My consigliore called from Ohio last week to invite Elaine and I to hop in the plane and fly up for the ESPN weekend debut of it’s latest experiment in 3-D entertainment. Except for the fact I’m only rated for VFR (so far), the weather was crappy, didn’t have a plane, and haven’t finished my biennial flight review I would have done it. Coulda, shoulda, woulda…you know.
But he sent along an absolutely sensational review of ESPN’s 3-D efforts:
“My 3D experience. WOW (ESPN’s special 3D live broadcast of the OSU-USC football game on Saturday evening, Sept 12)
WOW … now that I have seen the future for myself I see what all the hype is about Real Time 3d. ESPN did an an excellent job with their experimental broadcast of the OSU-USC game on Saturday night, a broadcast that got better and better as the evening went on and they modified the broadcast “on the fly” based upon the comments that people were texting in from the locations where the broadcast was being received.
A comment by a friend who went with me (I had 4 tickets so I took one son and two friends) sort of sums it up: “I have never experienced a football game that I was so into in all my life”. (my feelings also, and all of us had been to quite a few OSU live games over the years plus of course many which we watched on TV ) The 3D experience, at least as ESPN did it, was as close to being in the stadium wrt the stadium experience as one can get and not be there. Their stadium sound pickups were excellent and were kept ALL throughout the game, including during the commentary. The stadium sound experience greatly added to the 3D effect of the video. GREATLY ADDED!!
Utilizing camera’s not much above the playing field in height, so as to accentuate the 3D experience, one could really get into the plays as they developed and see things that I have never seen in 2D broadcasts. The close ups of the sideline action and conferences with the coaches were AMAZING. The USC coaches were RIGHT THERE in the theater with us!! (OSU chased away the 3D camera from it’s sidelines by shining flashlights right into it so there was virtually no sideline action from the OSU side that was broadcast). Watching plays near the end zone were amazing … and with 3D one could definitely see where the ball was going when it was in the air much better than one can see with 2D … IF the air shot also had something stationary on the ground in the shot at the same time so one had a visual reference.
Crowd shots … WOW you were IN THE STADIUM with the crowd!! (accentuated by the excellent audio of the stadium background noise which was ALWAYS on). For the shots from up in the stands looking sideways down along the rows of the crowd, it was just like being in a seat up in the stands and turning one’s head to look sideways. You felt like you could reach out and touch someone … or at least throw a crumpled up paper cup at them and hit them.
Problems? Small by comparison. Too much busy graphics at first (initially used the same moving graphics pattern that is used on the 2D broadcast). In 3D they would give you a headache. That problem got resolved quickly though as people obviously texted in that the graphics were not working and were in fact obnoxious . (ESPN encouraged those of us watching to text in our comments as the game was in progress which they were obviously using as real time feedback for adjusting the production “on the fly”). After they went to fixed floating graphics in one location then that problem disappeared. Passes: Picking up the receiver ahead of time, before he caught the ball, was TOUGH for the camera men to do, thus you usually missed the receiver setting up for the catch. In this regards the 2D cameras, which are at a higher elevation looking down on the action, do a much better job. Not sure if his is easily remedied, but possibly if they had more cameras to use this would disappear (they only had 8 3D cameras versus the regular broadcast which was using 17~).
My 14 yo son who is NOT into football very much, though he recently has been to see a live OSU game and thus can compare the 3D experience to being in “The Shoe” and watching the game live, was awed!! He told me on the way home “Dad, forget getting an HD TV … get a 3D TV as soon as they come out!”
OH … and as would be expected, one sees the game itself MUCH better through a TV lens than being there in person. Of course that is because the TV camera can move around as the action moves around, whereas normally you are limited to the view from just your seat location. While we saw the action inside a movie theater, they were also sending it to special consumer size screens such as you would have in a personal media room in your house, at the ESPN Zone in LA. In your home you would be closer to your screen than in a movie theater, so the size of the event to your eyes would be about the same if you had a 72″ screen in a media room as we experienced in the movie theater.
Finally, since I am sure all of you males out there are curious. Yes, those cheerleaders do look great when they are 20 feet tall and in 3D right in front of you, almost within touching distance (OK, they appeared to be about 5 rows down from me, but still close enough to almost touch …. )
3D, properly produced, is AWESOME. I can see where it is much harder to produce it than 2D TV, and some types of events really won’t get that extra “punch” that one one gets with a football game (lots of people crowded together and moving close together on a field added to the 3D effect), but for my money it really is the next big thing in home entertainment. The sports aspect I think it has a bigger future on the home version than in the movie theater (ala, parties at people’s houses or at sports bars). As pay per view events they could be BIG draws. I know I would pay to go someplace “fun” (ie: sports bar or private party) to watch a big game.
Almost forgot: Yes you do need to wear special glasses to watch 3D. Being in the theater we were able to use those better clear “Polarized” glasses versus the red/blue glasses of old. No problems with those types of glasses, most people greatly prefer them to the red/blue glosses, though for home use one may have to step down to the red/blue ones since I don’t know how they would “Polarize” a tv’s output for the right and left eye channels in a home version of 3D.
You missed a great experience George. Would have been worth the trip up north (and you could have spent a day sailing on the Great Lakes too).
Actually, I’m glad I missed it. The sailing on the Great Lakes would remind me how much I miss living on a sailboat. I miss my old boat something fierce when the wind pipes up. However, every time I start to miss working to windward up Puget Sound at this time of year, I go out and stand by the goat barn in the rain and remember 75º and wet in a short sleeve shirt is a lot better than 50º and wet in Polartec…
Nevertheless, the prospect of 3D television sounds pretty exciting – but will it save the global economy? I doubt it. However, I wonder if any of the cheerleaders had cellulite…would my consigliore have noticed? Ha!
Renegotiating Life
Had a nice email from Tom Weber this morning, announcing his new enterprise Strat D in New Zealand. Tom’s a one-time Chicago area IT director who got out while the getting was good and decided to immigrate to New Zealand for a number of reasons.
First, and foremost, it was a country that his research showed was capable of being self-sufficient in food. It was a place where he could leverage his first-rate IT skills, and it was a place where sustainability was (and is) more than a mindless marketing phrase.
We chat every month or so – and have for what’s over a year now best I can recall. Don’t hold me to it, because it is Monday, OK?
Some of his insights have been really interesting. For example, in New Zealand, people can actually ride those small powered skateboards around – the kind with a chainsaw-sized motor on them – without being thrown in the clink or getting a zillion-dollar ticket. His description of the housing and public transit is pretty interesting, too.
Cycle Studies Note
I see the Foundation for the Study of Cycles has come out with what they call a “2012 Survival Kit. Priced at (what else?) $2012.
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Not to keep grinding in the idea that there is no inflation (the Great Keynesian Lie), just money being watered down, did you know using the Federal Reserve’s own data, that $2012 in today’s paper would have cost less than $100 if you had been able to buy it in 1913 when the bankster coup started in earnest? $93.43 to be presact.
That was in the good old days. When money had a ’storehouse of value’ function. Not sure what the remaining function of money is. If I ever get any extra to play with, I’ll let you know.
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Send comments to george@ure.net
The UrbanSurvival Mall:
Peoplenomics This Week:
How America Was Hijacked: The Corporate Coup d’ Etat
We begin with a discussion of the pricing mechanisms that have facilitated the corporate coup in America especially via the Supreme Court as evidenced in a case returned to a lower court last week that seems destined to further expand corporate supremacy over humans. We’ll demonstrate using options pricing theory how the corporate will always trumps regular humans in government policy-making. Our second article projects future relative values of gold, stocks, and real estate for the next couple of years – some simple investment choices become evident. Then on the lighter side, a discussion of hyperchroniacs and how that may actually have some solid grounding in science. Except for one little catch: It implies the world getting weirder than it already is. But first, let’s go buy us some government…
MyGroPonics
My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics. It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space – like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight). Sound interesting? It’s just $10 bucks here…
Maxa-Cookie Manager
No, when you tell your browser to ‘empty your cookies’ of web sites you’ve visited, it probably won’t get them all. Why? Because there is a whole class of ‘browser-independent’ cookies that will gobble up space on your hard drive, but more important is they will sneak out information about you without you being aware of it. Ever week I get emails like this one:
“Thanks again for the Maxa Tools recommendation, I never knew how much additional garbage gets attached every time I browse. “
Test drive it free by downloading it. To upgrade to full functionality will be $35 bucks. Is your privacy worth it?
Once you try it out, click the upgrade button (!) on the upper right hand side for the $35 unlock to get it to remove even those nasty and highly intrusive ‘non-browser specific’ cookies. Bonus: You computer may run faster. I’ve taken 1,000 37,970 cookies off my machine now. It’s just amazing.
Attn: Mac Drivers: MCM does support the Safari Browser, but that does not mean it is compatible with Mac OS. Maxa-Tools only support the Windows world….so far. Given Jens and the other engineers time…
Feeling Thorny?
Want to be a thorn in the side of the Old World Order? Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh? Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….
“Live on $10,000″ Updated
I’ve told you in the past to order my ebook “How to Live on $10,000 a year or less…” with the rationale that “We’re all going to live it shortly, anyway.“ Don’t know as you have looked lately, but the unemployment rate is up more than 3% since I wrote the first edition of that book and underpasses have never been more homely. Worth ordering? Just visit www.liveontenthousand.com or, click this little whizzie…
It’s an automatic download. It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left… Click here for the index and details.
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Last week’s report is here. For back issues of this site, click here. (Goes back to 1997!)