We all miss attending live sports and as an agency we miss creating live experiences in stadiums to allow sponsors, teams and fans to connect. However we do love how the NBA have developed a creative solution to allow fans to get close to that action and cheer on their team.

This may not seem like a virtual event, but the restart of the 2019-20 NBA season is just that.

The season, which picked up on July 30 after shutting down for more than four months, has been far from normal. But with no fans allowed to enter the league’s “bubble” in Orlando to attend the games in person, the NBA opted for something different. Through new technology, the NBA is giving fans the opportunity to watch games while being projected on in-arena video boards for players, coaches, and anyone tuning in around the world to see.

The idea started as part of a NBA partnership with Microsoft to give fans as much access as possible in a virtual world. This virtual fan experience is created using Microsoft Teams’ Together mode, which “uses AI segmentation technology to bring people together into a shared background like a conference room, coffee shop, or arena.”

“We wanted to create something that would bring our fans to the players,” Sara Zuckert, the NBA’s head of Next Gen Telecast, told The New York Times. “It’s also a way to give fans the opportunity to feel like they’re interacting while enhancing the broadcast for everyone else at home.”

Additionally, the NBA made tonnes of changes to help enhance the at-home fan experience. These changes included:

o   Dozens of cameras repositioned closer to the court to showcase never-before-seen camera angles.

o   Microphones placed around the court to capture enhanced sounds, such as sneaker squeaks and ball bounces.

o   DJs and announcers on site to replicate the sounds teams and viewers are used to.

o   A virtual cheering experience. This allows fans to digitally “cheer” for a team through the NBA App, NBA.com and Twitter using team hashtags. Those “cheers” are then portrayed on in-arena video boards via graphics and animations to “capture the level of fan engagement around the world.”

As fun as the virtual experience is, there’s still no substitute for the real thing.  The NBA is planning to begin the 2021 season in December pending negotiations with the players association.