Even if you are not from the USA, you may know what the Super Bowl is. For the few that don’t, this is when the USA is crowning its American Football champion for the year. This is a big game on Sunday night that attracts many people from around the globe with this year realizing a new record with 172 million tuning in at some point and with 111 million people watching the game (this is actually down somewhat from prior years). What may not be known outside of the USA is that besides the game, the most watched parts are the commercials, that are ranked in coming days by several online outlets. Being the best is an honor and accounts somewhat for the steep price tag of $5 million for a 30 sec spot.
One of the most talked about ads came from Hyundai and, as a complete surprise, did not feature any cars. Instead it showed an American Army establishment in Poland during the game. With most of the troops sitting in a tent watching the game on a big screen TV, they called three soldiers out and put them in separate rooms. Each room featured a little more sophisticated AV equipment, showing not only the game on a curved projection screen with blended projectors but also the people sitting in the arena next to his virtual seat. This was made possible via a 360 degree video camera and video over IP.
Hyundai commercial featuring 360 Video Conference
By now you may have guessed that the people next to the soldiers were actually the soldiers families. The first image shows how a separate screen next to him shows his family captured by the 360 degree video camera, while the next image shows how the people in the stadium perceived him.
Hyundai commercial featuring 360 Video Conference
All in all this was a tremendous installation, a third way around the globe. Providing all the bandwidth needed for that much video streaming during the height of the super bowl was quite impressive. For a better understanding and look at the emotional response of the users take a look the whole commercial on YouTube. This maybe out of the price range of the typical home user, but it is really a step up from FaceTime and other video conferencing apps. – NH
