Turin. 10th June 2010

The EBU Technical Assembly saw the first live global delivery of a 3DTV programme, the opening match of the World Cup, Mexico vs South Africa. 

This is the first of 25 matches to be shot in 3D TV and delivered to broadcasters and cinemas throughout the world.  What was it like to watch it?   There is a story of a bishop asking his curate what his rather elderly boiled egg tasted like, to which the curate  replied it was 'iit was good in parts, my lord'.   The picture quality of the first  3D match was also 'good in parts'. 

The system used a technology called 'Side by Side' and the pictures were shot with interlace scanning, so some softening of detail might have been expected. Sometimes we were presented with nice crisp three dimensional football players, but often when they moved quickly across the melted into somehing of a blur.   The Captions with the 'score' sat nicely and gently a short distance in front of the screen. 

But at regular intervals an ultra large FIFA logo 'swooshed' accross and out of the screen, leaving you wondering whether to 'duck'.   So, overall, it was an interesting first for television and for 3D, but there is some more work to do,  principally removing the blurring on movement.    The production in 3D in South Africa was done by Sony, and the satellite delivery was operated by OpenSky-Eutelsat.

You probably know the  match score by now:  3DTV 1, Viewers 0.5.