Nationally Televised 3D All-Star Game Creates Fans Among Players

During a break in the first nationally televised game in 3D, Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz made undulating motions with his hand, and New York Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher repeatedly made punching motions toward the handheld 3D camera to make the most of the depth plane for TV viewers. “It’s like the first time I've been on the field since 1995,” was the reaction of former New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling to the 3D telecast of the All-Star Game. Darling, an analyst for the Mets network SNY and for TBS, attended a viewing party hosted by co-sponsor Panasonic in Manhattan Tuesday night and told Consumer Electronics Daily: “For all of us who don’t play sports or can’t any more, it brings us into the game in a way we haven’t been able to experience before.” As a former player, Darling said, he was most impressed by a shot from a low home-plate camera on an up-and-in pitch that nearly shaved New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter. “It took me right back to being on the field and what it was like to feel that,” Darling said.

As an announcer who calls games for TBS and the New York Mets, Darling said the additional information in a 3D telecast will require announcers to call games with more awareness. “From the booth, baseball looks easy,” he said. The realism possible with 3D, he said, “makes it seem so much harder.” Comparing the transition to 3D with the one to HD, Darling said, “I remember the first time I watched golf in HD and saw a bead of sweat from Tiger Woods’ forehead drop and stain his shirt. At the time I said ‘it doesn’t get any better than this.’ But to me, with 3D, it has."

Nine cameras were used for the Fox 3D production, including those placed to showcase 3D just to the right of home plate and along first and third bases. A camera down the right-field line focused on right-handed batters but also caught an on-field dugout press area that showed more empty space than viewers probably wanted to see. Another camera was mounted in a static dugout position, which provided some dimension but lacked sharpness at times, detracting from the “you are there” sense of 3D.

When we watched a YES Network broadcast of the Yankees-Seattle Mariners game Sunday on the same Panasonic plasma TVs the All-Star game had been viewed on, there were noticeable differences from the picture of the previous game. YES, which outputs at 1080i, used a longer depth of field to show players, scoreboards and fans in clear focus throughout the frame. Fox, which outputs at 720p, had a softer depth of field. In most Fox shots, the camera determined the focal point by slightly blurring background people and information, the probably aesthetic choice by the network seemed to detract from the 3D effect. There were digital artifacts, including stairstepping on pinstripes and player names on uniforms, and most images didn’t have the crispness or detail of those in the YES game. After we left the 3D event and viewed the 8th and 9th innings on HD via digital cable, we saw a much sharper picture in 2D, with fewer digital artifacts.

During the National Anthem, players and volunteers on the field seemed oddly tiny because of the camera angle, which emphasized the area between the camera and the subjects. The F-18 Hornets that flew over the stadium didn’t create an impact in 3D because there was no use of the depth field, but streamers that fell at the same time delivered a shimmering, live 3D effect. The cable holding the protective net behind home plate showed off the third dimension -- but maybe a little too much, drawing attention to it at first rather than home plate during shots from a high-home camera. People who stood half inside a camera frame wouldn’t have been noticeable in 2D but in 3D completely disturbed the 3D illusion. So did production people, security guards and others who walked into the frame.

According to Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, chief technology officer for Panasonic, the aim of the 3D All-Star broadcast was to make viewers “feel like they're in the second row at the game,” describing the low- and medium-camera angle shots from camera positions behind home and first and third bases. “It has to be slower paced so people can take the image in,” he said. DirecTV used the event to promote its n3D channel, which will also show documentaries, movies and other 3D content. 3D commercials for Wild Safari and coming programming may have whetted viewers’ appetite for additional 3D programming.

Overall, we left the event feeling we wanted more 3D. The softer picture made us aware we were watching a televised game rather than feeling like we were there, and it seemed to have affected the 3D depth, too. Consumers who paid a premium for an extraordinary viewing experience in 3D might have been disappointed that there wasn’t enough difference between 2D and 3D and that some of the HD resolution was lost in the divided signal between two cameras.