Unfiltered

AT&T is working with WGN-TV in Chicago to allow viewers of Chicago Cubs games to control their own camera angles using the Multiview capability of U-verse and Microsoft Mediaroom. AT&T has made Multiview available for other sporting events in the past, and Microsoft implemented the capability in Mediaroom at least three years ago.

NewTeeVee has more on how Multiview works:

The new TV app is based on AT&T’s Multiview technology, which lets viewers watch up to four different channels at once via a unique picture-in-picture viewing screen. When applied to Cubs games played at Wrigley field, each “channel” is a different camera angle, allowing the subscriber to choose between six different views of the game. Users can also select and record any of the different camera angles from within the app. In addition to the typical ‘behind the pitcher’ view, alternate camera angles include video shot from above home plate, first base, third base and center field.

Connected Planet’s take,
Dan O’Shea:

Those of us who attend Cubs games on a fairly regular basis can tell you that what’s going on in and around the stands at Wrigley Field is usually more entertaining and far less frustrating than the on-field action: fist fights; inappropriate T-shirts; drunken fans taking a tumble down the outfield bleachers; the eccentric, competitive ballhawks out on Waveland Avenue; the occasional young lady who looks more appropriately dressed for work at a strip club than an afternoon at the ball game — if Multiview lets you see all that, then sign us up. What Cubs fans don’t need are more on-field angles. Failure looks the same from every angle.

But, seriously folks, the Multiview app must be one of the most frequently demonstrated (at trade shows and the like) but least widely used advanced TV apps around. It’s definitely a cool idea &mdash ;and was from the beginning when Microsoft first enabled it three or four years ago — but it’s never achieved the excitement that something like 3DTV has just in the last six months. It would be great to see it become a standard accompaniment of every televised sporting event. That means Multiview carriers like AT&T need to get to work forging agreements with broadcasters to make it happen.

That’s our take on this. Let us know what you think in the comments section below:

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