Last weekend, the BBC delivered a first for the UK broadcasting industry by relaying a Rugby Six Nations Scotland v. England match in 3D HD via satellite to a hand-picked audience seated in breathless expectation at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. This ‘closed circuit’ 3D trial (the rest of us had to put up with the 2D version, of course) was the result of a joint partnership between BBC Sport and a group of specialist companies called The 3DFirm, which had put the special 3D camera rigs together for the event. Three cameras were used – essentially dual Sony HDC950 units – one high up to get a broad view of the match and two located at pitch level. The dual HD video streams were multiplexed, transmitted, demultiplexed at the Riverside venue and combined for stereoscopic projection before the especially be-spectacled audience.
Great stuff, but (impressive technology accepted) almost as Heath-Robinson as the very early days of audio ‘stereo’ broadcasting trials, which required a standard 625-line TV set that could receive BBC2 and an FM radio (or should I say, wireless set?) tuned to the Third Programme (possibly Radio 3 by then). This author is old enough to remember spending an occasional Saturday morning moving a cumbersome TV set into position, relative to an ageing radiogram, so that both audio channels (one transmitted to the TV along with the test card, the other to the radio) could be experienced correctly. Notwithstanding the disparity of loudspeaker quality and amplifier characteristics – this was broadcasting at the cutting edge and it fired the imagination of this particular listener who, suitably impressed, went on to study electronics at University.
At least the BBC was honest about the fact that its first foray into 3D was only a trial and that nobody quite knew what to expect in terms of audience reaction or, indeed, the engineering. Prior to the broadcast, BBC sport innovations executive, Aashish Chandarana spoke modestly about the venture:
"We're trying to do something no-one's tried before and bounce dual HD signals around and re-encode them as a 3D experience. Editorially it will not be a fast-cut TV experience but more the experience you'd get if you were at Murrayfield. We're experimenting with camera positions. There won't be too many fast-cuts, fast pans or zoom close-ups. The director will be new to this too." Quite so, Mr Chandarana!
Trial or not, like the early stereo audio test broadcasts, this is the shape of things to come (as H G Wells might well have said). Texas Instruments’ DLP 3D technology has already been incorporated into Mitsubishi and Samsung HD TVs, which are selling like hot cakes in the US. You do have to wear the specs to experience the full stereoscopic effect but, by all accounts, it is well worth the bother.
Close on its heels, in commercial terms, are various ‘autostereoscopic’ technologies that provide depth perception without the viewer having to don special 3D viewing spectacles. They are essentially LCD lens overlays or slotted underlays that create the 3D experience via diffractive or parallax effects respectively. Philips’ WOWvx system is a good example of lenticular lens-based display technology. Other autostereoscopic examples include holography, but commercially viable, real time video holographic 3D display technology is some way off yet.
Of course, the one problem with this technologically enhanced entertainment stuff is that you get used to it all too quickly. At least that has been my limited experience with HDTV. So, the next time you flinch as a virtual rugby ball comes hurtling through your 50in flat TV screen, remember there may have been a time when you enjoyed the match just as much as when it played through a 9in wide, flickering, 405-line, black-and-white cathode ray tube – well, perhaps.
Les Hunt
Editor
PS – as this edition of the DPA newsletter was about be broadcast, I got news of Sir Christopher Frayling’s decision to step down from his positions as rector of the Royal College of Art, a post he has held since 1996. Sir Christopher’s involvement with the college actually goes back some 35 years when he was appointed a tutor. His tenure will be remembered by many as a very formative period in the RCA’s history, and particularly for his tireless efforts to forge a close association with Imperial College London, bringing creative design and industrial technology closer together. He plans to leave the college to his successor in the summer of 2009. LH