The BBC claimed a world first on March 8 with its live 3D test transmission of the Calcutta Cup rugby match between Scotland and England — live from Murrayfield in Edinburgh to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith

Solidifying its standing as a popular technology of choice for live sports broadcasts of all types, the Grass Valley™ high-end Kalypso™ HD and the new Kayenne™ Video Production Center switchers both include features that make them ideally suited to the unique demands of live production of 3D telecasts. To date, at least three major live sports productions were produced with Grass Valley Kalypso HD switchers and more are planned for this fall.

Three of the world's leading media, technology and entertainment companies - Discovery Communications, Sony Corporation and IMAX Corporation - today announced a joint venture to be established to develop the first 24/7 dedicated 3D television network in the U.S. The partnership brings together three leaders with an extraordinary collection of award-winning 3D content, technology expertise, television distribution and operational strength to deliver a high-quality three-dimensional viewing experience to home television audiences.

Sony today announced plans to accelerate initiatives to deliver an array of 3D entertainment for the home in 2010, leveraging all its diverse business assets to create a 3D world encompassing electronics and games, to movie content. Sony also unveiled the first of its ground-breaking lineup of 3D entertainment products for the home at "International CES 2010", currently being held in Las Vegas, U.S.

Sony Corporation and the PGA TOUR today announced a partnership to explore new entertainment experiences for golf in 3D. Together, Sony and the PGA TOUR will work to develop a plan to make the 2011 Sony Open in Hawaii the first PGA TOUR event shot in 3D and available for distribution in 3D to select audiences, in addition to its regular 2D presentation.

Grass Valley™ high-definition production and distribution technology once again played a big part of the live Grammy® Awards telecast, presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). This year’s 52nd annual gathering of the music industry’s finest was broadcast on CBS on Sunday, January 31 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Chyron announced today that its HyperX³ graphic system will be providing 3D stereoscopic graphics for the live broadcast of the Six Nations Rugby match of England vs. Wales on February 6. Chyron is partnering with Inition, SIS Live and Wurmsers for the event, which is sponsored by O2.

At Band Pro's One World on HD Open House back in December one of Sony's newest cameras was debuted, the HDC-P1. This compact, box-style camera does full HD with a 2/3" CCD sensor, B4 mount and variable frame rates, including 24p. Originally conceived as a studio camera, this camera will soon find itself flying off the shelf in pairs because of its natural fit for 3D production.

Responding to rapidly increasing demand for 3D HD video content, Polecam announces that its 3D-Narrow pan and tilt head is to be supplied as standard with all new systems, with the option of choosing the new 3D-Wide head.

A workshop on Helicopter Shooting and Safety will be held by the Guild of Television Cameramen on Saturday March 27 at Denham Aerodrome, west London. The event will be hosted by broadcaster Mike Smith, founder and Managing Director of Flying TV which owns and operates the only freelance ready-to-go fleet of television helicopters in Europe. Mike will explain the principles of flight and safety, and will cover everything cameramen need to know about working in the air with gyro-mounted and hand-held cameras.

NewTek Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, announced this week that Rob Powers has joined the company as Director of Entertainment and Media Development. Rob will serve as a liaison between studios, 3D artists and NewTek, sharing the benefits of LightWave 3D® with the visual effects community and communicating the studios' and artists' needs to the NewTek LightWave 3D development team.

Rugby fans had the opportunity to experience the RBS Six Nations Championship England v Wales match in 3D at 40 cinemas around the UK last weekend. Further to the box office success of 3D movies such as Avatar and Monsters v Aliens, mobile and broadband provider, O2 and 3D production specialists, Inition, brought audiences a further dimension with a landmark 3D broadcast to the big screens.

Insight Media, a recognized leader in Emerging Display Technology Market Research, has issued an authoritative new report: 2010 3DTV Forecast Report: A Comprehensive Worldwide Forecast of 3D Television Unit Sales by Region and Technology. The report finds that nearly 50M 3DTVs are expected to be sold in 2015, rising from 3.3M 3DTVs in 2010.

I.E. Effects delivered 3D reality for “Traveling in the Storm,” an immersive entertainment experience developed by Falcon’s Treehouse for OCT Shanghai’s Happy Valley. In this innovative ride participants assume the role of storm chasers. Traveling in an Amphibious Exploration Vehicle, they embark on a series of extreme weather adventures, including stereoscopic visuals combined with physical effects, such as splashing water, wind, changing temperatures and more. I.E. Effects designed and executed all of the stereo content, including visual concepts, modeling, texturing, lighting, and compositing for each shot.

With the rapid rise in interest in stereoscopic 3D television acquisition, many producers are using conventional 2D trucks with conventional HD cameras such as the Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite. To help engineers maintain precise color matching between stereo pairs of cameras, Grass Valley has developed a new software release for its OCP 400 camera control unit.