By James Carwana

Sports is being revolutionized by data and the ability to capture, connect, analyze and interact with it. We call this the digitization of sports. At Intel, we’re building a broad portfolio of best-in-class solutions to deliver new, immersive sports experiences for athletes, fans and content producers.

We’ve had a blast this year giving fans and broadcasters a new data-driven perspective on sports at events like the X-Games in Aspen and the NBA All-Star Weekend. More recently, we formalized our efforts and created a new business unit, Intel Sports, which includes the talented freeD™ technology team who joined Intel with our Replay acquisition. We’re making great progress bringing innovative technology and amazing experiences to the world of sports, but there’s more to come.

Virtual reality (VR), or what Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has stated as “merged” reality, is an important building block for delivering a truly immersive sports experience, one that uses computing power to deliver virtual-world experiences more dynamically and naturally than ever before. Imagine being able to witness a slam dunk from the defender’s perspective or the defensive rush from the quarterback’s perspective. This kind of experience may sound futuristic, but it’s closer than you think.

To accelerate our efforts, we’re proud to announce that Intel is acquiring VOKE, a leader in bringing live, virtual reality experiences to audiences. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, VOKE’s technology lets fans be where the action is without ever leaving their living rooms. The VOKE TrueVR™ experience is:

Realistic and immersive: VOKE’s proprietary paired lens, stereoscopic capture system provides a natural view of the action, allowing fans to see realistic proportions and depth wherever they look.

VOKE’s proprietary paired lens, stereoscopic capture system provides a natural view of the action, allowing fans to see realistic proportions and depth wherever they look. Multiplatform: Users can access the experience from any device they choose (PC, tablet, phone and VR headset).

Users can access the experience from any device they choose (PC, tablet, phone and VR headset). Broadcaster-friendly: VOKE’s model echoes Intel’s enabling strategy for an end-to-end solution that easily integrates into existing broadcaster and league channels.

The VOKE team brings more than 20 years of VR expertise, and they’ve captured the attention and the imagination of broadcasters, leagues and teams with their technology and what’s possible.

Together, we can innovate and scale our new immersive sports business faster to bring fans the most personalized, fully immersive VR experience ever imagined and change the way networks, sports leagues and teams engage with their audiences.

James Carwana is the General Manager of the Intel Sports Group.