The 100 meter final of the Olympics to be held in London most probably would be available to TV viewers in 3D format, thanks to the efforts at hand by BBC. The British broadcasting service is also trying to have in place a new technology whose quality they claim would be 16 times better that that of the present HDTV.

The coverage of the 100 meter event as well as other events are part of the corporations plans as a limited experiment as per Roger Mosey who is the BBC executive in charge of the London 2012 Olympic coverage. He mentioned this while attending the International Television festival held at Edinburgh.

Usain Bolt who was disqualified due to a false start at the World Championship that was held this Sunday would be competing at the London Olympic and maybe able to get back some of his lost pride.

For delivering high quality pictures which would resemble something quite close to a live show BBC is going to put to test a new technology named ‘super hi-vision’. This technology is at its concept stages and would take a decade or so to be developed into a commercial option. BBC is setting up 15 meter or 50 feet giant screens at three locations for the people to see this imagery.

Mosey said, “When you sit and watch it you really get the experience of being in seat D5 in the stadium. Super hi-vision might be a better long-term prospect than 3D in some ways as it gives you the feel of being in the stadium. People are knocked out by it.”

The screens are supposed to be erected at the corporations Pacific Quay building in Glasgow. In London itself the screen would be set up at the Broadcasting House and if negotiations that are ongoing work out then also one at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

The technology to be used comprises of one camera taking the shot using a wide aperture and as BBC has stated they also wish to broadcast the Opening Ceremony as well using this technology. The technology has been used for capturing events like basketball and other such sporting ones that are played at the big stadiums and has been successful.

As far as availability and adaptability of this technology goes, Mosey has mentioned that Sharp would be coming up with a 215 cm or 85 inch TV using the super hi-vision technology that would be available only after 2022.

BBC has been known to be the first that televised the Olympic Games when it was hosted once again in London in 1948. Olympic also has been an event where technology has always been experimented with.

Evidence of this can be seen from the fact that use of HDTV cameras was first conducted in 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympics and then in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics did BBC broadcast the entire event in HD.

The 3D broadcast of the London Olympics would however not be for all the events as per Mosey as they would then have to stop their HD broadcasting programs.

Mosey states, “It is fair to say there is a trade-off between 3D and HD. We don’t want to damage the mass audience that watches HD with [too much] 3D, which is viewed by a minority.”

The men’s and women’s final of the Wimbledon had been televised live and in 3D by BBC earlier this year.

via guardian

Sovan Mandal  (446 Posts)

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com and 3D Specialist. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email