When the Sacramento Kings hosted the Los Angeles Lakers last Saturday, 20 lucky fans experienced the game as if they had been courtside, thanks to Verizon. The event marked the first time a U.S. professional sports team used 5G to deliver a live, in-game 360 VR experience to fans.
A group of young fans were selected from local educational organizations—the Men’s and Women’s Leadership Academy, and College Track Sacramento—and invited to the Kings’ esports training facility at Golden 1 Center arena. Verizon set up a courtside camera at the scorer’s table to capture the game and stream live footage over a 5G connection, giving the fans wearing VR headsets an experience that made some of them try to wave to players on the court.