One thing that I have been happy to watch develop overtime is Facebook VR’s Oculus Quest/Quest 2 App, Venues.
So, what is Venues? The app allows one to create an avatar and partake in live (or pre-recorded) events and the app is still currently under the Beta Early Access.
So, how Venues works is that you are whisked into a room before entering the venue. You must first have created your own personal avatar and then you enter the main lobby area. Using your Oculus Touch Controller, you can navigate by selecting a place to walk.
But while in the main lobby, you can join up with a number of other people in their Avatar form. Now the lobby is a place where you have to filter out a lot of things because you can hear discussions. Some people who feel the need to issue profanity and make rude comments or jokes and if you don’t want to partake in it, just don’t listen to it. But if you are a parent, know in advance, if you are having your child watch a live event at the venue, chances are they will hear things that they shouldn’t be listening to.
While you are whisked to a lobby, for a live event, you will see many people but probably several dozen. If you create a party with your friends, you can all visit together but if you don’t, more than likely you will be whisked to different lobbies.
Now I’m not entirely sure how many virtual lobbies there are, nor do I know the Avatar limit, but it seems that Facebook VR has a grouped several dozen people per area, as it would be insane to have hundreds or thousands of people in a lobby and everyone talking all at once.
And within this lobby are events that are currently live or pre-recorded but sometimes, you may come across an event that is live.
Earlier this month, if you were to ask me what I thought about Venues, my answer would be, “It’s a place to watch past WWE wrestling matches, Steve Aoki play music and a place where people who want to have conversations, especially kids cussing and being stupid”.
But with the recent performances of music artist Billy Eilish and Vtuber Kizuna Ai and a martial arts sports competition. I now realize that Venues has amazing potential.
I can see sports programs taking advantage of this technology. Sure, the NFL, NBA, MLB may not cater unless there is a monetary gain, but there are so many other sporting programs that can utilize this technology.
For one, as a surfer myself, I would love to see the World Surf League work with Venues. Just this past weekend, the WSL streamed the US Open at Huntington Beach on TikTok. Instead of a balcony, imagine being in a beach setting and watching people compete in surfing.
For minor league baseball, basketball, hockey teams, wrestling who don’t have a television presence, Venues would be a wonderful way to test and promote the use of the technology.
International sporting events are also welcomed. May it be rugby, cricket or baseball and basketball from another country, it’s something that can be done.
As well as conventions such as Comic-Con, K-Con, Anime Japan, etc. who have panels or live performances but for those who are unable to attend, they can watch it from home.
World Wrestling Entertainment showed us how they utilized the technology and making people feel they are part of the audience. Billy Eilish’s concert made you feel you were right in the front row (and as a person who often got press seating in the front row covering concerts, this was pretty cool that people can experience the same thing).
There is tremendous potential for the app as many people have experienced as of this month but there are few things that I would like to see implemented.
- Automatic mute once entering a live event. I know people love to sing, people to love to talk, people may have cold and cough and hack, but they may not know everyone can hear it. Please have everyone’s audio set to mute when they enter a live venue. – Venues is not VRChat and reading the reviews, there are children (and rude adults) using the platform as such and if a user is causing trouble and number of people report them, that person is instantly kicked out for 24 hours.
- Displays – I see the International potential of Venues and if an event is another language, it will show on the Venues screen. Also to show that the event is One Day only. And as there is an international presence on Venues, it would be great for people to know what time the event would be in their country’s time.
- Emojis – If Facebook VR can integrate Facebook’s Emojis for people to select and send. Thumbs up and confetti are cool but more need to be added. Those who setup the Venues can allow for certain events to have positive emoji’s and for those that want to allow for thumbs down or sad face (may it be a sporting event and that person doesn’t like the rival team, of if that rival team scores or beats your favorite team).
- 3D Movie of the Week (or Month) – When there is nothing happening on venues aside from the pre-recorded WWE and Steve Aoki videos, what about a 3D movie of the week? There are a plethora of 3D Movies and what if people were able to have that opportunity to watch it through Venues?
I do expect someday, there will be events where people may need to pay money to watch and I can see someday, people may have to be subjected to ads. But these things are inevitable, but I do see a tremendous amount of potential for Venues. Especially with its growing user-base, this is definitely an app that you want to have installed on your Oculus Quest.
