NFL Looks at 3D

Several sports have done some recent
experimenting with 3-D broadcasting, and next week, the NFL gets in on
the action. The Wall Street Journal reports that next week’s game
between the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders will be broadcast
live in 3-D to theaters in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston as a
preliminary step on the long road to regular 3-D production.

The several hundred guests at the three participating theaters Dec. 4
will include representatives of the NFL’s broadcasting partners and
consumer-electronics companies. Burbank, CA-based 3ality
Digital LLC will shoot the game with special cameras and transmit it to
a satellite. Thomson SA’s Technicolor Digital Cinema is providing the satellite services and
digital downlink to each theater, and Real D 3D Inc. will power the
display in the theaters.
This isn’t the first time the NFL has participated in a 3-D experiment.
In 2004, a predecessor company to 3ality filmed the Super Bowl between
the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers. When Sandy Climan,
3ality’s CEO, shows the footage, “people crouch
down to catch the ball,” he says. “It’s as if the ball is coming into
your arms.”

Read the full story here.