ESPN 3D Launches NBA Schedule With Six Robotic Cameras, First 3D Flycam

Potential seat kills led ESPN to designate six of its nine 3D cameras as robotic models as opposed to manned cameras at Friday’s first NBA basketball game televised on ESPN 3D, according to Anthony Bailey, vice president of emerging technologies at ESPN. Seat kills are the practice of putting cameras where paying customers ordinarily would sit. Bailey told Consumer Electronics Daily at a special TV viewing of the Miami Heat-New York Knicks game at New York’s Madison Square Garden that seat kills will remain an issue for 3D sports telecasts. He said games held in arenas as opposed to larger football stadiums are especially susceptible to seat kills.

The Knicks-Heat game was a test, Bailey said. “We wanted to make sure we can do a game of this caliber with six robotic cameras,” he said. Producer Phil Orlins has described using robotic cameras as “looking through a periscope,” Bailey said, because he only sees what the camera sees. The producer misses what a cameraman would pick up from being able to look around the lens and from peripheral vision, Bailey said.

ESPN also used the event to audition its first 3D “flycam,” a robotic camera tethered to the top four corners of the arena for use as the action camera for the game. ESPN used a 2D version of the flycam for its US Open tennis coverage last summer and rigged it for 3D use. In our experience, the camera did a good job following the action. But we found the 3D image to be so “soft” that we asked Bailey where the game was being shot in HD 3D. Bailey said softness can be caused by “painting,” which can occur when the color matching between the two 3D cameras in a rig “may be a bit off.” He said the game was shot in 720/60Hz, like the HD broadcast, and we were seeing a “pure feed direct from the truck."

We were disappointed that the 7-foot-tall players didn’t look supersized in most of the 3D action. The overhead shots from the flycam seemed to diminish their height a bit, and the presentation didn’t appear markedly different from one in 2D. Close-up shots captured the 3D effect, and we got the sense of the overall breadth of the arena on shots where we could see the ball boys, referees and other support personnel in front of the crowds at each end.

There were a couple of incidents where players looked like “little people,” an effect we noticed in CBS’ NCAA coverage during March Madness this year. “The little people happen when you're in the further corner and trying to zoom in,” Bailey said. It’s something “all of us are trying to work on because it’s tough when you go from a big person and then he becomes a little person from a different angle,” he said.

The event was co-sponsored by Sony, which supplied a pair of big-screen TVs for the event. We were glad to find that the glasses didn’t fall off the head, a nice contrast to events this year sponsored by Panasonic, where we had to hold the first-gen glasses to keep them from sliding off. The downside to the Sony glasses, though, was a snug fit where the frames hit the back of the head. At the 4:12 mark in the first quarter, a headache set in that lasted until halftime. The 3D effect didn’t cause the ache, a problem that has been reported.

Three 3D commercials cycled through the event. One was a familiar ESPN 3D commercial featuring Los Angeles Dodger Andrew Ethier. Another commercial, by Sony, touted the upcoming Tostitos BCS NCAA football game to be shown in 3D, and the third was a 3D commercial from Philips for a Norelco razor called 3D.

The telecast was the first of eight NBA games that ESPN will air this season. Bailey said there’s lots to learn and each arena presents unique challenges. He said the network wants cameras down low to make the most of 3D, “but these seats cost the most.” That will always be a problem with indoor arenas, “where seating is at a premium,” Bailey said. In a football stadium, cameras can typically be placed on a wall above spectators’ heads, he said, but indoors, there’s no such wall. “We can’t place a camera where we want to because there’s a guy sitting in front.”