Sky 3D Live Screening: Paul Charity reports
It was high excitement at a Fuller’s pub in Ealing on Sunday afternoon afternoon as we gathered to watch the first ever live broadcast of a Premiership match in 3D.
3D TV: a world first for sports broadcasting
There was security on the door as we filed into the previously secret location for the viewing — tickets were at a premium and the screening had been organised with all the secrecy of the Normandy beach landings.
Taking our seats we were treated to a number of trails of other sports - a few clips of rugby looked particularly impressive.
Fellow spectators even produced a few whoops of joy during a rugby clip. And the graphics certainly make full use of the 3D technology — information like team-sheets and logos fly off the screen at you.
A pair of revolving 3D glasses on screen indicate when the action is about to start. But what of the Arsenal versus Manchester United game itself?
Well, it was a game of two halves really. What works well is the low shots of players coming on to the pitch, with, at last, proper foregrounding and perspective.
Likewise, occasional crowd shots also provide all the perspective you would want. Less good at the moment is the game itself where everything looks a lot like it did before except the screen is blurred without your special 3D glasses.
The speed with which the ball moves around the pitch mean most shots need to be aerial ones, so there isn’t a lot of three-dimensional in evidence.
Nevertheless, you can imagine 3D working a lot better with a more static, less aerial sport like rugby where tight ground-shots of the scrum would offer plenty of 3D menace.
Presumably, it’s still early days and this technology will just carry on improving. It would certainly be interesting to see how it looks on a really big screen.
For now there’s certainly novelty value in a pub offering a 3D experience (together with logistical headaches handing out and taking back the 3D glasses which cost around £1 a pair at the moment).
No quantum leap
But, also at the moment, this isn’t the quantum leap in the quality of the pub-based viewing experience we might have hoped for.
The broadcast on Sunday was to give fans a taste of live 3D football ahead of the April launch of Sky’s dedicated 3D channel.
Sky kitted out nine pubs, including venues in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Dublin, with LG’s new 47-inch LD920 3D TVs. And the firm transmitted two live feeds from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium — one to their traditional customers as well as the one in 3D.
It is hoped that the 3D technology will make the glasses unnecessary within a few years. Sky operations director Darren Long said: “It’s not a gimmick — 3D is going to get better and better.
“You can see the swerve of the ball, where the players are in relation to one another. You have a perception of depth which you have never had before.
“When you watch a golfer putting in 2D it looks flat — it looks easy. When you see it in 3D, you can see every bump and contour on the green and you really appreciate their skill.”
From April, viewers in hundreds of other pubs will be able to see Premiership matches in 3D before it is made available to all subscribers.
Fuller’s pub boss Simon Emeny, who watched the game in 3D on Sunday at the Fuller’s pub in Ealing, said: “It’s great to see Sky doing something exclusive for the pub trade, encouraging more people to use pubs.”
To Comment: Login or Register