The crisis affecting the world right now has thrown a lot of things off the rails, sports included. Fortunately, the NBA is now back on track five months after the league was suspended. Although fans can’t currently watch the games in person, a collaboration with Microsoft Teams means that people can still catch the action through the magic of video calls.

The Atmosphere Is Essential

As great as it is that sports teams can begin playing again, things just aren’t the same without the atmosphere of the crowd. Major League Baseball tried to remedy that by playing fake audience noises, but it simply wasn’t the same. That’s why the NBA brought Microsoft into the equation to find a solution that satisfied everyone.

An Advanced Solution

The outcome of this collaboration is 17-foot screens mounted on three sides of the court so that the stands no longer look empty. Through Microsoft Teams’ Together mode, up to 300 people can start a video call during the game so they can watch the action and become part of the crowd. Viewers will have access to over 30 cameras, some of which apparently offer “never-before-seen” angles.

Of course, access to this service requires a ticket – just like any standard NBA game – and only a limited number of people can get involved. However, as solutions go, this is definitely a brilliant step forward.

One Stadium For Everyone

Buying these massive screens for all the stadiums across the US would have been a significant expense, which is why the games are now being held at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. That way, the same screens can be used for each match, making everything so much more efficient.

We have no idea how long it will be until stadiums and sports games can return to normal. So, in the meantime, this collaboration seems like the best alternative available.

When the world was stuck at home due to the pandemic, TikTok became the new favorite app. In 2020, overtook WhatsApp and Facebook and became the most in-demand social app, all over the world as per an analysis created by App Annie. Sensor Tower had also conducted a study recently to back this analysis, it said that TikTok was the only and first app, not owned by Facebook, to cross downloads of 3 billion.

Overtaking Facebook

TikTok, the first app, which is a first non-Facebook-owned one, is the only one to have achieved this feat. Its popularity kept growing in spite of threats of bans from the government. It was even removed from digital stores in India, which was one of its largest markets. The world kept using this app and so, its popularity continued to grow exponentially. As per the study conducted by Sensor Tower, TikTok occupied the fifth position as the most popular non-gaming app, which has always been the domain of the social media giant Facebook. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are the only other apps that have reached this mark.

TikTok Is Diversifying its Offerings to Fans

There was a global survey conducted with regards to downloads done in 2020. It showed that the video-sharing application TikTok, which was developed somewhere in China, topped the list of providers of social media for the very first time. The last time this study was conducted was back in 2018. The popularity of Telegram also grew over rising concerns of privacy. This messaging app gave users the option to delete their posts even after they had posted them and so, it also ranked pretty high. This was during the pandemic when the use of social media and other digital apps was on a high. As for TikTok, the social app has been diversifying its offerings by adding features like Snapchat-esque stories and video resumes, in this month alone.