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Fealive

A concept platform that turns live entertainment into a shared, immersive at-home experience — for the fans who can't be in the room.

Overview

For many live entertainment fans, going to the event means navigating a maze of cost, travel and time. For fans with accessibility needs, the stadium doors can feel further away still — and the fallback is passive viewing at home, on a screen that shows the match without putting you in it.

Fealive pairs a VR headset with a companion app so that remote viewing becomes remote presence: you find the event and set up on the phone, then step inside on the headset — up close, with friends, with captions and live context layered over the view. Venues gain an audience beyond their seats; fans gain a seat that was never for sale.

01App 02Headset 03The event find · set up · pair step inside live chat, captions and translation stay on the phone
Fig. 01 — Two devices, one event

The problem

Live entertainment fans aged 16+ with accessibility needs struggle with ticket price, distance and time commitment when deciding whether to attend. Often they stop attending altogether and turn to at-home substitutes — live streams, TV.

Two constraints shaped what we could promise. VR and AR are moving fast, but not yet far enough to replace being there — so the experience had to earn its place as something a stream can’t do, not as a stadium substitute. And live events run on broadcast rights — leagues, promoters and venues — which is a licensing cost before the first camera is bought.

Research

Two questions drove the primary research: where are the barriers and needs in remote viewing, and does VR actually close the gap on immersion and accessibility? We asked people what makes live events intimidating or uncomfortable, whether they’d used AR or VR, and what would make an event more enjoyable.

40survey responses, Google Form
8in-depth interviews, 30–45 min, remote
16+fans with accessibility needs, or facing language, travel or access limits
10weeks, two sprints

Why people don’t go

Of forty respondents, the reasons for staying home:

29ticket price
16distance
13no time

Interviews added the emotional half: noise, crowds, and low engagement through a flat screen. The barriers were logistical and emotional.

What VR would have to do

  1. Be worth the setup. “Honestly, I would rather just watch it on TV unless there was a sort of VR chat experience where I could interact with people. It’s just too troublesome to setup VR.” — P1. Setup effort and physical discomfort were the limits; the experience had to be clearly better than the broadcast to justify the headset.
  2. Beat being there on the things a seat can’t do. “It’s a cheaper option in VR, but it must provide an experience that is better than going in person.” — P3. Up-close views, noise filtering, live stats and context.
  3. Bring the friends along. “If I could interact in VR with my friends while watching the game that would be so much cooler.” — P7. Social presence was as important as the picture.
Fig. 02 — The current journey, from hearing about an event to the moment it ends — and where it drops
Fig. 02 — The current journey, from hearing about an event to the moment it ends — and where it drops

How might we

How might we help fans achieve a seamless, immersive and accessible remote event experience through VR goggles and a companion app, so that they gain satisfaction while venues expand participation?

Mid-fi

Four app screens, before any colour.

Fig. 03 — Mid-fi wireframes: landing · home · device setup · chat room
Fig. 03 — Mid-fi wireframes: landing · home · device setup · chat room

The app

Two purples, one gradient we lived in — violet to pink — and Manrope. The app is the part of Fealive you hold in your hand between events — so it had to feel like a ticket wallet and a group chat, not a settings panel for a headset.

Colour and type

753FBAPrimary · light
4C0368Primary · dark
742FECSecondary · violet
BF36EFSecondary · orchid
F53FF0Secondary · magenta
E476EFSecondary · pink
13132FBlack 2 · the ground
AaManrope · everything
  • Name
  • Heading 1
  • Heading 2
  • Heading 3
  • Subtitle
  • Body
  • Caption

Components

Text fields
Text fieldText field, focusedText field, emptyShort fieldShort field, focusedText box, active
Filter chips
Chip, selectedChip
Dropdown
Dropdown, closedDropdown, openDropdown, an option selected
Buttons
AddNew

Key screens

Fig. 04 — Landing: turn alive on · Home: today's top five, my teams, the featured match · Device setup: goggle on, screen off
Fig. 04 — Landing: turn alive on · Home: today's top five, my teams, the featured match · Device setup: goggle on, screen off
Fig. 05 — Waiting room: countdown, event description, live chat · Live chat expanded · Profile: history, liked videos, learn more about VR
Fig. 05 — Waiting room: countdown, event description, live chat · Live chat expanded · Profile: history, liked videos, learn more about VR

The headset

Fig. 06 — Fealive headset: the final model, two views
Fig. 06 — Fealive headset: the final model, two views

The view inside answers the research directly: pick your camera, see the stats, keep your friends in the frame. Two things a seat can’t give you — a touchline at your feet and a translation of the commentary — are the whole argument.

Fig. 07 — Startup: your game, and the games around it
Fig. 07 — Startup: your game, and the games around it
Fig. 08 — Camera picker: positions around the pitch, from the stands to the touchline
Fig. 08 — Camera picker: positions around the pitch, from the stands to the touchline
Fig. 09 — Player stats, on the playerGesture control: an EMG wristband reads the signal from brain to fingers; eye tracking follows the look; a rotate gesture turns the volume
Fig. 09 — Player stats, on the player · Gesture control: an EMG wristband reads the signal from brain to fingers; eye tracking follows the look; a rotate gesture turns the volume
Fig. 10 — Inside the event: the tactical view from above the pitch · live captions and translation, with the broadcast picture-in-picture
Fig. 10 — Inside the event: the tactical view from above the pitch · live captions and translation, with the broadcast picture-in-picture
Fig. 11 — A celebration, up close · meeting friends in the stands
Fig. 11 — A celebration, up close · meeting friends in the stands

The business case

Priced per event, like a ticket — and the seat count is not limited by the building.

$120kcapture rig — 8 cameras × $15,000
$6.8kproduction team, per event
$17.6kstreaming, per 20,000 viewers
$600kplatform build and upkeep

Against that: 20,000 viewers × $30 × 120 events a year ≈ $72M — a revenue stream beyond the capacity of the stadium, from fans who were never going to be in it.

What we learned

  1. Barriers are logistical and emotional. Engagement and social interaction mattered as much as accessibility and convenience.
  2. Technology versus usability. However immersive VR can be, people hesitate if setup feels complicated. Low friction is the feature.
  3. Accessibility is reach. Reducing distance, noise and crowd barriers lets more people take part — that’s the audience venues gain.
  4. Next: stronger social interaction, personalisation, and venue partnerships.

Running the sprint

I designed UX alongside the team and ran the project as Scrum Master: ten weeks, two sprints, a kick-off and a final.

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 Kick-off Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Final plan secondary secondary research plan primary conduct primary research gather data wireframes product model prototype · 3D present
Fig. 12 — Ten weeks, two sprints

The film

Fig. 13 — Fealive, the vision film (0:49)
Jiwoo · Will · Jeffery · MaddySCAD · UXDG 390 · Winter 2026

Turn every moment on, feel alive.

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