BBC, The3DFirm present live 3-D HDTV rugby delivered via satellite
Mar 18, 2008 8:10 PM
A select group of rugby fans gathered at Riverside Studios watched a 3-D HDTV presentation of a match between Scotland and England this month.
The BBC tested a live 3-D HDTV presentation of the RBS Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and England March 8 to a select audience at Riverside Studios in London.
The test, a joint venture of BBC Sport and The3DFirm, a consortium of media communications firm Can Communicate, 3-D specialist Inition and hire and post house Axis Films, required six months of preparations.
The3DFirm spent six months testing live 3-D with BBC Resources. The3DFirm and BBC Resources produced a stereoscopic (2X HDTV) signal from a three-camera production from Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh and delivered the signal via satellite to an audience invited to view the 3-D presentation in London.
The3DFirm and BBC Resources relied on three stereoscopic camera pairs to capture the rugby action, which was delivered to London via satellite.
The event at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith relied on big-screen projection to create a sense of 3-D immersion among the audience as it watched the production capture by 3-D camera rigs from The3DFirm.
The event is believed to be the first-ever live test screening of an international sports event in 3-D HDTV delivered via satellite. The effort required bouncing “dual HD signals around” via satellite and re-encoding them to create the 3-D experience that closely resembled the visual experience of actually being at the stadium, said BBC Sport Innovations Executive Aashish Chandarana.
The Riverside Studios, site of the 3-D HDTV presentation, was formerly owned by the BBC and served as the location of the BBC's first broadcast of color transmissions in 1967.
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