In General XR News
November 8, 2022 – Sony Corporation has announced the recently completed acquisition of Beyond Sports and has welcomed the company into Sony Corporation’s sports business.
Beyond Sports will operate alongside Hawk-Eye and Pulselive as part of Sony’s sports business. Sony stated that the addition of Beyond Sports to the group will form a key pillar in providing Sony’s clients with end-to-end services in the sports data and tech space.
Beyond Sports provides a visualization engine that enables real-time sports engagement solutions on any platform or content outlet, allowing sporting brands and broadcasters to engage with audiences outside of traditional channels, and to take full advantage of what virtual worlds and metaverses can offer. The company’s suite of products and services cover and power a multitude of B2B and B2C applications that involve the analysis and visualization of positional player tracking data.
The company also offers its own custom 3D environments, which create a variety of possibilities for target sports audiences in the metaverse. Examples of the company’s work include its partnership with Nickelodeon, CBS and Next Gen Stats which saw the company stream the NFL Wildcard Game in ‘Blocky style’. This resulted in unique footage that both existing and new fans had never seen before. The whole broadcast as well as the live graphic design was awarded a Sports Emmy in 2021 as a result.
Beyond Sports technology is already being used by big names in the sports industry and the company boasts leading sports clients that include ESPN, Sky Sports, NFL, Premier League, DFB, KNVB, MLS, NHL, beIN SPORTS, and the NBA.
Sony stated that the Beyond Sports team brings with them an additional layer of data expertise to the group, particularly with regard to human movement sciences and modular yet scalable applications. Beyond Sport’s proprietary engine will help to accelerate Sony’s collective efforts in making three dimensional visualizations and applications available to rights holders and fans, according to Sony.
Plus, Beyond Sports’ efforts are platform agnostic, meaning that any output format is ready to be used instantly, from traditional TV to fully immersive mixed reality headsets – something that Sony believes positions Beyond Sports as the gateway to (live) sports in the metaverse.
Hiroshi Kawano, Corporate Executive, Executive Vice President of Sony Corporation stated: “We are confident that the acquisition of Beyond Sports will further strengthen our sports business to realize new sports entertainment bridging live and virtual worlds. By maximizing Beyond Sports’ technology and expertise, we aim to create new sports entertainment experiences that unlock the power and emotion of sports.”
Rufus Hack, CEO of Hawk-Eye & Pulselive stated: “We are delighted to welcome Beyond Sports as we further strengthen Sony’s sports business. We feel that marrying the unique capabilities of Beyond Sports alongside the incredible businesses of Hawk-Eye and Pulselive will truly enhance our ambition to be a strategic partner to the world’s biggest sports leagues.”
Hack continued, “Beyond Sports has an incredible reputation in the sports industry for delivering world class data and using that data to create new and immersive sports content experiences. We are excited to continue to build out the breadth and distinctiveness of our capabilities and feel the data tracking expertise of Hawk-Eye paired with the data visualization expertise of Beyond Sport will be a winning combination for our clients.”
Finally, Sander Schouten, Beyond Sports’ CEO & Co-Founder, said: “Our vision at Beyond Sports has always been to challenge the status quo when it comes to sports data, data visualization and sports content consumption, and we will keep on doing so for the benefit of everyone involved. We believe that we can accelerate that process alongside the existing businesses, to fully utilize the combined potential and cater to the needs of the new generation of sports fans.”
For more information on Beyond Sports and its real-time sports engagement solutions for the metaverse, please visit the company’s website.
Image / video credit: Sony Corporation / Beyond Sports / Vimeo
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.