Dive deeper into the lives of baseball’s biggest up-and-comers in the new “On the Verge” 360° series
2017 is basically becoming the year of VR for Major league baseball. The association has already partnered with Google to create the MLB At Bat VR experience for the Daydream platform earlier this year, as well as the MLB Homerun Derby VR game. Now the organization is digging even deeper into VR with a brand new 360° video series that gives you a behind-the-scenes tour of some of MLB’s brightest young athletes.
Available now via the MLB At Bat app for Daydream, On the Verge takes you onto the field, through the clubhouse and into the batting cages as you follow some of the games most talented young stars like Josh Bell of the Pittsburg Pirates, Mookie Betts of the Boston Red Sox, Manuel Margot of the San Diego Padres and Jose Berrios of the Minnesota Twins. And these are just the subjects of the first four episodes, with more videos featuring other players planned to release during key moments of the MLB season.
“We worked closely with MLB to tell these stories from a new perspective amidst unique access points around ballparks with Jump, Google’s platform for VR video capture that combines high-quality VR cameras and automated stitching,” Google stated in their official release. “Because the Jump cameras don’t take up a ton of space, it allowed MLB to capture memorable moments on and off the field, ultimately producing fun stories of what it’s like to be big leaguers.”
Jump technology is responsible for a wide selection of other various high quality content such as Within’s The Possible Series, The New York Times’ Great Performers Collection and Wevr’s Internet Surfer video.
You can download the free MLB At Bat app for Google Daydream to watch the first four episodes now. However, if you’re looking to take advantage of the other features within the app, you’ll need to log in using your MLB.TV Premium info or sign up for a plan.
Don’t have a Daydream supported phone? No problem! You can use the Google Cardboard headset to check out the same 360° content on MLB’s official YouTube account that will become available in the near future.
Having visited the MLB headquarters in NY and checked out the MLB At Bat app earlier this year, it’s thrilling to see the organization keep it’s promise of supporting and expanding it’s on demand VR video content, not just focusing entirely on the live streaming and real-time stat updates featured in the paid experiences. My first encounter with the application was nothing short of captivating. I was surprised by the amount of time I could potentially see myself spending within the program uninterrupted.
I’ve since utilized the application on multiple occasions from watching live games, to recapping the weeks past events and highlights. Hopefully others see the value in this venture as much as I do and continue to support the multifaceted experience. Who knows, with enough success we could possibly see other franchises from other sports hop on board the bandwagon as well.
