London Olympics 2012 to be broadcast live in 3D

Olympic organisers and technology company Panasonic announced that London Olympic Games 2012 will be the first sporting event to be broadcast live in 3D. At the IFA technology conference in Berlin, Olympic broadcasting services managing director Manolo Romero said the plan was to distribute more than 10 hours of 3D Games footage around the world every day. The opening and closing ceremonies will be broadcast in 3D, as will more than 12 sports, Romero said. "Under this partnership we are assembling a pool of broadcasters that will provide this 3D coverage, the first in Olympic history, to viewers around the world," Romero said. "This is an important step in the history of broadcasting technology."

Panasonic, which has provided camera equipment for the Olympics for two decades, will supply the 3D kit for the London Games. The Japanese company is also very keen to sell the 3D television sets that are needed to view such content. Reports in the UK suggest that 3D sales accelerated relative to other high-definition sets over the summer.

"There is no doubt that the Olympic Games provides the best-ever content for the 3D market and 3D will drastically change the way we enjoy the Games in the living room," Panasonic communications chief Takumi Kajisha said at the IFA press conference. "We believe that our partnership will provide a true end to end solution for success of the first 3D live Olympic Games and create another era of Olympic broadcasting."

The BBC said on Monday that it is considering broadcasting the men's 100m final of the Olympics in 3D, but would not broadcast the whole games in the format as this would interfere with the HD quality that must be in place for the broadcasting of the whole Games.

Source: Guardian.co.uk