IPL 2022: A look at the tech innovations introduced by Disney Hotstar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is back, and fans can’t be any happier as they are now allowed back in the stadium to watch their favourite players live. For the rest of us watching the action from our homes, the team at Disney Hotstar is using tech to enhance the match experience. 

To start with, you can watch IPL 2022 in Dolby Atmos, which enhances the match experience if you have the right setup. This is available for TV viewers watching the match live on Star Sports1 HD and Star Sports1 Hindi HD channels. 

True cricket fans crave for stats, facts, and analysis from experts. The in-house team has developed a mixed reality headset for its on-air experts who can then visualise data and interact with them. Helping them with such stats will be a robot called ‘Cricko’. 

For the sake of audiences watching, the team has also built digital twins of stadiums and 3D avatars of players to give a deeper understanding of why a bowler bowled a particular ball or how and why the batsman got out. To give these visuals real-life quality, and set up next-level virtual studios, the broadcaster is using the unreal gaming engine. This is the same engine that powers some of the most popular and graphics-intensive video games. 

For fan engagement, the broadcaster is also introducing a live voting and polling system, which will be available for the anchors and in-studio experts to see and shape their discussions.