MUMBAI: The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) is beginning to gather momentum. Founded by video streaming solutions company Accedo  together with wireless tech company  Qualcomm Technologies and  sports host broadcaster HBS, in June 2024, it has announced its first batch of members. These include: sports rights owner E1 Series; telecom operator Deutsche Telekom; AR glasses and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) XReal and and technology service providers, Ateme, Skyrim.ai.

The new members will  be contributing to the XRSA, which aims to accelerate knowledge gathering, technological advancement and time-to-market for XR sports services, as well as gather and share industry knowledge across the globe.

Said Accedo CEO Michael Lantz: “The XRSA was born from a shared vision. Our ambition is to build a powerful collective of passionate leaders and experts from both the sports and XR industries, all committed to advancing the commercialisation of XR sports services. Every member is important for how we shape our end-to-end experimentation framework and how we lay the foundation for scalable technology and sustainable XR business models.”

Qualcomm Technologies senior director business development Patrick Costello added: “Through the XRSA user testing framework, we  will gather valuable data from global deployments and share these lessons learned reports with our members, ensuring insights are drawn from diverse audiences to inform future developments.”

HBS digital head Sylvain Lebreton  commented: “The planned experimentation deployments in early 2025 will involve extensive experimentation with both non-live and live spatial video formats and evaluating user interaction with various immersive fan features and spatial advertising. We will continue to grow the membership over the coming months and welcome interest from companies across the ecosystem, both those wishing to serve as contributing members, as well as observing members.”

Accedo, HBS, and Qualcomm Technologies, will be at CES 2025 from 7-11 January 2025.