Sony and Manchester City Football Club collaborate

[_J.G.M_]

Sony and Manchester City have announced a new global partnership, combining Sony’s cutting-edge technologies with the football club’s content to develop a new and exciting digital fan experience.

As the official Virtual Fan Engagement Partner, Sony will conduct a PoC (proof of concept) with Manchester City, developing new forms of digital content and services that integrate the physical and virtual worlds to engage existing sports fans now, and inspire the next generation.

The prime focus is to create a global online community - unlike anything fans have encountered before. Here, fans can gather to interact with each other, the team, and establish new levels of connectivity with the club itself, brought to life within a virtual recreation of the Etihad Stadium. Not only will the virtual stadium be a realistic rendering of the ground in Manchester, but it will also be a point of access to unique virtual experiences where fans can create fully customisable avatars, interact with loyalty programmes, and express their fandom in even more ways.

For this venture, Sony’s advanced imaging and sensing technologies will be leveraged, as well as the leading Electronic Performance Tracking Systems (EPTS) of Sony’s Hawk Eye Innovations. Our Hawk-Eye technology has been at the forefront of sports officiating and broadcasting since 2001, with vision-processing, video replay and creative graphic technologies making the game fairer, safer, more engaging, and better informed. For this collaboration, new ways to use this technology will be explored to engage even more people across the world.

As Manchester City embraces Sony’s industry-leading technology to give their fans added value and entertainment, and we work to develop more ways to bring people together, this collaboration is one to watch.