NativeWaves EXP
In a competitive market, the cost of doing nothing is very high. Once viewers identify alternative sources for their entertainment, it will be near impossible to win them back.
Upgrading an existing broadcast or streaming service to offer a fan engagement experience that speaks to the audience does not have to be complex or expensive.
NativeWaves EXP is designed to offer just that and effectively tackles the industry's significant challenges and prioritizes the specific needs and expectations of real end-users during their live event watching experiences in sports, esports, and entertainment.
For more comprehensive information that goes beyond the scope of this article, we encourage you to explore our NativeWaves EXP whitepaper.
One of the key challenges in today's broadcast/streaming world is to master the transition from linear digital delivery to personalised on demand experiences, that viewers have come to expect for feature and episodic scripted content. Simply offering all live content, also on demand, foregoes multiple opportunities for interactivity and incremental monetisation. Keeping fans engaged in real time has distinctive value, and accomplishing this requires a vastly different approach.
At NativeWaves, our goal is to provide the framework that allows you to create the perfect event experience, regardless of whether the viewer prefers sports, esports or entertainment.
Our approach is completely driven by the end user experience: When watching TV today, everyone gets the same signal. If a viewer would like to see the tactical camera over the football field to rewatch a goal shot instantly, right after it happened, currently there is no way to do so. The reason for this limitation is the concept of traditional broadcast television: one to many. Streaming technologies do not have this limitation, yet the experience today is still hampered by these historic limitations.
With the rise of streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Video, one key thing has changed: Audiences today prefer to watch everything on demand. Live Sports is somewhat different, but the same desires exist: Viewers demand the content they care about whenever they want it.
We believe that if audiences are offered an on-demand experience during a live event, they will not want to go back to today's lacking experience. And this is not about overloading them with additional camera feeds, but instead providing them with a user experience that packages this content in a meaningful and personalised way.
For this, we have created a product offering that we call NativeWaves EXP. A new and unified experience creation framework with the goal to deepen the fan experience and that accompanies users whether they enjoy their favourite event at home, on the go or live in-venue.
NativeWaves EXP combines multiview, data, live insights, instant replays and more into a single user experience to take the existing content offering to the next level.
Every event is different. Whether it's a motorsport race, a football match, or a music concert, each event demands its own specialized features and functionalities. Similarly, users' preferences are dynamic and subject to change over time. Here are a few scenarios that exemplify this diversity:
- There is a motorsport race on Sunday that I'm a big fan of, and I want to follow a particular driver. I want to know everything about him/her. How well did he or she do in practice and qualifying. What kind of tires were chosen for the race. What's the strategy. And during the race, I follow him or her via the onboard camera and experience every corner of the race track. I want to be part of every overtaking and also analyze via the helicopter camera what the competitors are doing.
- On Monday I'm back from work and just want to lean back and watch the football match on my TV. Maybe I want to quickly access the lineup for the match and that is all.
- And on Friday I'm going out with my friends, but want to keep track what's going on with the day's games. Having a live tracker open without video and sound that keeps me informed.
The list of examples could go on and on, especially when we look at the different target groups and age groups. Younger audiences place more focus on mobile devices than the previous generations, and technology allows us to deliver the same experience we know from home also at the venue.
NativeWaves EXP is designed with these requirements in mind. The ultimate goal for this framework approach is to be the technical foundation that allows for creation of different experiences, optimized for each use case, without draining unrealistic development resources.
The transition from a passive "lean back" to an active experience should feel seamless and natural, so that all users can access the content that is relevant to them when they want it.
Compared to movies, live events have multiple differences in regards to content production and also consumption. In general, movies follow a specific story line and the video that we see follows that predefined structure. However, live events are not predefined. The production team tries to capture what's happening and finds relevant stories related to the event that are interesting to tell to the audience. The video footage that is captured of a live event also follows a clear linear timeline. Video footage from movies is edited and rearranged to tell the story. So it's much easier to take multiple camera angles from a live event and offer it to the viewer than in a movie production.
When looking at live events they also cover normally multiple story lines. Every athlete, every performer has their own story to tell. This can be the view of the goalkeeper during a penalty kick, the helmet camera of the American football player in the stadium, the onboard camera of the motorcyclist or the camera of the drummer at a concert.
In traditional broadcasting, however, we see only a slice of what happens at an event. It is highly produced and optimized to serve the general interest of the audience, but it cannot capture all different aspects and interests because there is only one view at a time.
To solve this problem, NativeWaves EXP focuses on providing synchronized multiview content to the audience so users can see what is relevant to them. In addition, our second screen sync solution allows to interface with the traditional broadcast for an even better experience.
Our aim is to tell stories that are not told on traditional broadcast and emotionally connect the viewer to the event by providing footage of the magical moments in sports, esports and entertainment.
The documentation is organized into several sections, providing a comprehensive guide to setting up NativeWaves EXP and exploring its functionalities. Here's an overview of the structure:
- In this first introduction section, you'll find additional examples that showcase the possibilities and visual representation of experiences. It also provides insights into the integration process, giving you a glimpse of what to expect.
- Getting Started: This section offers a concise overview of how to set up your first event and demonstrates how you can watch it using the NativeWaves showcase app. It serves as a quick starting point for users new to NativeWaves EXP.
- Concepts & Architecture: Here, you'll delve into the more advanced concepts and underlying architecture of NativeWaves. This section provides a deeper understanding of how NativeWaves functions and how different components interact with each other.
- SDKs: These sections focus on the technical aspects of NativeWaves EXP, providing detailed information about the various software development kits (SDKs) available for different platforms (Web, Android, iOS). It offers comprehensive guidance for developers looking to integrate NativeWaves EXP into their own applications.
By following the structured documentation, you'll gain a solid understanding of NativeWaves EXP, from basic setup to advanced concepts and technical implementation, empowering you to create immersive experiences and leverage the full potential of the NativeWaves platform.