Dallas Mavericks present regular-season game in 3-D HD

FSN Southwest and the Dallas Mavericks joined with PACE to produce the first-ever NBA regular-season game live in 3-D HD using the PACE Fusion 3D camera system.

The March 25 Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Clippers game from the American Airlines Center in Dallas was beamed across town via satellite into Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s Magnolia Theater in Dallas’ West Village. There, an invitation-only audience watched the contest (using special 3-D glasses) projected by a Sony SXRD 3-D projection system on an 18ft by 42ft screen.

Like the NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas before it, FSN Southwest used the proprietary PACE/Cameron Fusion System to capture the action on the court and deliver a unique depth-of-field perspective to the Magnolia Theater audience. Each of the four 3-D systems used are designed with two HD cameras, one each to capture the left eye and right eye imagery separately creating a 3-D effect.

The 3-D HD production was separate from FSN Southwest’s game telecast and used the Mavericks’ radio announcers’ call. During timeouts and TV commercial breaks, the 3-D HD systems covered the on-court festivities, allowing fans watching in the theater to experience the game atmosphere.

Sony’s CineAlta 4K digital cinema projectors were used for the event, with two SRX-R110 4K projectors in a double-stacked configuration. Sony’s HDC-1500 camera is at the heart of the PACE Fusion 3D HD system. To capture the 3-D images, six customized HD camera systems (each made up of two modified Sony HDC-1500 cameras with Canon HD lenses, mounted side by side) were strategically located in the American Airlines Center.