Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 8, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
According to pressetext.de, however, only invited guests from league-team officials, producers and selected journalists enjoyed the advanced broadcast of the game between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers, the US news portal Newsvine reported.
“The current 3D broadcast should be understood merely as a test run for our friends at the NFL, intended to demonstrate what digital 3D technology can already do today,” explained David Modell, Managing Director of 3ality Digital, the company that developed the three-dimensional broadcasting technology. Standard use of the 3D process in sports coverage should not yet be expected.
“It is not surprising that this novel recording process is being tested for the first time in sports coverage. In the history of new media, sport has often had to serve as an experimental field,” Helmut Digel, Director of the Institute of Sports Science at the University of Tübingen, told pressetext. The first color broadcast and the first digital transmission, for example, also took place in connection with sporting events.
“The United States is once again a pioneer here. But I assume a market for this 3D broadcasting technology will also emerge in Europe,” Digel said. After all, 3D technology offers users an enhanced viewing experience. “Sport is strongly about emotion. With every additional dimension people can perceive, the intensity of the viewing experience increases,” he explained.
Ultimately, 3D technology could also support sport financially. “This will certainly open up some new marketing opportunities,” Digel said.
“With this first test, we want to show that using 3D technology for live sports broadcasts is no longer remotely science fiction. We are not hoping the technology will soon mature; it is already available today,” Modell said. The recording process uses eight special 3D camera teams, which provide the directors with additional footage alongside their traditional 2D counterparts.
While the vast majority of American football fans still had to settle for a two-dimensional video broadcast, images captured by the 3D cameras were transmitted directly to several cinemas in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. “For us, this is a very interesting experiment intended to show what watching a football game in 3D is like,” said Howard Katz, NFL Senior Vice President of Broadcasting and Media. Anything beyond that was pure speculation.
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