For soccer fans, it can be difficult trying to root for a European club team, knowing that unless you take a very nice vacation, move to Europe or have your favorite team come to America for a lackluster warmup game, you’ll never have the opportunity to watch your club in person.
However, the English Premier Legue announced a new technology they’re working on to enhance the viewing experience of soccer games for fans around the world, according to ESPN.com.
“There’s been a step-change from standard definition to high definition in terms of how people consume football,” Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore told ESPN.com. “3-D is coming along and there have been all these new devices coming on to the scene. There’ll soon be a technological development that will allow people across the world to have a much richer type of experience in terms of watching and consuming football.”
With the rise of 3-D televisions and movies, the EPL has decided to focus its time and effort on this new technology, rather than trying to bring a 39th EPL game abroad. Scudamore believes the technology is only “two to five years away,” and will give off the idea that you are actually there.
“There’s immersion technology being developed right now where you can sit down with headphones and a screen in front of you, and reproduce the feeling of being in a stadium,” Scudamore said. “If you turn your head one way you’re looking at the left-hand goal and the other way you’re looking at the right-hand goal.
“You’ll be able to decide where you want to be: you could be on a Saturday at 3 p.m., English time, in Hong Kong deciding whether you want to be on the Kop end at Anfield or the Holte End at Aston Villa. There’ll be a drop down menu and you’ll be able to choose where you want to be and watch the game.
“It’ll be like an Avatar type of thing available in your own home. It might sound pie in the sky, but it’s not.”
Now, if only they would get goal-line technology squared away.
