LAS VEGAS – There’s a 3D pavilion on the show floor, there was a workshop day over the weekend and some serious evangelists for the technology on the show floor, like BSkyB’s Gerry O’Sullivan.
There’s no doubt that for sports and some other special events, high definition three dimensional images – with surround sound – is something to behold. You feel like you’re on the floor with the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard or dancing right beside the Royal Ballet. The “Wow, this is cool!” factor is very high.
O’Sullivan, the director of strategic product development for the U.K.-based pay-TV company is a huge supporter of the “new” technology, which has its origins in 1899 and British inventor William Friese-Greene, he noted.
He believes people won’t balk at having to wear glasses to properly experience 3D because the images are just that stunning.
Pointing at recent Hollywood movie “Monsters vs. Aliens” and the fact that 40 3D movies are currently in production, O’Sullivan notes 3D and the glasses “are winning in the cinema.”
And despite the fact that 3D “is not perfect,” he said in a session yesterday at the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention here in Las Vegas (some shots do look a little weird and it does take a bit for your eye to wander around the frame and take it all in and the image edges can be somewhat distorted) “it’s certainly in a state where we can deliver it to people’s homes,” using existing infrastructure, too.
So far, BSkyB has delivered a few one-off events (boxing, soccer, American Gladiators, a concert) to customers and O’Sullivan has pronounced them a success. He notes however that just as creators had to learn how to shoot differently with HD, 3D takes another skill set altogether too.
To take full advantage, lower camera angles are necessary, lighting can be a challenge and longer cuts are much better so that the viewer can take in what’s going on in the entire frame. “It’s a completely different medium with completely different skill sets,” he said.
Right now, the 3D business model is a theatre-based one thanks to new movies and certain events, like the 80-plus movie houses which showed the 2009 NBA All-Star game.
Those movies are coming to television – but will consumers want to bother with glasses – or perhaps paying more since a single 3DHD stream can consume an entire 6 MHz channel for distributors?
The NBA’s SVP operations and technology Steve Hellmuth thinks so. “Hollywood is building libraries of content that will have people seeking out 3D monitors and blue ray DVDs and content from Comcast and others,” he said.
Another driver? Coming to a console near you: 3D video games. “Many of our young fans know our players from video games rather than TV,” added Hellmuth.
But given the economic times, the gimmicky nature of the product, the fact that people need special glasses to see the images, the fact we’re just now transitioning to digital and HD, let alone another technology – and the bandwidth concerns – 3D, while exceptionally cool, looks to be many years away from mass deployment to consumer homes.
While it may seem like “you’re in Jack’s seat” added Hellmuth, referencing Jack Nicholson’s court-side L.A. Lakers season’s ticket, but so many expensive things have to happen that it will make Jack’s season-ticket cost seem tiny by comparison.
