Intel is selling off its sports group – founded and based in Israel

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Intel is giving up its sports group, Intel Sports. Haaretz has learned that the company is selling part of the group to the telecom giant Verizon and planning to shut down the rest.

Intel Sports developed a three-dimensional, 360-degree viewing technology of football and basketball, through peripheral cameras in a volumetric video technology. It was developed following the purchase of the Israeli startup Replay in 2016 for $175 million.

The group employs some 150 people, about half of them in Israel.
Most of the employees are expected to receive work offers from Mobileye, Intel’s subsidiary in Israel or from other groups in the company. Others, especially those in broadcast and production rather than in technology, are likely to be laid off.

The development was part of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s decision to increase the focus on the company’s core activities, while closing down groups and units that had been set up in the previous CEOs’ terms and were not associated with these areas.

On Wednesday, Intel announced it would gradually shut down its RealSense technology, which developed three-dimensional cameras, which was also generated and operated in Israel.

It is not clear what it will do with the technology, but it has expressed an interest in volumetric video (hologram style three-dimensional video). For example, last May the company initiated setting up an association of companies to create a uniform standard in volumetric video.

Intel responded in a statement saying, “We’re removing volumetric video from Intel’s road map to focus on advancing innovative technologies that better support our core businesses and the IDM 2.0 production strategy. Our main preference is to ensure a smooth transition for potential buyers, workers, clients and partners.

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Frustration & mass departures

This is a sad ending to the ambitious technology developed by the Israeli startup Replay, which was bought by Intel during Brian Krzanich’s term as CEO and has since floundered.

Replay Technologies was set up in 2011 by Oren Yogev, Aviv Shapira and Matteo Shapira and developed a product enabling to broadcast instant replays of moves in sports games, using 3-D technology. These moves consist of scoring in soccer or baskets and dunks in basketball.

The camera revolving 360 degrees around the players creates an effect reminiscent of the scenes in the “Matrix”movie franchise. It is achieved with cameras placed on the stradium walls, photographing the game from every direction. Then the software “connects” the shots, creating a 3-D scene.

The original idea of Replay was to create live content for virtual reality glasses and this is why Sony was interested in buying it as well as Intel. Intel’s initial plan was to integrate Replay’s technology with a VR headset enterprise Intel had developed at the time, dubbed Project Alloy. Intel believed that such aplications, which require considerable computing power, will make people buy new stronger computers equipped with Intel hardware.

However, a few months after the purchase, Intel decided to shut town the VR project at this stage. It also canceled cooperations forged with Microsoft and Sony in sports projects. In order to continue using Replay Intel decided to continue to cooperate with stadiums and groups in volumetric video activity with returns and life 360-degree broadcasts. But the connection between Intel, a chip manufacturer, and work with sports teams and stadiums for sports broadcasts, was peculiar to say the least. Intel maintained it mainly to advance its brand among larger audiences.

Outwardly Intel indeed generated considerable positive PR with impressive demos and announcements and formed partnerships in the world. In Israel the Menora Mivtachim arena used the technlogy in cooperation with Maccabi Tel Aviv and the sports channel. The technology was integrated in football games in the United States and was also used by soccer clubs in Europe such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

But behind the scenes the picture was different. The match between Replay’s product and the chip giant simply didn’t work. Intel appointed people who were unfamiliar with the activity to run Intel Sports. James Carwana was appointed head of Intel Sports’ world activity, after serving as Intel CEO’s technical assistant. Dudi Benayoun, who had managed chip development groups, was appointed to run the group’s activity in Israel. Benayoun left Intel some six months ago.

Replay’s employees and management were frustrated by the corporate decisions, appointments and directions and started leaving en mass. Today hardly any of the managers or employees from Replay’s original team remains in Intel Sports. Two of the founders, Aviv and Matteo Shapira, left to set up the drone startup Xtend. The third founder, Oren Yogev, also left to set up the startup Blink Technologies.

A signal of what was to come was Intel’s decision to close down Intel Studios in 2020. It has set up the ambitious enterprise in Los Angeles in 2018 to create virtual reality and augmented reality content. The studios were based on technology developed by Replay Israel, which was bought by Intel in 2016, and headed by senior Replay executive Diego Prilusky.