FSN Southwest, Dallas Mavericks present regular-season 3-D HD game

[Slomo]

FSN Southwest, Dallas Mavericks present regular-season 3-D HD game tonight

Mar 25, 2008 8:13 AM


FSN Southwest and the Dallas Mavericks will provide a look into the future of sports television tonight when they team with PACE to produce the first-ever NBA regular-season game live in 3-D HD using the PACE Fusion 3D camera.

Tonight’s Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Clippers game from the American Airlines Center in Dallas will be beamed across town via satellite into Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s Magnolia Theater in Dallas’ West Village, where an invitation-only audience will watch the contest projected by a Sony SXRD 3-D projection system on an 18ft by 42ft screen through special 3-D glasses.

FSN Southwest will use the proprietary PACE/Cameron Fusion Sports System to capture the action on the court and deliver a unique depth of field perspective to the Magnolia Theater audience. Each of the four 3-D systems that will be used is designed with two HD cameras, one each to capture the left eye and right eye imagery separately creating a 3-D effect.

The 3-D HD production will be separate from FSN Southwest’s game telecast and will use the Mavericks’ radio call. During timeouts and TV commercial breaks, the 3-D HD systems will cover the on-court festivities, allowing fans watching in the theater to experience the in-arena atmosphere.

Sony's CineAlta 4K digital cinema projectors will be used for this event, with two SRX-R110 4K projectors in a double-stacked configuration.

http://broadcastengineering.com/hdtv...avericks_0325/

[Shank]

2 days ago. Didn't hear how the showing went, but the 3-D cameras at the AAC were pretty cool.

[monosylab1k]

I think Spurminator said he went to this. Sounds awesome.

[Slomo]

I'm interested to hear from someone who was there. Possibly somebody who is no a pro but just a spectator.

I'm pretty familiar with the tech standards and the equipment described in the article and it's some seriously badass hardware, but the perception or experience by the viewers is the only thing that matters.

[ambchang]

This is so cool, just saw U23D not too long ago, and I wish movie, TV show I see could be like this in the short future.

But why would they choose Clipper game for it? Guaranteed victory?

[lefty]

Chocking in 3D-HD ?

Must be spectacular

[Spurminator]

How far are we from having HD 3D channels? They clearly have the technology for live games (the showing was a great success, IMO, with only a couple of minor glitches during the game.) And they've shot plenty of movies in 3D in the last 25 years.

Now that so many people have big-ass HD TVs, I'm surprised there's no 3D channel available.

[Shank]

Chocking in 3D-HD ?

Must be spectacular

Fail.

[Spurminator]

I'm interested to hear from someone who was there. Possibly somebody who is no a pro but just a spectator.

I'm pretty familiar with the tech standards and the equipment described in the article and it's some seriously badass hardware, but the perception or experience by the viewers is the only thing that matters.

It was awesome. I especially liked the courtside angles that really enhanced the 3D effect. I would gladly pay the cost of a movie ticket to do it again.

[Spurminator]

But I am pretty easily amused

Everyone I was with enjoyed it as well, but many people left at half time. Most of us were there by invitation of our FSN contacts, so it might have been an even better fan experience if the place had been packed with actual basketball fans.

[Holmes_Fans]

I wouldn't doubt this becoming a regular thing for at least the big team games that FSN and TXA 21 show. Cuban knows how to make money and this could sell out a movie theater at $10 a pop.

If it went real well, I also wouldn't doubt HDNet to have some kind of 3d programming in the next few years.

[lefty]

Fail.

I know, Mavericks always fail

[Slomo]

How far are we from having HD 3D channels? They clearly have the technology for live games (the showing was a great success, IMO, with only a couple of minor glitches during the game.) And they've shot plenty of movies in 3D in the last 25 years.

Now that so many people have big-ass HD TVs, I'm surprised there's no 3D channel available.

First thanks for the info. I've seen demos of it at NAB, but as I already said technology must prove itself in real life applications.

The technology is there, but it's expensive and at this point experimental, so the problem is what kind of programming/setup could cover that cost.

Bandwith is another issue since it looks much better on 1080p than 1080i (it looses some of its sharpness on 1080i) which requires double the bandwith. Nobody is transmiting 1080p yet. The PACE/Cameron camera mentioned in the article is actually capable of shooting in a progressive 4k resolution (twice the hor. pixels of 1080), which would require approx. 4 times the 1080p bandwith for distribution/transmission - even harder to do .

[Viva Las Espuelas]

there's no need to see crap in 3D. i'll just turn around before i flush and save the cash.