A List to Overcome in the Learning Curve of 3D Sports

The current driver of the 3D revolution is sport, sport and sport 토토사이트. But like the Apollo missions each "flight" has produced successes, lessons to be learned, and a list of problems to overcome.

Just why 3D sports has such a significant role in 3D Television is a mixed bag. For one, major sports naturally generate a large viewing audience to showcase new technologies to receive the largest feedback and reaction.

Also, sports uniquely offers sponsorship opportunities to offset some of the additional costs both through partnering (as per Sony with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, LG with CBS Sports' Final Four, and Panasonic with the 2010 French Open), and through specialized / targeted advertising campaigns.

Sport also naturally lends itself to 3D, with movement ( motion parallax ), trajectory of objects, and players in front of players ( occlusion ) naturally assisting the depth perception and therefore "realism" of the effect.

In other words - sport looks good in 3D.

However there already has been a steep learning curve, and the recognition of some on going challenges.

Two Coverages in One When shooting and broadcasting an event, production needs to include both a 2D and 3D version, two coverages in one. Whilst it is great to be shooting in 3D, the saturation of 3D televisions is still extremely low, and the mainstay - normal 2D coverage - still has to be maintained, and therefore there are two crews.

"We don't plan on having one for one for the two crews," commented ESPN Vice President of Emerging Technology Anthony Bailey, "[by sharing staff across both productions], instead of having maybe 50 extra people, we would have 25, so that costs would rise, say, 50% rather than 200%".

There are technical opportunities for reducing the infrastructure costs, say with a single camera unit recording both the 3D and 2D images instead of the current two separated devices, but there are operation issues to be considered like below.

Style Differences between 2D and 3D Shooting One of the consistent feedbacks from all the production heads after managing a 3D telecast is the style difference between shooting for 3D versus 2D. For example, shots need to be wider than usual to allow more players, objects, fans, and coaches to lend depth to the image.

Criticism of the first Australian 3D broadcast of the Socceroos on Fox Sports was too low to the ground led to a change in style to shots being further from the action to take it all in, but often going lower to enhance the 3D.

"With 3D you've got to be very careful. Everything has to be slower and more gentle. All the pans and zooms have to be a lot slower because of convergence. [The convergence people] decide what part of the 3D image is going to be in focus" said Soames Treffry, Director of Fox Sports Australia.

"If you try and do any of that too quickly, effectively you'll give people motion sickness and make them crook, and you don't want your viewers throwing up. In 2D we have a heap of cameras and you can cut quickly and move things around far more dynamically."

This may make the technical ability of sharing 2D and 3D camera devices prohibitive.

Even fans can become a problem, "If you get camera positions where even the smallest of fans jump up in front of the lens, that's kind of annoying," said Ken Aagaard, SVP Operations and Production, CBS Sports. "So all of us are going to have to look at camera positions even more selectively to make sure that it's really going to be able to work properly."

Training and Staff Not only is there a level of extra staff required, but then there is the training required. Camera Operators are the most obvious, but there are also the prep technicians, production staff - everyone. For the Australian State of Origin Rugby in 3D broadcast by Channel 9, specialist camera and associated staff were flown in from overseas to assist the production.

There even have been surprise occupation and health issues with the weighty 3D dual camera rigs. At up to 60 lbs CBS Sports found they needed to rotate their operators every 20 minutes spoiling their rhythm. Reacting to the action and moving the equipment proved more difficult and complex than the previous 2D systems.

Too much 3D Feedback from fans on early ESPN broadcasts included some 3D graphics to be distracting and as a result, ESPN is now trying to make certain it doesn't overuse 3D effects.

Striking the balance can be difficult, though some are natural successes; "The team line-ups were amazing - you were actually in them. You saw the shot develop from the goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and strikers; and it just came around you," said Soames Treffry of Fox Sports Socceroo coverage.

So some interesting challenges ahead. However the both the manufacturing and broadcast industries appear committed to making 3D television and 3D sports in particular a a success.