The Final Four in 3D

It was an historic evening—the first 3D broadcast of the men’s NCAA basketball championship game. The announcers for CBS’ 3D feed—Dave Ryan and Steve Lappas—reminded viewers of that a bit more frequently than seemed necessary.

After watching Monday evening’s game in a huge movie theater in suburban Washington, D.C., one of 55 nationwide to show the game in 3D, some observations:

1. The format definitely improves the excitement of college basketball. There’s a wow factor, although not as much as the move to HD from SD. Some had fears that the 3D picture would make viewers feel as if players were falling into your lap on occasion, similar to how cinema has exploited 3D. Those concerns didn’t materialize. The only time something seemed to float right into one’s face was when the game ended and confetti came streaming down.

In fact, the players and the live action on the court weren’t the best things in 3D last night. Views of the crowd and the graphics, which seem to float on air, touchable, right in front of the viewer, were the highlights. Slow-moving objects, like the Duke Blue Devil and Butler bulldog mascots, or those that were stationary, like the backboard or a player standing on the foul line waiting to shoot with the huge crowd of 70,000 behind him, looked exceptionally good in 3D. Objects moving relatively slowly and in synch looked great, too. For example, the Duke cheer squad’s choreographed dances were effective in 3D, as were the timed, arm-waving cheers of the Butler students.

2. Slow-motion instant replays were excellent, viewers were able to easily pick up the ball’s rotation and were much better than live action, which, as you’ll see below, had its problems. Vince Pace, who developed the cameras used in Avatar, designed the camera rigs for the CBS feed. He’ll be working with ESPN for 3D coverage of The Masters later this week. Considering how well stationary and slow-moving objects and crowds look in HD, The Masters in 3D should be terrific. (We’ll be blogging about that, too.)

3. The most noticeable problems were with the wide, horizontal shots, the traditional cover angle, which showed players moving up and down the court. Players appeared slightly blurry. By no means did this greatly hinder the coverage, but it was noticeable and a bit distracting. It made this viewer long for the acuity of an HD picture. Perhaps that’s why CBS in the 2nd half moved much of its coverage to overhead cameras that looked down on the court and the backboard, which provided a very satisfying perspective.

4. Several times during the night the picture died or pixilated and a loud, unpleasant sound came booming from theater speakers. This happened about 6 or 7 times throughout the evening, including during a crucial moment late in the 2nd half when a Butler player was driving to the basket. The crowd seemed relatively forgiving of these interruptions.

What was much more difficult were the commercials. This special feed took the same commercial breaks as the normal broadcast, but the 3D feed kept running the same 4-5 commercials, over and over. And the commercials—a mix of CBS promos for upcoming shows and ads for the evening’s sponsor LG—didn’t distinguish themselves as good or bad for HD.

5. The contrast between live action and taped pieces was marked. A preview of a new We Are The World video for Haiti during half-time seemed to show off 3D much better than the live action basketball did. Another taped piece, about racial history and an Indiana high school, was well-made, but 3D didn’t seem to do much to enhance its sepia-tone and old black-and-white footage.

6. It seems 3D (at least as it’s set up now) isn’t for everybody. In a theater with hundreds of seats, there were at most 20 people attending last night’s showing. More important but not a scientific event, one patron was forced to leave about 20 minutes into the broadcast after complaining of nausea from the 3D. For nearly everyone else, the coverage was a happening, a pioneering event to be treasured. Many viewers felt as if they were “present at the creation” of 3D in live sports TV. In this respect, CBS should be proud of its debut. Of course the fact that the game between Butler and Duke was like a great boxing match, with each side inflicting blows and the outcome in the balance until literally the final second, didn’t hurt at all.