Behind the scenes - BBC tests 3D opinions at Television Centre

Sunday July 3 saw the first public 3D transmissions from the BBC starting with the Wimbledon's men's singles final.

Keen to gauge public opinion on this still-nascent broadcasting technology the broadcaster allowed a select few tennis-loving (or just curious) punters to visit Television Centre and experience the broadcast on multiple displays and Wotsat went along too.

Sony technology including six cameras were used to cover the event with the BBC providing graphics and commentary both specially tailored for 3D (whose use the venerable John McEnroe duly plugged seemingly every five minutes during the broadcast).

The main viewing area saw the event projected on a cinema-sized screen with the footage coming straight from the broadcast truck on site and the audience wearing passive glasses.

An adjacent room housed 3D TVs  from Toshiba, Sharp, LG, Panasonic, Sony  and Samsung displaying either the Freeview or Freesat broadcasts (Wotsat learned the location used did not have a cable point though this was being monitored elsewhere) on active  and passive displays.

Attendees were asked to give their verdicts on the day by filling out a questionnaire.  Amusingly the BBC's head of HD and 3D, Danielle Nagler could be seen throughout  the afternoon eagerly poring over more immediate responses as they appeared on the web using her iPad.

The sense of depth was impressive across the board thanks in part to use of creative camera angles.  However, as the broadcast format was the stereoscopic 'half HD' method also employed for Sky the large screen experience was a little fuzzy to our eyes and paled next to the small screen experience.

Samsung won the TV wars for us with its bright detailed picture and excellent rendering of 3D using its comfy active shutter glasses.

If you're still a glasses refusenik then iPont was also on hand to demonstrate its antistereoscopic glasses-free 3D technology which could be seen converting the broadcast live on a specially made 3D LCD display and accompanying iPont 3D receiver.   Still a work in progress, again picture fidelity was on the smeary side but it impressed us more than efforts we've seen from other manufacturer's thus far.  The technology's main use will be for 3D digital signage and for displaying 3D trailers in cinema foyers and examples of the former looked brighter and sharper than what we've seen elsewhere.

Did you watch the 3D broadcast?  Let us know your  thoughts and what you watched it on in the comments below.

Nagler iPad