Deltatre Partners With Nokia, LiveLike to Expand VR in Live Sports

Deltatre, recently acquired by Bruin Sports Capital, is stepping up its plan for VR and 360 coverage of sports events, building on the early success of what was delivered this summer for major European football tournaments and competitions.

Deltatre VR and 360 offering is an end-to-end solution from production to workflow to end-user’s apps which integrates a mix of immersive and standard, live, and VOD content into an engaging VR consumer model.

Working with Nokia, Deltatre utilized the single-body, purpose-built OZO camera and the recently announced OZO Live solution to capture and deliver broadcast-quality, live 3D 360 VR video.

“There is a growing interest in alternative ways to bring sporting events to fans, and VR / 360 is one of the most disrupting attempts we have seen so far,” says Carlo De Marchis Chief Product & Marketing Officer. “This innovation has a lot of potential and Deltatre is at the center of it, as we have been for the last 30 years with each key transformation in sport.”

“Together, Deltatre and Nokia are offering sports leagues an end to end VR platform that enables amazing, immersive VR experiences to audiences worldwide,” says Tarif Sayed, Nokia’s Head of VR Technologies. “Now, people can sit courtside with their favourite team or see views from around a stadium without ever having to leave their couch.”

“Integrating Nokia OZO and OZO Live into our live digital sport production was straight forward and performed in an impressive time to market. With the live full end to end B2B trials behind us, we are now moving forward extending our fleet to make it VR/360 production ready.  In parallel, our R&D is improving the end user experience we have created, key to our white label offering to federations, broadcasters and end users adoption rate,” adds Gilles Mas, Managing Director International Football at Deltatre.

Deltatre has also partnered with LiveLike to jointly pursue opportunities to provide digital front-end services for major global sporting events. The collaboration will produce and distribute comprehensive, best-in-class digital and virtual reality solutions, combining the strengths of Deltatre and LiveLike respectively.

The two companies will collaborate on the development of a multi-platform VR application, including Samsung Gear VR (Oculus) and mobile-based experiences, tailored for broadcasting the most important football tournaments over the next few years. The collaboration will extend to other sports and build on both companies’ expertise in live productions.

“With the shared goal of crafting a game-changing experience for sports fans, we are partnering with LiveLike in the newest asset of our wide range of Digital Host Services. Along with the rise of OTT, virtual reality is a strategic area we plan to innovate in moving forward,” says Deltatre’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer Carlo De Marchis.

“Our combined production and development of VR experiences at live events are going to complement each other and will enable us to jointly provide innovative solutions for multiplatform coverage of major sporting events,” says Gilles Mas, Managing Director International Football at Deltatre.

Miheer Walavalkar, Chief Business Officer at LiveLike, says, “We are combining the best aspects of a LiveLike broadcast, including our trademark ‘VR Suite’, with Deltatre’s expertise in next-generation digital services. Together, we will further elevate live VR sports broadcasting and provide fans an experience that they’ve never seen before.”

Both LiveLike and Deltatre support rights holders and owners in delivering multi-dimensional and multi-platform sports coverage. Services provided range from live streaming technology, website design, and mobile applications.

Both companies have significant experience working with the world’s largest sports leagues and brands, including FIFA, UEFA, Copa America, the English Premier League, Bundesliga, French Open, and the ATP World Tour.