US Open tennis: Eurosport's 'Cube' offers a glimpse into future of sports broadcasting

Eurosport's 'Cube' technology. Photo / Twitter

Tennis fans have been given a glimpse into the future of sports broadcasting with new technology launched by television network Eurosport.

The sports TV network launched its new 'Cube' technology at the US Open, which allows players in New York to be remotely beamed into any TV studio around the world – Star Trek style – for a "mixed-reality" interview.

While the 'Eurosport Cube 20:20' has been a product of three years of research, the new technology comes at a perfect time with no fans at Flushing Meadows and many sports presenters working remotely due to the global pandemic.

Eurosport's first use of the technology was an eerie live interview with number one seed Karolina Pliskova with presenter Barbara Shett-Eagle.

The interview drew considerable acclaim from fans, with many drawing comparisons to sci-fi films like Star Wars.

"This was a good piece of creative work during these times," said tennis coach Roger Rasheed in response to the virtual interview.

Former tennis pro Ivan Ljubicic simply said: "Wow. 2020."

This is next level! 🤩

— Emplifi (@emplifi_io) September 1, 2020

The Cube, which measures four metres by four metres and is made up of more than four million led pixels, can virtually connect players to hosts and experts around the world, while on-screen it looks like a hologram of the player is transported next to the interviewer.

Eurosport had plans to use the technology at this year's Tokyo Olympics before it was postponed to next year. A version of the Cube was first used at the Winter Olmpics in PyeongChang two years ago.

"With the Games rescheduled to next year but the experience ready to go, there really is no better arena than Grand Slam tennis to see the return of the Eurosport Cube," said Eurosport's Andrew Georgiou.

The pandemic has forced innovations from sports TV networks around the world, from canned crowd noise to video interviews in television studios, but the Cube seems to be a true glimpse into the future of sports TV.