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A Look At The Challenges of 3D Broadcasting

Broadcasters will struggle to deliver the same 1080p ‘Full HD’ as BD for some time to come due to a combination of limited available bandwidth and technical considerations such as the lack of a real-time 3D video encoding system.

Fortunately, technology solutions exist which enable 3D to be delivered over an existing 2D HD broadcast infrastructure. The most common of these is known as ‘side-by-side’, where the left and right images are squeezed to half width and placed side-by-side in a standard video frame. The images are then separated in the consumer’s receiving equipment, usually in the TV.

The benefit of such a ‘2D wrapper’ system is that it requires very little upgrading of the broadcast infrastructure and, even more important, programming can be delivered via the existing installed base of set top boxes.

A number of cable, satellite and IPTV operators around the world have been conducting trials using the side-by-side technique, the most notable being in Japan over the BS11 satellite, BSkyB in Europe and Orange in France.

BS11 has been running a 2-hour loop of acquired programming that can be received by any Japanese consumer willing to pay upwards of $2,500 for a 46” LCD TV fitted with a polarizing lens. BSkyB in the UK and Orange France, meanwhile, have been producing a range of original 3D programming in different genres – soccer, boxing, tennis, opera, ballet, music videos, even a quiz
show – but these are closed trials and not currently available for public consumption. 3D broadcast services are expected to start later this year. Initially these will be from pay TV operators such as BSkyB, which has committed to a launch during 2010.

Technicolor’s UK-based broadcast playout center, has already demonstrated its ability to handle a 3D encoding and transmission chain in a number of formats to meet its clients’ needs by establishing an end-to-end 3D broadcast channel infrastructure The major US networks and European public service broadcasters are unlikely to begin any form of regular 3D services this year, possibly not until 2012. The BBC is expected to provide 3D feeds from at least some of the London Olympics sites and by then there should be a sufficient installed base of 3D TVs in many territories to justify coverage by the networks.

In markets like the US, advertising support will be critical to 3D’s success; the key question is whether advertisers will be prepared to pay a premium, something they have been reluctant to do in the case of HD.

Source: Technicolor

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