3D television to be introduced in Britain shortly
Friday, 19 December 2008, 23:42 IST
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London: After the USA and Japan, 3D television is set to enter Britain, with Sky TV announcing plans to introduce the third dimension on the small screen in the near future. Sky TV has developed the technology to beam 3D images to a television set and it wants to be the first broadcaster in Britain to offer channels with full 3D coverage. But work on the technology will continue till 3D television sets become affordable. Also, Sky has also to wait for producers to shoot content in 3D to make such a channel viable. "We're just exploring right now, but the next step is going to be to find out whether 3DTV is something people are going to be interested in," Brian Lenz, the company's head of product design and innovation, told The Times. On Thursday, Sky demonstrated clips of sporting events filmed in 3D, including footage from a recent rugby international and Champions League football match. The matches were shot using two cameras filming the action side-by-side. The new technology allows these two images to be merged and played out simultaneously on the same TV screen. Viewers wearing polarised glasses will see a different image with each eye, tricking the brain into believing that it is seeing a 3D image. This latest form of viewing television already exists in the USA and Japan. Screens with 3D capability are available and some channels beam 3D programming four times a day. But for it to become popular, the cost of 3D television sets has to come down. Hyundai has released a model that works with polarised glasses and costs 2,500 pounds, about 25 per cent more than a comparable flat-screen television. Philips has created a 3D TV that does not require glasses, but it costs about 7,500 pounds. The technology developed by Sky only works when viewers are wearing glasses.
Source: IANS
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