The official NBA Apple Vision Pro app now has Tabletop, a diorama-scale virtual representation of the live game you're watching.
Tabletop shows in addition to the 2D livestream view you see floating in front of you as a large virtual screen, giving you the benefits of both. Note that the 2D livestream view is not visible in the screen recording below, due to the DRM protection system it uses.
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Footage from Ian Panchèvre.
There's a roughly half-second delay between the livestream and the Tabletop representation, according to those who've tried it, likely due to the processing time of the motion capture technology at the stadiums used to power this feature. In theory, the NBA could artificially delay the livestream view to match it, but it isn't currently doing so.
Tabletop is currently available for a few games per night, and the NBA plans to make it available for all League Pass games next season.
As with the other functionality of the NBA app, this requires a League Pass subscription, which starts at $15/month.
The NBA's Tabletop feature is reminiscent of Lapz, the now-defunct Apple Vision Pro F1 app, which showed a diorama-scale 3D representation of the track floating in front of you, as well as the first-person views from multiple drivers in floating windows.
Both show the significant potential of XR headsets, and eventually AR glasses, for enhancing the way sports are watched remotely.
On Meta Quest headsets, in comparison, 52 NBA games are streamed in immersive 180-degrees (though 2D, not 3D) for free in the US, via the app Xtadium. NBA League Pass subscribers can also use Xtadium to watch any games on floating 2D virtual TV screens in mixed reality using Xtadium's Multi-Game Mode. This mode supports up to nine games simultaneously, and you can also apparently see stats and alerts. But the Vision Pro app's Tabletop feature offers a unique view not yet seen on other XR platforms.
Would you prefer to watch your sport of choice in 180-degree immersive video, or as a 2D flatscreen view with a tabletop 3D representation? Let us know in the discussion section below.
