The latest happenings from around the world of sports

Quantel, 3ality Digital post-produce 3-D graphics inserts for NFL, BCS

The recent stereo 3-D broadcasts of an NFL game and the BCS Championship college football game were produced by 3ality Digital and presented in Real D-enabled theaters in the United States.

Behind the scenes, 3ality Digital’s SIP2100 stereoscopic analysis and correction systems and Quantel stereoscopic Pablo systems were used to post-produce a series of 3-D graphic inserts for playback at sponsor venues during the live 3-D broadcast.

The inserts came from a variety of sources and were background-loaded, edited, color-corrected and finished on a tight deadline on Pablo systems belonging to PlasterCITY Digital Post and 3ality Digital, with SIP2100s being used in the edit suites for all aspects of stereoscopic image analysis, especially in “handing off” the process of smoothly adjusting Z space across edits. PlasterCITY is a digital post-production house located in Hollywood, CA, that specializes in file-based lab services for film, video or tapeless post.

For more information, visit http://www.quantel.com/.

Cross Media Ventures streams sports with Inlet

Netherlands-based Cross Media Ventures is using an encoding solution from Inlet Technologies to stream a variety of live sports events, which in 2008 included the Wimbledon tennis championships and A1GP motor races held in the Netherlands.

Cross Media produced and managed 10 live streams from Wimbledon over the Netherlands’ NET5 station Web site using the Microsoft Silverlight platform. Viewers could also watch the Wimbledon matches on-demand through the NET5 portal.

The Spinnaker family of live encoding solutions delivers the bandwidth performance and features necessary to provide a broadcast experience over any IP network.

For more information, visit http://www.inlethd.com/encoding/20/18/Spinnaker/.

NBC to air 3-D Super Bowl ads, ‘Chuck’ promo

NBC, home of this year’s NFL Super Bowl XLIII, will air a 3-D commercial to promote a movie trailer for DreamWorks’ “Monsters and Aliens” that will be followed by a second 60-second 3-D spot promoting Sobe Lifewater.

The Sobe Lifewater ad, which will feature the Sobe lizards alongside NFL players, will run at the end of the second quarter. Sobe is distributing 3-D glasses to the public to help generate buzz. NBC is also producing a 3-D version of its show “Chuck,” which will air on the Monday following Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1.

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