3D-TV:

New Dimensions

Television in 3D – made possible by a 3.2 gigahertz processor operating with eight processing cores: The »Cell TV« technology of entertainment electronics manufacturer Toshiba enables you to enjoy even homemade movies in 3D. »For its new Cell TV, Toshiba relies on the extraordinary high performance of the Cell Broadband Engine TM1, which is capable of 143 times the processing power of today’s standard television,« explains Sascha Lange, head of Marketing for Toshiba Europe GmbH in Neuss. The television – just after the introduction of HDTV – is standing at the edge of the next groundbreaking technological leap: Flat images are a thing of the past; the future belongs to 3D technology.

Television in Germany has not altered substantially since colour television was introduced in 1967 – until now. With the beginning of regular HDTV programming by public law stations during the Vancouver Olympic Games, the new quality standard finally broke through in Germany. »It’s about no less than the successful development of a mass market,« explains Willy Fischel, CEO of the Federal Association of Technology Retailers (BVT), based in Cologne. »HDTV enriches the household, and the consumer decided on the future of television long ago. As such, more than 17 million HD-ready monitors were sold in Germany up to June 2009 alone, and by 2012 almost 75 per cent of all TV households will be HD-ready.« The only problem is that there is insufficient content in real high-definition quality on offer: Generally, standard quality programs are merely »upgraded«, which doesn’t allow real HD effects to be achieved.
This doesn’t, however, stop the private stations RTL, VOX and co. from charging an additional service fee of 50 euros per year for the higher image and sound quality. In cooperation with Astra, these stations are trying to use the competitor standard HD+ to make themselves less dependent on pure advertising for finance. In addition, HDTV also entails additional costs for program providers. For consumers, HD+ brings restrictions along with improved quality: With HD+, the record function can be blocked, recordings can be deleted by broadcasters, and »ad-skipping«, which means fast-forwarding through advertising, can be prevented completely.

3D-TV Gains Momentum

Regardless of whether the majority of viewers embrace this business model, a completely new television experience awaits them in the near future, and it is one which could still lead to the success of the tactics of the private stations: Television in the third dimension. The idea of spatial cinema, of course, didn’t just come about in the last few years. More than 100 years ago, stereoscopes amazed visitors to annual fairs with territorial views of distant lands, of natural disasters and of scantily clad women. The Lumière brothers also experimented with 3D effects in their first films.
But it wasn’t until the beginning of the 1950’s that 3D became a mass-market phenomenon, thanks to the double-projection technology in films such as »Bwana Devil« and »Dial M for Murder«. 3D films, such as »Jaws 3D«, appeared again in the 1980’s, for example, but were unable to score points in terms of image quality.
It was scantily clad women, once again, that justified the first 3D experiments in televi-sion. In the 1990’s, the RTL show »Tutti Frutti« was produced with Pulfrich technology: This involves the viewer wearing a pair of glasses with light foil acting as the left lens, and dark foil acting as the right lens. In comparison to an image of normal brightness, there is a delay in perceiving darkened images, which brings about a stereo effect, even though the images have been recorded with a conventional camera.

Jump start

The 3D cinema wave beginning in 2005 has ultimately had the effect of jump starting 3D television, and digitalisation in general. Almost all television device manufacturers are betting on the new technology. Sony, LG, JVC and Panasonic have all announced that their products will hit the market in 2010. »The products that are ready for mass production should be presented at the next IFA, and then hit the stores,« emphasises Peter Koch, resident 3D expert for LG Electronics Germany, from Willich.
Three-dimensional television is certainly an attractive proposition. Some of the matches of the 2010 World Cup will be produced in stereoscopic 3D by FIFA, although not for 3D enjoyment in the home. These are to be reserved for »public viewing« spectators in selected stadiums.
While the British Pay-TV platform BskyB has already announced their own 3D channel with sports broadcasts, films and entertainment programs for 2010, however, and the BBC plans to broadcast the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games completely in three dimensions, the German television decision makers remain substantially diffident. One reason for that may be the lack of content: In 2009, only eleven 3D films were screened in German cinemas. At the same time, however, Eckhard Matzel, innovation coordinator at ZDF, points to a different aspect: »A three-dimensional effect is, of course, an added benefit for the viewer, but that quickly becomes relative when you have to put up with the disadvantages, like always having to wear glasses. Or when the resolution has to be reduced compared to HDTV, in order to bring the enormous bandwidth to the viewer.« Rüdiger Malfeld, head of the Infrastructure Management Department of West Germany Broadcasting (WDR), expresses similar doubts: »I genuinely doubt that I’ll put these shutter glasses on while I’m watching the evening news over dinner.« As yet, the public law broadcasters don’t have any plans to put the theory of 3D television into practice. But the same is true for most private broadcasters. Bettina Klauser, RTL spokesperson, explains: »We are observing this development with interest. But we don’t have concrete plans as yet.« For the moment, viewers won’t be able to avoid using special optical glasses in order to obtain the perfect 3D TV experience.

Shutter technology:

Simultaneous display of polarised images:

3D without glasses: