Panasonic Shows Live 3D at U.K. Rollout On Consumer Plasma TVs

LONDON -- The rapid rate of progress in 3D technology was evident at Panasonic’s rollout for the U.K. Wednesday. That event also was attended by broadcaster BSkyB, whose satellite 3D service begins Saturday with live soccer coverage.

Panasonic demonstrated its Full HD 3D technology with a live music event at London’s famed Air Lyndhurst studios, founded by Beatles producer George Martin. While singer-composer Paul Carrack and his group played live in the main studio, guests watched in 3D first on a 103-inch plasma screen next door, then on 50-inch and 65-inch production-model 3D TVs elsewhere in the building.

"It was a very ambitious thing to do. For instance running graphics and credits live over the live performance,” said Peter van Hooke, the musician who was producing the Paul Carrack performance. “We were here all night getting it ready. It’s bespoke (custom-made)technology."

The 3D effect was noticeably better on the production models than the 103-inch plasma, which Panasonic introduced in September 2008 and mostly uses for special events and trade shows. “We are all on a learning curve,” said Fabrice Estornel, Panasonic’s plasma TV product manager, when we asked about 3D artifacts that were clearly noticeable on the 103-inch screen but far less evident on the 50-inch and 65-inch sets. They go on sale this month and in July, respectively.

"The 103-inch screen is first generation 3D, the production models are second generation optimized for newer glasses,” Estornel told us. We checked and confirmed that the shutter glasses provided for viewing the first-generation 103-inch screen would not work with the newer production TVs. On the 103-inch screen, the live 3D depth sometimes appeared extreme, with noticeable crosstalk and double images on musicians’ heads and microphone stands. Foreground objects sometimes appeared transparent like ghosts.

Three camera units were used in the studio to capture the live performance. Because production models of Panasonic’s twin-lens 3D camcorders were not available, the camera rigs had to be built from two separate 1080p 2D cameras, strapped together with no zoom facility. The physical size of the cameras made it impossible to space them as close as needed for ideal lens separation. This was causing the ghost artifacts on the 103-inch screen, we were told.

Panasonic’s 50-inch and 65-inch 3D TVs proved far better at coping with this challenge. When the same source was viewed on the consumer sets, the crosstalk was significantly reduced. The production sets also showed no crosstalk when screening 3D trailers for 3D movies Astro Boy and Avatar.

Brian Lenz, BSkyB’s director of product development, was on hand to give an update on Sky’s 3D broadcasting plans. After successful trials at nine pubs, Sky’s dedicated 3D channel is now on air with a 3D test logo, at channel 217. The service “kick off” is slated for Saturday, with a soccer match between Manchester United and Chelsea beamed live to more than a thousand pubs and clubs where Sky has installed LG’s passive polarizing TVs. After keeping the nine pubs secret to most would-be viewers, Sky has now set up a “finder” website where fans can locate their nearest 3D pub.

Following this Saturday’s game, Sky will show at least five more Premier League games in 3D before the May 9 end of the current soccer season, then will air the Coca-Cola Football League Play-Off Finals from Wembley Stadium at the end of May. “We have not had to push 3D,” Lenz said. “We have been pulled along by public interest. We are at the beginning of a long, strange trip, but an exciting one."

All Sky’s broadcasts will use the side-by-side format, Lenz told us. The broadcaster has a strategy for backing up its promise that “the consumer doesn’t have to worry -- our broadcasts are compatible with all 3D TVs, including Panasonic’s, which use active shuttering rather than passive polarization."

As part of that strategy, later this year Sky will send a software update over the air to all existing Sky HD PVR receivers. The software will “teach” the old box how to send out new HDMI Version 1.4 control codes for 3D from the existing Version 1.3 connectors on the boxes. Until then, owners of 3D TVs will have to use the set’s on-screen menu options to select side-by-side 3D display. As the newer HDMI Version 1.4a connectors are phased into hardware, as they must be on TVs after June, the sets should automatically recognize any 3D format, including side-by-side and top-bottom 3D signals. “Also, our new remote controls will be programmable to send 3D codes,” Lenz told us. “We want to try and keep things simple."

Panasonic later showed us how its 3D TVs are set up with a menu choice of Auto, Side-by-Side and Top-Bottom. The live 3D feed from the studio had been sent to the 3D TVs as a side-by-side signal. When we asked Sony in early March how its frame-sequential 3D TVs would handle Sky’s 3D signals, the company first said it “had not tested them.” Two weeks later, Sony said that Sky’s service is “event based, rather than a linear 24/7 channel, so if you loaded up 3D content the TV would switch automatically. However, the TV can cope with both top-to-bottom and side-by-side methods of broadcasting, so whichever Sky finally decides to use, the TV will be compatible.” Sony now says “The TV will automatically detect whether the broadcast is top-bottom or side-side and switch automatically.” So far, Sony hasn’t demonstrated this automation for us.

* * * * *

There’s no copy protection so far for over-air HD broadcasts from the U.K.’s Freeview, which began this week (CED March 31 p4). At Panasonic’s 3D rollout Wednesday, the company also demonstrated Freeview HD. The demo proved that all three participating channels, BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, are now transmitting in HD. The demo also showed that Channel 4 and ITV were using the “Copy Once” option of the copy control system, which lets broadcasters choose between Copy Free, Copy Once or Copy Never. The BBC is using Copy Free for now. Freeview addressed the issue at a March 30 London briefing. “We are launching without protection,” said Caroline Thomson, Freeview chair and BBC chief operating officer. “Freeview is unencrypted but we believe it is very important to have some form of copy protection for rights holders. Ofcom is consulting on this and the period closes this weekend,” she said, referring to the U.K.’s telecom regulator. Copying is a moot point for add-on Freeview HD set-top PVRs, like those from Humax and Pace. That’s because they have no outputs to transfer the HD recordings from the PVR’s internal drive to an external copying device. The only output from the boxes is HDMI, directly to HD-Ready TVs and copy-protected. Second generation HD set-tops are expected to accommodate whatever means of archiving that Ofcom and Freeview approve. Separately, Panasonic dealer-trainer Mathew Billing found out purely by chance that the company’s wireless HDTV and Blu-ray products don’t let copyrighted material leak from the home. Billing told us that when he was setting up a Wi-Fi 802.11n router to stream HDTV between Blu-ray and TV components, he learned that the link would only work if standard Wi-Fi encryption like WEP was enabled. When it is, outsiders can’t pick up the HD signals from the home’s wireless network.