Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City supporters will be able to experience the biggest match moments from every angle
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In 2018 alone, technology investments in sports reached nearly $1 billion, but the industry is far from immune to disruption as consumer behaviour is shifting among sports fans too. This is driving technology, leagues and brands to look at new ways to meet the expectations of supporters for more powerful, meaningful, and emotional experiences, and immersive technologies are an ideal fit for delivering that.

“Imagine watching a season-defining moment, then reliving it from any angle including from the perspective of your favourite player as they run up to take a penalty or make an improbable goal-line clearance.” That is the promise that Intel’s latest partnership is selling to Premiere League fans of three of the most popular clubs in Football (or soccer if you’re American)

From March 10^th, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City supporters will be able to experience the biggest match moments from every angle, whether they’re watching a live broadcast and highlights or reliving post-match from their clubs’ official website, mobile app or social media.

Sports tech investment reached $1 billion in 2018
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Intel True View will highlight the immersive experiences unique to the style and skill of football
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The feature will be delivered with Intel’s True View technology, which will be rolled out Emirates, Anfield and the Etihad Stadium. It will include a “Laser wall” – a virtual plane giving viewers a clear picture as to where players are positioned on the pitch – and a “Be the player” capability which freezes a particular moment in the match so you can see the pitch from the eyes of a particular player. This last one promises to be not only fun for the fans, but also presents tantalizing possibilities for commentators and even referees, as it gives you unique insight into tactics, decisions, and play outcomes.

“Intel True View enables fans to immerse themselves even further into the game and has the power to add a new depth to match highlights, which can significantly improve the supporter experience. This technology has the potential to add a new dynamic to how people interact with the game and create different conversations with our fans around the world,” explains Billy Hogan, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer, Liverpool FC.

The process uses volumetric capture whereby footage is recorded from 38 5K ultra-high-definition cameras that includes height, width and depth of data to produce what are called voxels (pixels with volume). After this content is captured, huge amounts of data is processed with servers powered by Intel Core i7 and Intel Xeon processors. The software then re-creates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D person or object, and the information is rendered into a virtual 3D environment where you can experience all the plays and angles with 6 degrees of freedom. This will re-create the action on the pitch and present it to fans from various vantage points – effectively allowing fans to choose the point of view from which they want to experience a particular play.

Intel’s True View technology will be rolled out Emirates, Anfield and the Etihad Stadiums
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“With dedicated supporters across the globe, football fans are passionate about the tactics as much as the goals scored, and Intel True View will highlight the immersive experiences unique to the style and skill of football,” says James Carwana, Vice President and General Manager of Intel Sports, who believes the technology has the potential to transform the experience for fans of the beautiful game: “Immersive media experiences continue to create more opportunities for sports teams and leagues to put the fan experience first,” he adds.

The fact that three of the biggest names in the world’s most popular sport are on board with this shows how major sports brands are getting wise to the power of immersive technologies to engage their fans in new ways.

“We have seen the impact this Intel technology has had in other sports leagues across the world and are excited that it will be installed at Emirates Stadium,” says Peter Silverstone, Commercial Director of Arsenal FC, which has a staggering 780 million fans around the world. “This partnership will give our fans a whole new view of the game, as the technology effectively allows a supporter to step into the boots of players and see the game from their perspective”.

This article originally appeared on VRScout

Intel’s ‘True View’ Puts Fans In the Boots Of Their Favorite Footballers via @alicebonasio https://t.co/x8aa9PYecf pic.twitter.com/Sh5RY1hMpP

— VRScout (@VRScout) February 12, 2019

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Immersing Yourself in the Beautiful Game appeared first on Tech Trends.

Like Deckard in Blade Runner; I am in love with a machine and I just don’t care!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna. She was over £7k of laptop and I was a drooling geek, palms sweaty at the prospect of an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 server processor, Nvidia Quadro P5000 and a Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD. My shaking hands slowly peeled off her cardboard clothes, plugged her straight into the mains and turned myself on 😉 So how was it? Well, it was sweet while it lasted but she soon left me and drove away with the same cheeky UPS driver!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna
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Check out the Specs below:

• Windows 10 Professional (x64)
• 17.3″ UHD IPS Narrow Border (3840×2160) Wide View with Web Camera and Mic
• Intel Xeon E3-1545M v5 (Quad Core Xeon 2.90GHz, 3.80GHz Turbo, 8MB 45W, w/Iris Pro Graphics P580)
• 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Class 40 MPWS
• 64GB, 4x16GB, 2400MHz DDR4 Non-ECC SDRAM
• NVIDIA Quadro P5000 w/16GB GDDR5 + Onboard Intel(R) HD Graphics P630
• Palm Rest with touch fingerprint reader, smart card and NFC
• 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery

It is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful
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Obviously, any laptop packing this kind of heat is going to be rather big and not a ‘pop in your bag and take to a meeting’ kind of computer:

Height: (front) 1.12″ (28.5mm) Height: (rear) 1.36″ (34.49mm) | 2. Width: 16.42″ (417.04mm) | 3. Depth: 11.08″ (281.44mm) Weight: (starts at) 7.55lbs (3.42kg) You can see that it is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful. Should you take it out and about though, the soft-touch, tough-looking carbon fibre shell is very sturdy and as Dell claims,

The brilliantly designed chassis is subjected to and passes MIL-STD 810G testing, ensuring durability and reliability for wherever your job takes you.

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the UltraSharp UHD (3840×2160) screen on my test unit an essential option, but for when 4K is not enough there is an HDMI 1.4 out and mini DisplayPort 1.4 out that supports third-party screens of up to 8K!

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the Ultra Sharp UHD (3840x2160) screen on my test unit an essential option
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The keyboard is really quite nice to use, with a pleasingly soft key feel and minimal travel, but I don’t think it will see much action as this is not a machine for writing. Disappointingly the touchpad is a miserable flash back to the 90’s and is basically useless, truly awful! However this would only be a real issue if users planned to move the 7720 around like a notebook on a daily basis, but it’s just not that kind of machine. Creative power users working on video, graphics or VR dev jobs will most probably plug in a mouse or pen and tablet for controlled cursor control and happily bypass the build-in touchpad altogether.

As you would expect on a gargantuan beast like the 7720 connectivity is excellent. Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology for charging peripherals, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.2 will get you further connected and a side-mounted SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II port will gobble up all your digital media. The 7720 also sports dual, integrated, noise-cancelling, digital array microphones, and stereo speakers powered by Waves MaxxAudio Pro plus has a good old headphone jack to boot!

Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket, plus an SDXC UHS-II port, 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 will get you connected
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As usual, there are a few bundled pieces of software, some useless like Candy Crush Soda Saga (why?!) but the Dell Optimizer 4.0 app might actually be one of the rare useful ones.

The Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 takes the guesswork out of customizing settings and automatically adjusts them. It automatically tunes your workstation to run the most popular Independent Software Vendor (ISV) applications at the fastest speeds possible for the fastest results. Featuring enterprise smart alerts for processor, storage, memory, and graphics utilization all in an elegant, new UI.

Seven hours, real-world battery life is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation-level laptop I have used
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When not on mains power the 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery kept me going for a solid seven hours of video editing and a little light rendering. This is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation level laptop I have used. I would normally expect no more than four hours of serious use on battery power, but I’d recommend staying glued to the mains for any serious rendering as the 7720 is a real monster and gets pretty hot under load. As workstation classification demands cooling is taken seriously and Dell have done a good job, the fans are not too loud and are quite effective at cooling it down during render-heavy tasks.

Dell’s patented 5th generation dual cooling fans provide a brilliant approach to thermal cooling, taking performance and comfort to levels never before seen on a task-intensive laptop. No matter how high-powered your project, your processing and graphical applications will work within turbo frequencies and your system will stay cool.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out of your machine. I didn’t test the fingerprint reader on my sample but it looks the business and is placed nicely, out of the way in the right corner.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out
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VR is our specialist area here at Tech Trends so I was very happy to see the 7720 claims to be VR-ready. That is quite a claim so I plugged in Dell’s own excellent Windows Mixed Reality Visor Headset, hooked up the accompanying Bluetooth handsets and gave it a spin. I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun. There was no lag or judder and the hand controls were super fast. Yes, I was using the top spec version of the 7720 and am sure that less well-speced versions might not be as slick with VR so users would need to make sure they choose the appropriate VR-capable options for maximum graphics and processor power.

I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into VR, standing in the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun
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Get the best of work and play. Dell’s first VR-ready mobile workstation is optimized for gaming and content creation in addition to all your mainstream professional ISV applications. It’s so powerful it can handle complex VR work flows—so you can game or create in immersive virtual reality.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU built on NVIDIA Pascal GPU technology and with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory, it does an incredible job with VR and pretty much any resource-heavy, VR, 3D graphics or 4K video editing jobs you throw at it. It gave a smooth and faultless user experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory. It does an incredible job with VR, giving a smooth and faultless experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications
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Now we come to the negative, as yes, there was one thing that caused me serious annoyance with the 7720. It was slow. What!! I hear you scream, how can a machine with specs like these be slow? Well, I wondered this too, and can only place the blame on the slow speed, low cost, Samsung M.2 SSD and its drivers. Windows 10 was just sluggish, opening browsers, folders and utilities took two to three seconds and I felt like I was wading through treacle.

Try as I could, I couldn’t find newer M.2 drivers online to test my theory so I can’t really be sure what the problem was and the bundled Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 was no help. This issue didn’t totally undermine the power and usability of the 7720 and didn’t affect VR at all but irritated me to the point of screaming at it while I waited for new windows to open and Win10 to do basic tasks. I am sure a service call to Dell and some fiddling around with drivers would fix this but for £7k+ I expected lightning speed out of the box and I didn’t get it. I am sure this is just a glitch so can’t hold it against the 7720 which overall is an incredible workstation and well worth the price tag for creative professionals working in cutting-edge Graphics, Video or VR.

RRP: £7263 on Dell UK

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Product Review: Dell Precision 7720 Mobile Workstation appeared first on Tech Trends.

The epic WW2 battle is brought to life in Virtual Reality to promote Christopher Nolan’s latest film.

Intel and Warner Brothers teamed up in advance of the Dunkirk film release to make a free Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) that promises to immerse audiences in one of the most iconic moments of World War Two. The VRE thrusts you into each of the film’s three perspectives – land, sea and air – as you’re presented with content in high-resolution 360-degree video recreating the pivotal World War II Battle.

The Virtual Reality Experience immerses you in one of the most iconic WW2 battles
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Available on Vive, Oculus and other VR platforms, it was produced in a partnership between WB Studios and and VR production firm Practical Magic using Intel Hardware and Software.

This latest VRE is available on Vive, Oculus and other VR platforms
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The challenge was in stitching together high fidelity content at nearly 40 times larger 2D
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Yet delivering such Hollywood-grade immersive experiences demanded not only massive amounts of computing power, but also new sensing and capturing technologies in both the PC and cloud, premium content access, and huge amounts of data flow. Furthermore, rendering this type of Virtual Reality experience also requires extremely high bandwidth and agile processing solutions, explains Intel’s Global Brand & Innovation Communication Manager, Nicole Smith:

“When we worked with Practical Magic to create this VRE, the challenge was in stitching together high fidelity content which was nearly 40 times larger than typical 2D filmmaking,” she says. “As these bandwidth demands rise for more immersive experiences in VR, we’re similarly raising the standards for the backend hardware.” Despite the long list of technical challenges, the team managed to produce the Dunkirk experience in just 40 days.

Working with high-fidelity content throughout the pipeline, visual effects artists used Intel networking to increase the speed of the SAN, serving 10GbE to every workstation. The Intel architecture-based technologies talking to Dell Precision workstations enhanced compositing and stitching workflows by providing real-time access to high-resolution media throughout the post-production process.

The Dunkirk VR experience was put together in just 40 days
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In the typical post-production process for these types of immersive experiences, workflows would be optimised for standard HD and 4K media. But with the intensive scope of the Dunkirk VRE, production teams worked at nearly 40 times that resolution. The computing demands of this process required every workstation, blade server, network card, video card, software stack and storage array to perform at optimal efficiency. If the systems respond slowly, or malfunction, artists become frustrated, costs increase and valuable time is lost.

Practical Magic therefore created what Intel describes as a this “new benchmark” by harnessing Dell M1000E blade servers built with Intel Xeon processors to create real-time, low-latency stitching of the high-resolution media. The Intel Xeon cores within these blade servers conducted threaded rendering, while a separate render farm on Intel Core i7 6700K CPUs was leveraged for single thread/core rendering.

“The production demands behind the Dunkirk VRE required best-in-class equipment, software and techniques to push the boundaries of virtual reality technology and satisfy the creative requirements and timelines of one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers,” Smith concluded.

Intel has been increasingly focusing on technologies enabling the development of cutting-edge immersive experiences to worldwide audiences, working with established content creators such as A.R. Rahman as well as up-and-comers like Eliza McNitt. Most recently they also partnered with Sony Pictures to develop a VRE for the Spiderman: Homecoming film release, and that trend of enhancing and amplifying the cinematic experience through Virtual Reality seems set to continue, specially as more people acquire VR headsets and can comfortably experience them at home.

Intel is focusing on enabling cutting-edge immersive experiences
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Dunkirk will be released in Theatres on July 21st 2017

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Experiencing Dunkirk in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

You can now experience what it’s like to swing across New York as Spider-Man himself with a free VR experience created by Sony Pictures and Intel

VR and Spidey do seem like a perfect match
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I always get excited about a new Marvel film coming out. For the Stan Lee cameo if nothing else! But I have liked many of the Spider-Man films the studio has brought out over the years, so I’m curious to see what the latest instalment – Spider-Man: Homecoming will bring.

It's always exciting to see a new Marvel film, if only for the Stan Lee cameo
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To wet our appetites during the build-up to the film’s release Sony Pictures created a free Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) which was showcased in the US across selected Cinemark locations as well as various events worldwide. But if you have a PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift you can now also try it out in the comfort of your own home. Just be sure to move the furniture out of the way first!

This companion piece to the Columbia Pictures feature lets you suit up as Spider-Man, hone your web-shooting skills, and sling high above New York City in pursuit of the Vulture. To create this VRE, developers utilized Intel hardware and software to create a fully immersive experience.

Intel sees VR as the jumping point to more immersive experiences
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According to Nicole Smith, Global Brand & Innovation Communications Manager at Intel, the company sees Virtual Reality as the jumping point (pun intended?) to more immersive experiences. The technology, they believe, will evolve to make use of next-generation sensing and digitizing technologies and will eventually include physical and virtual interactions within the same environment.

“Personal computing is radically evolving to become capable of experiences hardly believable today, and Virtual Reality’s highly sensory and immersive nature is central to that evolution. This collaboration is a first for Intel and Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, starting a new era in Intel/Hollywood VR production partnerships using premium cinema content,” said Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the Intel Software and Services Group. “Together with our silicon, the pervasive power of the Intel software ecosystem offers VR content and game developers the opportunity to create fully immersive experiences that bring the next evolution of compute to mainstream audiences. We are excited to be a part of this blockbuster partnership,” he concluded

Here’s the low-down of the tech used to create the experience, which you can also check out in the trailer.

Boosted by Intel hardware technology and software tools, the award-winning developers at CreateVR* used dual Intel® Xeon® processor-based Dell* workstations to quickly create and render 360-degree, ultra-high-resolution graphics of New York. The premium version of the superhero feature was best realized with the performance of the instruction architecture of the latest Intel® Core processors for ultra-high-resolution content streaming content streaming, encoding and video playback, while Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers were used for better visual fidelity, higher-resolution and higher frame rates. In addition, Intel® Threading Building Blocks helped developers leverage Intel multi-core performance and heterogeneous computing.

The developers used a variety of Intel-optimized software, including Adobe*, Allegorithmic*, Autodesk*, Epic Games*, Mettle*, Pixlogic* and The Foundry* for authoring, digital sculpting, rendering and production, to deliver amazing performance and realism in the VR experience.

“Virtual reality experiences demand PCs with powerful computing performance—and that is where Intel technology excels; in fact, Intel processors are recommended by leading PC-based virtual reality vendors, including Microsoft, HTC Vive, Oculus, and others. Intel also has many technology assets that can improve the VR experience. A great example of this is Intel’s WiGig technology, which HTC announced they will integrate into an accessory for the Vive,” says Smith “Intel is deeply committed and involved with virtual reality development and innovation– one of the most exciting new immersive technologies in a decade. VR spans business and consumer uses as well as mobile, wearable, desktop and server platforms.”

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Virtual Reality Lets you Become Spidey appeared first on Tech Trends.