{"id":10231,"date":"2020-09-22T09:28:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T07:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.laval-virtual.com\/?p=10231"},"modified":"2020-09-22T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T13:44:06","slug":"immersive-technologies-are-part-of-the-future-of-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.laval-virtual.com\/en\/immersive-technologies-are-part-of-the-future-of-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cImmersive technologies are part of the future of sport\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 17th, sports and virtual reality<\/a> experts gathered in the Laval Virtual World<\/a> for the Laval Virtual Days Sport. It was the first time this theme was selected, but the timing to raise new questions was ideal. Indeed, the health crisis has had a serious impact on sports. Major events like the Olympics were canceled, sports halls were closed and professional athletes were forced to stay at home. How have immersive technologies made a big difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When innovation meets sports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The health crisis has accelerated the transformation of the way we do, watch and experience sport. “The world of sport is moving forward<\/em><\/strong>, and immersive technologies are part of this future<\/em>”, Marie Leblanc introduced this Laval Virtual Days Sport. This event was organized in partnership with Sport Unlimitech<\/a>. According to the words of its CEO, Yoann Duval, “Sport Unlimitech is a platform that helps innovation and sports to meet.<\/em>”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport Unlimitech wants to help the sports ecosystem, mostly in France, to get back on its feet after the “worst crisis of its history<\/em>”, declares Damien Jacquart, Marketing & Business Development Manager at Union Sport & Cycle<\/a>. The organization truly believes that “innovation will be the key to the future of sport<\/em>”, just like Frédéric Michalak, its president. He explains that they will travel all around France in 2021 to meet the local ecosystem and try to offer opportunities, especially new markets including immersive technologies and virtual reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CREPS (Resource, Expertise and Sports Performance Centre) is also an important structure in sport, which also trusts in the possibilities of immersive technologies. Audrey Reygade, CEO of CREPS Pays-de-la-Loire<\/a>, explains that they want to become the main actor of virtual reality and sports. For that, they decided to investigate these emerging topics and opened three commissions: performance, training and sport health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ambition shared by INSEP<\/a>, the National Institute of Sports. According to Bertrand Daille, Assistant Head of Performance Department, 50% of Olympic medallists are INSEP-trained athletes. INSEP is proud of this statistic, and benefits from funds given by the government to all research institutes so that they can conduct research projects about performance. The goal is clear: help athletes go to Paris 2024. Innovation seems to be the key to gold results<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New fans experience outside of the stadium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“We noticed that we have different use cases for live and fan experience, especially after the lockdown. A lot of brands tried to make sports alive.<\/em>” That’s the analysis of Marie Leblanc, Head of Services<\/a> at Laval Virtual and part of the monitoring department. Her team goes over 4,000 articles each week and selects the best news for the readers. And sport<\/a> is one of the business fields that have come up a lot the past few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international lockdown made it impossible for people to attend sporting events around the world. A disappointment for fans, millions of whom go to football, rugby, tennis, athletics stadium each year to support their favorite team. Immersive technologies appeared as a solution to offer fans a new experience <\/strong>despite the lockdown. These immersive tools will be very useful in the next months since stadiums cannot be filled entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Cepisul, Project Manager at Immersiv.io<\/a>, presented an experience using augmented reality<\/a> to offer fans another way to enjoy a game. “At Immersiv.io, we are all huge sports fans and we are convinced that augmented reality will be part of our everyday life.<\/em>” Immersiv.io developed a solution that combines AR, 5G and artificial intelligence<\/a>. The application generates digital elements with data about the players or the game. This experience can be lived at home, which is very convenient right now: “We understood the importance of keeping and creating a strong long-distance relationship between the teams and the fans during these very specific times. Sports professionals must embrace technologies to meet these new days expectations.<\/em>”<\/p>\n\n\n\n