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NBA, NextVR Will Offer Virtual Reality Content Every Night This Season

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NextVR CEO Dave Cole chats the future of virtual reality content for the NBA. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) The NBA has expanded its partnership with NextVR to provide virtual reality content through its subscription streaming service, League Pass, every night this season. For the 2018-19 season, which kicks off on Tuesday, NextVR will feature weekly immersive 3D games. This will be in addition to the 2D streams of every League Pass game that are viewable through NextVR’s its virtual screening room, where games appear on a theater-sized screen. Other on-demand programming, such as highlights, will be available as well. This VR footage will add to  a widening array of digital options for basketball fans . Also new this year is compatibility with both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. Social features have been added to the NBA games streamed through Oculus Venues, allowing fans to watch games live alongside their friends in virtual courtside seats.
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Mammut Launches MIPS Climbing Helmet to Protect Against Rotational Impacts

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Mammut releases first-ever MIPS-integrated helmet for climbing. (Courtesy of Mammut) Outdoor equipment maker Mammut has launched a new climbing helmet that incorporates the m ulti-directional impact protection system, which is designed to reduce rotational forces during impact. While there are a number of MIPS helmets on the market today, including bike and ski helmets that climbers have adapted to their sport, Swiss-based Mammut said its Wall Rider MIPS is the world’s first MIPS-integrated helmet targeted specifically at climbing. “ As one of the oldest and most respected outdoors brands in the world, Mammut has not forgotten its history as inventor of the climbing rope, revolutionizing the way that outdoors-people perform and achieve goals and successes through the centuries, and today,” the company said in a statement. Get the latest sports tech news in your inbox. MIPS is a patented technology located inside helmets that is designed to reduce ro
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Virtual Reality Could Reduce Pain During Exercise, Extend Workouts

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Golden State Warriors teammates Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala play around with virtual reality. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Diving into virtual worlds while exercising might help to reduce pain and allow people to sustain workouts for a longer period of time, a new study shows. The research, led by Maria Matsangidou, a Ph.D. candidate at the Kent University  School of Engineering and Digital Arts in the U.K.,  set out to determine whether the subjective component of pain could be minimized if the brain were busy elsewhere in a virtual setting. The study analyzed 80 people—21 men and 59 women with an average age of 23 years—as they performed isometric bicep exercises. First, they were asked to stand with their backs straight against the wall, with their elbows and wrist joints at a 180-degree angle. They were then asked to bicep curl a dumbbell through a full range of motion. Weight was added until the participant was no longer able to perform
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The PGA Tour and Microsoft Work Together to Enhance Golf Broadcasts

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podcast jason b morrell Subscribe to the SportTechie Podcast TuneIn  |  iTunes  |  Soundcloud  |  Stitcher Alex Turnbull, director of broadcast production at the PGA Tour, and Mike Downey, principal evangelist for sports and entertainment at Microsoft, joined Bram on the SportTechie podcast to talk about golf’s new content relevancy engine. The CRE was built by Microsoft for the PGA Tour, and uses artificial intelligence to help broadcasters automatically find statistics and content to enhance their coverage. “Essentially there is an opportunity for us to take the burden off of both our employees and our broadcasters covering the sport. And that’s where we began working with Microsoft,” Turnbull said. “And we’re looking for ways where we could apply automation, apply logic, apply artificial intelligence to surface relevant statistical information and present that to our fans and our viewers and players to make an otherwise mundane situation dramati
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How NFL Teams Are Supporting Communities and Saving Dollars by Eliminating Food Waste

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Dante Pettis of the San Francisco 49ers runs onto the field for his team's Sept. 16 game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium, the first game that Copia started collecting food waste from stadium restaurants. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) NFL players are used to seeing high-quality protein-rich food in their cafeterias, served up as nourishment to help them prepare for or recover from games and practice. A juicy steak. A lean grilled chicken breast. Roasted potatoes and vegetables. But what happens to the food that goes untouched? Historically, that has ended up in the trash. For-profit company Copia is working to change that. The technology company reduces food waste by picking up untouched food from places such as NFL stadiums, offices, cafeterias, events, and restaurants and delivering it to non-profit organizations and shelters. Copia’s platform enables nonprofits to create profiles and make requests for food donations, while its algorithm ma
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Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena Installs Electric Vehicle Battery Energy Storage

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General view of the Johan Cruijff Arena, also known as the Amsterdam Arena. (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images) The home of Dutch soccer powerhouse Ajax, the Johan Cruijff Arena, has now become a powerhouse in its own right. The venue is now the site of Europe’s largest commercial energy storage system based on electric vehicle batteries. The arena hosts a three-megawatt storage system, the equivalent of 148 new or secondhand Nissan LEAF batteries. There are also 4,200 solar panels installed at the Johan Cruijff Arena, and much of the energy they collect can be stored as back-up power or supplementary power, making the stadium as sustainable as possible. The World Economic Forum  notes that together the batteries can now store enough energy to charge 500,000 iPhones or supply 7,000 households in Amsterdam for one hour. When the stadium’s energy needs are low, its power system can even add to the area grid. (Johan Cruijff Arena is also known as Amsterdam Arena
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