"Enhance Live Baseball Broadcast Experience" LG Uplus Hosts Immersive Media Startup Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] LG Uplus announced on the 24th that it is conducting the 'Immersive Media Service Startup Contest' themed on live professional baseball broadcasts in collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, awarding up to 100 million KRW each to three companies.

The contest theme proposed by LG Uplus is ways to maximize the vividness and on-site feeling of the professional baseball broadcast service 'U+ Professional Baseball.' Due to the spread of COVID-19 infections in Seoul and the metropolitan area, professional baseball games are currently held without spectators. The detailed tasks include ▲providing additional data such as ball trajectory in baseball broadcast videos ▲implementing communities for untact (non-face-to-face) cheering during live professional baseball broadcasts ▲improving zoom-in 8K service image quality.

This contest is part of a new collaborative project called 'The Power of Connection, Digital Dream 9,' where large companies propose tasks and startups solve them.

LG Uplus and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will first evaluate ideas in stage 1, then assess task suitability and technical feasibility in stage 2. After the stage 2 evaluation, about 10 startups selected in September will enter the final stage 3, undergoing up to two months of task advancement. During stage 3, consulting and mentoring will be provided by LG Uplus’s development department, universities, and research institutes. A demo day will be held in November to select the final three teams.

LG Uplus plans to select startups capable of commercialization and service provision within U+ Professional Baseball through this contest. Selected startups will receive strengthened support such as AI video analysis and high-definition video transmission technologies owned by LG Uplus to enable immersive media technology to be discovered and applied in baseball broadcasts in the new normal environment of non-face-to-face interactions. Startups that succeed in actual commercialization will be awarded up to 100 million KRW each.

Startups wishing to participate in the contest can apply online by the 27th at the K-Startup Startup Support Portal (www.k-startup.go.kr).

The head of LG Uplus Baseball Service Team said, “We expect excellent startups in the immersive media field to present creative ideas that can maximize customer value for U+ Professional Baseball,” adding, “We hope that active participation by startups will create an excellent example of coexistence and synergy between large companies and startups.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.