3D is already in living rooms across the country – if only we had the content

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That’s the view of Sky, ITV and Blitz, speaking at a BAFTA panel discussion on 3D last night.

Blitz showcased Invincible Tiger: The Legend Of Han Tao (as mentioned in my post Will 3D save the console?). Andrew Oliver, CTO, said “It’s running on equipment you can already buy. That’s a £650 television from Comet and a standard PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.”

Brian Lenz, head of product design and innovation at Sky said Sky already over one million HD boxes which were capable of showing 3D (meaning that Sky could handle the capture, transmission and decoding of 3D signals through this box – there is still an issue about whether there is enough demand for 3D, especially in the middle of a recession. Lenz said that Sky were looking at being able to broadcast football matches in 3D, and hinted that this was much closer to reality than we might think.

Colin Smith, Technical Analyst at ITV, said that while technology was improving, we are still 5-10 years away from cost-effective 3D screens that don’t require glasses.

The room was predominantly populated with film and television types, not games, which was surprising given that CGI is so much easier to turn into 3D content than live action.

The clear conclusion, other than the factoid that “chicken and egg” is the most over-used expression whenever 3D experts gather, was that 3D is not only coming – it’s already here. With Blitz releasing a commercial 3D game in the next couple of months (Invincible Tiger: The Legend Of Han Tao) and major free and pay broadcasters clearly focused on the opportunity, this sceptic is rapidly becoming a convert to 3D.

(A more in-depth analysis of the event can be found at http://rooreynolds.com/2009/06/17/3d-tv/)

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