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NBC Thinks Connected Gloves and "Bullet Time" Can Make Boxing Cool
New submitter Lashdots writes with this excerpt from a piece at Fast Company about what may be the future of boxing, at least from the perspective of television audiences. "Right now, millennials turn boxing on and they're like, 'Who's winning? I don't get this,'" said Anthony Bailey. The chief technology officer of NBC's Premier Boxing Champions was watching a pair of fighters spar—each wearing sensor-equipped boxing gloves—in preparation for this weekend's fight, the first to be broadcast on NBC's primetime slot (8:30 pm EST) in 30 years. "These guys are real athletes. It's not just two guys going out in the ring trying to beat the crap out of each other. It's two guys that actually have strategy. They're actually thinking."
In a makeshift television studio here last month, Bailey, a team of engineers, and some of boxing's heaviest hitters were working to make that thinking a little more visible—in HD, with video-game-like graphics and Matrix-like camera angles. It's one part of an ambitious multimillion-dollar effort by NBC and some of boxing's biggest names to gain an edge against popular competitors like mixed martial arts, and to draw in younger, more casual audiences who may never have thought about watching before.
In a makeshift television studio here last month, Bailey, a team of engineers, and some of boxing's heaviest hitters were working to make that thinking a little more visible—in HD, with video-game-like graphics and Matrix-like camera angles. It's one part of an ambitious multimillion-dollar effort by NBC and some of boxing's biggest names to gain an edge against popular competitors like mixed martial arts, and to draw in younger, more casual audiences who may never have thought about watching before.
...beating people up for entertainment is something I wouldn't mind society moving on from.
It's not even like it's a high risk side effect of the sport - physically harming the other person (temporarily is necessary, but permanently is often the result) is the whole aim. For anyone with half an ounce of empathy, watching two people fight is like feeling you are being beaten up. That's not entertainment, but either sadism or masochism.
Boxing doesn't cause Parkinson's disease. Perhaps you should educate yourself.
Unbelievable that people modded you interesting.
Boxing doesn't cause Parkinson's disease.
Well, whatever it causes (and they will claim it causes everything), I can see lawers running through the data in 20-30 years time when these guys have become vegetables, to sue the crap out of their opponent, the promoter, the ref, the NBC, the audience, Government, TV companies, you, me, God, and the lost tribes of the Amazon, for not stepping in to stop the freak show before it happened.
I despise sports.
Why? Sports are merely a game. A diversion played for entertainment. If it isn't your cup of tea that's fine but why should you give a shit one way or the other about it? In practical terms if you don't care about sports it won't affect you one tiny little bit. Find something productive to dislike like war or disease or political corruption. Sports is without question a net benefit to society so it makes little sense to hate sports even if you don't enjoy them personally.
It's all paying ridiculous amounts of money to millionaire "athletes" to watch them play a game.
Why is that any worse that paying to watch a movie or a TV show or a stage play? People pay to watch this because they find it entertaining and get what they consider a good value for money. And for the majority of the human population, sports ARE entertaining. If you don't like them fine but that doesn't make it ridiculous. A top level athlete is a beautiful thing to watch just like watching a ballet dancer or a talented musician. Plus in sports there is the drama of competition which is tremendous fun. There is economic value in providing entertainment so what is wrong with charging people who are willing to pay to watch sports?
Furthermore what's with the condescending quotations around the word athletes? If you play sports then you are an athlete. That is what the word means. You're an athlete if you play sports even if you aren't very good at it and don't get paid a penny which described 99.9999% of the population of people involved in sports.
I have nothing against playing games -- I have a thing against paying people to watch them do it.
Again why? Why do you give a shit? I understand if it isn't your thing. I don't find watching interpretive dance to be particularly fulfilling myself but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing that others find it entertaining. If you want to spend your money doing something else, no one will care. But stop looking down your nose at people who find pleasure in watching sports.