Cape Town, South Africa - Sony Corporation and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) today announced an agreement for selected media rights of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in 3D. FIFA is to produce the world’s first FIFA World Cup™ in 3D. Up to 25 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ matches will be produced using Sony’s 3D professional cameras, which will provide coverage of the action that is unprecedented in depth, vividness and excitement to people around the world. FIFA will utilize Sony’s experience and know-how of 3D content production to spread the passion inside the stadiums at the greatest sport event in the world to more people than ever before.

Sony strengthens leadership in 3D: “There are always barriers to entry with any new technology, these new product and solutions announcements help drive out many of the technical and cost issues that were stopping live 3D from becoming a reality.”

“It’s about getting everybody to understand what makes for good 3D shots. In 2D you can get away with faster panning and jumps versus 3D – for 3D it’s what we call ‘linger longer’. If you’re jumping between shots, the depth is way in and then way out and, if you don’t have a small depth transition between shots, that creates a lot of eye strain.” Sky has made the first significant moves towards broadcasting stereoscopic 3D programming. It has successfully produced footage from four separate events and delivered the programming through a high definition set-top box.

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.

NEP is proud to offer Supershooter 3D, the very first Mobile Television Truck designed specifically for producing live 3D television events. This one-of-a-kind mobile unit was created through a partnership between NEP Broadcasting and PACE.

EVS now provides novel stereoscopic 3D experiences for live sports and music. With its latest MulticamLSM 10 software package, EVS’ renowned XT[2]-LSM offers full 3D-HD loop recordings, playbacks, slow-motion replays, instant editing, and live clipping functions. In effect, all existing capabilities of the MulticamLSM software package are now available for any type of 3D-HD production.

Panasonic Corporation today announced it will start developing a professional 3D Full HD production system. The system, which is expected to be the first of its kind in the industry, consists of a twin-lens P2 professional camera recorder and a 3D-compatible High Definition Plasma display.

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