BSkyB Declares Its ‘Alcostereoscopic’ 3D Soccer Test A Success

BSkyB’s campaign, begun in April, to broadcast weekly soccer matches in 3D to 1,000 pubs in the U.K. has been a success, Chris Johns, BSkyB’s chief engineer, told the Broadcast & Beyond conference in London Wednesday. “People who want to be ‘alcostereoscopics,’ and watch 3D TV with glasses over their eyes and a glass in their hand can go to our Pub Finder website (http://3d.sky.com/pubfinder) and find their nearest 3D pub,” Johns said.

Seven in 10 people who have viewed the broadcasts rate the experience an “8” or higher on a scale of zero to 10, Johns said. “Already 2.5 million people in the U.K. have Sky HD PVRs that can receive and record 3D,” he said. “Viewers with 3D TV sets can already use them to watch a show reel and we will launch a full home channel in the autumn. It will be free to top-tier HD subscribers and work on the appointment-to-view basis with three or four sports, film or entertainment programs per week, and a Wow show reel running the rest of the time. We anticipate 1 million 3D screens in U.K. homes by the end of 2011. Our big goal is to show the London Olympics in 3D in 2012."

Stressing that Sky’s side-by-side 3D format can be viewed on either passive polarization sets (such as those from LG, JVC or Hyundai) or active-shutter TVs (from Panasonic, Sony or Samsung), Johns dismissed old anaglyph as “sweet wrapper 3D” or “poor man’s 3D.” Sky is using passive polarization in pubs because “passive is winning in the cinema and shutter glasses suffer from the ‘my batteries have died’ syndrome, Johns said. Of active-shutter glasses costing upwards of $150 to replace, Johns said they're “not much fun for a family of five with a dog that chews glasses."

Sky is no advocate of 2D-to-3D conversion “because we are worried about the damage that poor conversion can do to 3D’s reputation,” Johns said. “We don’t worry about conversion in post-production houses because they have skilled engineers to reject what’s not good. We have used it ourselves to produce 3D adverts, with manual control of the pseudo 3D effect. But we don’t accept automated push button conversion. Although of course if viewers are happy to set the threshold high and watch distorted pictures, it’s up to them.”