3D Sports Finds Wider Audience With BCS Game
George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 1/13/2009 7:36:00 AM
In the latest example of the growing buzz over 3D high-definition, attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show and paying customers in over 80 theaters around the country watched a 3D production of the University of Florida Gators beating the Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS Championship game.
That made the event the most widely distributed 3D sports production to date, said RealD CEO and chairman Michael Lewis. RealD provides software that allowed digital projectors to display 3D images and the 3D glasses used to view the game.
“The previous demonstrations that we have done in the past have been for a select audience,” Lewis said. “This [was] the first time it [was] widely available to the commercial public, who [were] able to go to a theater in many areas and watch the game live in 3D.”
Consumer interest in the technology seems strong. The Wall Street Journal reported that many of the participating theaters, which were charging consumers $18 to $22, had sold all their tickets by the day of the game.
The game was shot using 3ality Digital’s image capture technology and produced with Fox Sports, which ran the game in regular HD for TV viewers. The 3D version was then transmitted live to theaters via Cinedigm’s CineLive satellite distribution network. At the Theater des Arts in Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, where CES attendees viewed the game in 3D, Sony provided SXRD 4K projection technology that used RealD’s 3D system — including eyewear, screen and filtering technology.
During the first half of the game there were some problems with the audio at the Vegas venue. The problem was apparently limited to the satellite link to the Theatre des Arts and did not affect the quality of viewing in any of the other theaters around the country. The audio problems were corrected in the second half.
Real D’s Lewis said the successful transmission of the 3D event to over 80 theaters around the country is an important step in the commercialization of 3D technologies and that it highlights the increased interest in 3D sports production.
The first NFL game was recently produced in 3-D, and on February 14, the NBA will team with TNT to produce a 3-D version of the All Star game that will run in theaters.
Still, much work needs to be done before 3-D sporting events become a profitable business. “We need to have more 3-D-enabled screens for the economics to work,” Lewis said. “When we are talking about this production [the BCS game], I would underscore the word experimental. This was not going to be a money making venture for the people involved.”
In the motion picture sector, Lewis said 3-D technology has been quickly embraced by studios and exhibitors. While the technology was tried in the 1950s, newer digital versions launched a few years ago, when a 3-D version of Chicken Little hit theaters in the fall of 2005.
“A year and a half ago we were at 400 or 500 screens but now we’re at 1,600 and will hit 8,000 screens within 24 months,” Lewis said. By the end of 2009 he expects there will be about 4,000 screens.
The amount of content is also growing. “We now have over 30 3-D movies that are on the release schedule over the next 36 months,” he said.
A key reason for the relatively rapid deployment, he adds, has been increased revenue. “Exhibitors have been able to charge a premium because it is a better experience and a lot more people showed up for movies shown in 3-D than for the same movie shown in 2-D,” he said.
The transition to 3-D on television will probably much take longer, however.
Currently, Lewis estimates that there are a “few million” DLP sets that are capable of displaying 3-D images and manufacturers are planning to introduce LCD screens capable of airing 3-D content. But there are no standards, making it impossible to create content that will work on all different TVs.
“Our position has been that it will be three to five years before you have a significant installed base in the home market and it is probably closer to five than three years,” Lewis said.
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