So It’s Come To This: NFL FanVision Means that you can Watch Football, While Watching Football [Video]

Sep 22nd 2010
No Comments
respond
trackback

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

So Its Come To This: NFL FanVision Means that you can Watch Football, While Watching Football [Video] Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, wants to place a streaming video device within the hand of every NFL fan, broadcasting live footage of the game you simply paid to attend . So why bother going at all?

The device, called FanCast, streams video to a 4″ screen, allowing you to observe out of town games-or the only you’ll be seeing, when you just looked up. Twelve other teams are on board to distribute the players to fans, banking of Ross’ assertion that ” Technology for the fan at home is so good-with large-screen HD sets-that I must give a smarter experience to the fan to come back out.”

I’m at a loss to work out what component of that is smart. The power to look at an HD broadcast of your favorite teams from home is a godsend, in fact. But the excitement of live sports-the spectacle!-is something else entirely. It’s an occasion. You boo, you drain inordinately expensive beers-you watch actual people. Ross thinks this isn’t enough.

But if, for some reason, the thrill of really attending a stadium game isn’t cutting it for you, will a dinky 4″ screen really transform the experience? At that point, why not just stay home? Ross would counter, I might imagine, that football fans want access to multiple games-plus alternate camera angles and stats-wherever they’re. But this just feels like more sad evidence of our inability to keep our faces faraway from LCD screens .

Technology has enhanced sports-without doubt about that. Dazzling jumbotrons, impeccable slow-motion camera work, and, after all , the aforementioned HD home viewing experience. But the notion of watching football from within a football stadium feels like a case of a bored billionaire with a nasty idea. I stay up for an enlightened new era of attending concerts with earbuds jammed in, or bringing my laptop to the movie theater so I will be able to atone for Mad Men. [ NY Times ]

Source