OTT streamer allowed viewers to choose from nine live feeds during the horse racing event
Aura turned to 4live production and transmission company The Switch for its interactive live stream of the 2021 Melbourne Cup.
The OTT streaming service The Switch’s cloud-based MIMiC Transmission service for its live coverage, which featured multiple viewpoints of Australia’s most famous annual horse race. These included track-side cameras, jockey-cam views, race data and bonus content from accompanying events including the Lexus Melbourne Cup and exclusive marquee parties.
Aura is a new OTT streaming platform which presents interactive live content in a video-game-style format across mobile, web, and various connected TV standards. It allows viewers to switch between a 2D linear feed and a 3D extended environment populated with a range of interacitvity and engagement features.
For the 2021 Melbourne Cup Carnival, it created a 3D version of Victoria Racing Club’s Flemington Racecourse, with fans able to navigate back and forth between nine live feeds - including two track-side 360-degree camera feeds and seven fixed camera feeds showing live races, interviews, celebrity promos and other shoulder programming. MIMiC Transmission handled the low-latency delivery of all fixed camera feeds to the Aura platform, and all live feeds were monitored by The Switch’s 24/7 New York Network Operations Centre.
Users were able to curate their own viewing experience by selecting multiple camera angles, while engaging with interactive content such as live racing data, jockey stats, racecourse weather conditions, and social media conversations.
This was available to viewers across the globe, including the UK, China, France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE, and the United States. There was also a replay function, which made footage from all seven fixed camera feeds available to viewers with five minutes of the race ending.
Antony Arena, chief executive officer of Aura, said: “Pulling off a never-before-seen interactive experience for the 2021 Carnival with the support of our transmission partners at The Switch was a momentous occasion for us – demonstrating the full capabilities of the Aura platform by bringing an incredibly dynamic and immersive race-day experience to viewers worldwide.”
Nicholas Castaneda, senior vice president of sales at The Switch, added: “Aura’s landmark live coverage of the 2021 Melbourne Cup Carnival provides a great window into what can be achieved today in live sports streaming. We’re incredibly proud to have worked with Aura to bring all the anticipation and excitement around this year’s Lexus Melbourne Cup to spectators worldwide through its highly unique and engaging platform.
“As the uses and capabilities of Aura continue to grow, we look forward to continuing our collaboration with Aura in delivering outstanding interactive live event experiences.”
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