Aim

Developed by a partnership between leading esports, research and creative technology companies, including ESL and the University of York, Weavr is an groundbreaking AI driven immersive platform that uses gameplay data to transform how remote audiences experience esports.

Summary

Esports are video games that are played competitively and watched by massive international audiences. In 2018, over 380 million people worldwide watched esports, and the number of esports fans is projected to surge upwards to almost 560 million in 2021. But the market is still shy of utilising its full potential.
This project, led by the world’s largest esports company ESL, has produced a new platform called Weavr that leverages the data-rich environment of esports to transform the way esports are experienced by remote audiences.
Viewers will be able to teleport between the live arena, virtual game worlds and augmented living rooms by using multiple displays, mobile devices, VR video telepresence and augmented reality overlays. With these cross-reality spaces, fans can immerse themselves in statistics, visualisations and data-driven stories and then share their individual viewing experiences with other Weavr users in real-time, blurring the boundaries between consuming and creating.
ESL UK Managing Director James Dean said, “At the forefront of an emerging and rapidly growing esports industry, we’re in a very fortunate and unique position to have insight in the live viewing habits and interactivity of young, tech savvy and early adopting audiences… We’re ecstatic to be working alongside industry leaders across the Weavr consortium to pave the way for the next generation of immersive technology and, with UKRI’s support, to realise a framework for the future of live entertainment and sports.”

Target Audience

The gaming industry, professional and recreational gamers
The esports and physical sports industries
The entertainment and arts industries
The tourism industry

Outcome

The Weavr project, which commenced in September 2019, will launch in summer 2021.
Prior to the pandemic, the consortium set out to lay the foundation for production and workflow, and create initial deployments. They created an app that draws on a live feed of game data in order to supply the user with an up-to-date feed of personally tailored content, allowing the user to have a more personal experience.
Separate to this, consortium partners Rewind, Future Visual and Cybula have been working on creating a virtual experience which allows the user to transport into a live game. Dock 10 is creating a virtual studio, enabling augmented content to be broadcast live to viewers.
Currently, the team is checking the feasibility of the tools they have created. They will start to enable live audience analytics, opening up insight into how audiences are responding to the immersive experience and how this engagement can be exploited commercially, before launching in summer 2021.

Contact

James Dean

Applications

Content – VR, Content – MR, Content – XR, Content – theatre, film & video, Content – 360 degree video, Content – special effects, Content – games & gaming, Content – animation & graphics, Tech – mobiles & tablets, Tech – VR/AR headsets, Tech – games conso

Investment

£5,750,078.00

Start

2019-09-01

End

2020-12-31

Actual sector

Arts, entertainment and recreation