An Apple Immersive Video documentary about Real Madrid is coming next year, “with a level of access that fans have never experienced before”.
If you’re an American reading this who doesn’t know much about what you call “soccer”, here’s some context: Real Madrid is one of the most successful football clubs of all time, and has signed some of the best players of all time, including both Ronaldos, Zinedine Zidane, and David Beckham. In the year 2000, FIFA even officially declared Real Madrid “Club of the Century”.
Today, Real Madrid and Apple confirmed work on an Apple Immersive Video documentary about the club, captured during last month’s Champions League match against Juventus.
What Is Apple Immersive Video?
The Apple Immersive Video format is 180° stereoscopic 3D video with 4K×4K per-eye resolution, 90FPS, high dynamic range (HDR), and spatial audio. It’s typically served with higher bitrate than many other immersive video platforms.
We highly praised Apple Immersive Video in our Vision Pro review. It’s not possible to cast or record Apple Immersive Video though, so you’ll have to take our word for it unless you have access to a Vision Pro.
Apple says the documentary was filmed using over 30 Blackmagic immersive cameras, and “brings viewers inside the world’s most decorated club, capturing moments from practice to the pitch with a level of access that fans have never experienced before.”
In an interview with GQ Spain, Real Madrid’s president Florentino Pérez described the documentary as just the beginning of a long-term plan to connect the club’s “billion” strong global fanbase to the stadium using technology. He references the “Infinite Bernabéu”, an idea he has floated in previous interviews, a goal of one day letting fans all over the world virtually attend Real Madrid home matches using VR.
David Heaney
That strongly suggests that the next step of Real Madrid’s plan is to stream live games in Apple Immersive.
The first known live Apple Immersive Video offering will be select LA Lakers NBA games, set to be streamed next year via Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive Live, a special variant of the immersive camera creators are using for prerecorded Apple Immersive Video content.
The announcement came almost nine years after NextVR started streaming weekly NBA games to the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset in 180-degree. In 2020 Apple acquired NextVR, and leveraged its expertise and IP to develop Apple Immersive Video.
