming NBA games.
“The all in one did what we thought it would do,” CEO David Cole told UploadVR back in 2019. “Audience size is building very helpfully right now on the back of a number of things.”
NextVR even started developing technology to start filling in occlusion gaps in its captures on the path to full 6DoF freedom for viewers. While Apple software can post-process depth onto flat still captures, the comfort and freedom to move around captured scenes still eludes even properly captured stereoscopic spatial videos captured with an Apple Vision Pro or iPhone.
A startup called Gracia, meanwhile, is using expensive 3D scanning rigs in studio settings and incredibly high download requirements to provide that full 6DoF freedom to PC-based headsets today. It remains an unsolved technical problem to close the gap between such captures and streamed recreations of a live sporting event.
In the meantime, Apple seems intent on rebuilding NextVR's legacy for its headsets with a new generation of ultra-high end cameras put in places that can give fans a better seat than anyone in the actual stands. Will a $2,000 Apple headset reach a large enough market for the tech giant to invest in the camera placements and rights to stream a full slate of live NBA games as NextVR did? Notably, the Apple TV app is available on Android and, by this time next year, there are going to be a lot of people in Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets who would love to find a seat courtside, or behind the backboard, at an NBA game alongside Apple owners.
