The State Farm Neighborhood Fan Cave at Jacksonville's Everbank Field had a remarkable new offering for their first NFL game of the season Sunday between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Indianapolis Colts. Powered by 3D-4U's Twirls Media technology, fans had an opportunity to watch the game live in an Oculus Rift headset. The Oculus Rift, a Virtual Reality Headset created by Oculus VR (a company recently acquired by Facebook), is expected to capture the imagination of the masses as a next generation platform for gaming and for event viewing.

"I was amazed that I could look around while the game was being played – it was like I was right there," said one enthusiastic fan. "Being able to control where I was looking really made it fun to watch live action and replays and follow what I wanted to see."

The Jaguars are committed to bringing leading-edge technologies to their fans to improve overall fan experience at the stadium. Their goal is to ensure that the in-stadium experience is one that cannot be replicated anywhere else.  The Oculus Rift is a tremendous addition to the game day experience in the Fan Cave -- there was great interest by fans to put on the Oculus Rift and enjoy the immersive VR experience. 

"This is another example of the kind of in-stadium innovation we are bringing to the game day experience that we want to make available for our fans," said Jaguars SVP Fan Engagement Hussain Naqi. "Not only can fans be on site to enjoy the atmosphere, they can utilize offerings like this Virtual Reality based technology to experience the game in a totally new way."

3D-4U is a world-leader in providing a unique individualized and user-controlled futuristic viewing experience.  This immersion technology gives users the feeling of actually standing on the sidelines of a football game or in the first row at a concert. Users can look around to see what interests them. 3D-4U unveiled its technology in 2012 at Washington State University. 3D-4U's team of highly regarded Virtual Reality experts is the first to utilize its real–time 3D sports content as an immersive experience for the virtual reality headset.

"The Twirls Media platform is a robust and mature platform for the next generation of user-controlled media for devices ranging from smart phones to the Oculus Rift," said Jay Jayaram, President of 3D-4U, Inc. "Following successful events in several continents for international soccer, American football and concerts, we are very pleased to partner with the Jaguars to bring this experience for the first time to NFL fans. We are blending entertainment, social media and gaming to create something that they have never experienced before."

At EverBank Field, as the season progresses, the second-screen mobile app version of this experience will be available to fans in the stadium bleachers.