Liverpool virtual reality firm partners with Chinese group on metaverse-ready tech
Liverpool virtual reality firm, vTime, has linked with a Chinese conglomerate to showcase its metaverse-ready technology.
Sinobo Group is involved in sports, entertainment, commerce and technology.
The two partners have unveiled the Gongti Metaverse (GTVerse), a metaverse platform centred around the new Beijing Workers’ Stadium, and fans of Beijing Guoan Football Club.
GTVerse aims to integrate digital and real experiences with the footfall of the forthcoming stadium and fans of BJFC, enabling them to enjoy immersive match experiences, concerts, e-sports events and more.
The GTVerse will also offer innovative retail opportunities.
Fusing enabling technologies such as 5G and hybrid cloud computing with augmented and virtual reality, the cross-reality platform will offer new ways to get closer to the football club, events, and culture to millions of fans and visitors.
The Beijing launch event, attended by scholars, technology experts, industry leaders, and global enterprises, gave viewers a first look at a GTVerse prototype, created in collaboration with vTime, along with the release of a white paper detailing the forthcoming metaverse platform. The event also saw the inauguration of the GTVerse Innovation Joint Lab, founded by Sinobo Group, with collaboration from China Mobile, Tencent, and other partners.
Chairman of Sinobo Group, Mr Zhou Jinhui, said: “(The) Metaverse is not only a concept. The difference between GTVerse and other metaverse projects is that it is based on the real Beijing Workers’ Stadium.
“We will spare no effort to renovate the new Beijing Workers’ Stadium into Beijing’s ‘City Landmark, Cultural and Sports Icon and Vitality centre’.”
Set up in 2013, vTime, is a ‘sociable’ virtual reality firm, whose technology enables people to share VR experiences over smart phones.
CEO, Clemens Wangerin, said: “We are incredibly honoured that vTime has been chosen by Sinobo Group as collaborators to bring the GTVerse to life on the basis of our experience, expertise, and innovations in the metaverse.
“The scale of this opportunity is significant, and it marks the next step in our journey towards delivering human interactions in the metaverse to people around the world that are as powerful as doing so face-to-face.”
Having invested heavily into R&D and new technology development, vTime has built a suite of metaverse-ready tools that also provide the foundations for the successor to vTime XR – the first cross-reality social network which allows anyone, anywhere to socialise in AR and VR, is used in more than 190 countries with in excess of 1.3 million downloads since 2015.
Currently working with some of the world’s biggest brands in sport, health, and entertainment to help them connect with their community and fans, vTime secured Series A funding of $7.6m in 2018 to accelerate its multi-product roadmap.
