Comcast 3D Channel Tees Off With Masters Golf Tourney
The Masters golf tournament was the first to be broadcast live in HD (in 2000) and now Comcast cable subscribers, with the help of Sony, IBM, and Augusta National golf club, will be able to watch two hours of live 3D coverage of all four rounds of this year’s Masters Tournament, another golfing first.
To bring the 3D content to TV viewers, Comcast will launch a dedicated 1080i channel in advance of the Tournament. As the television provider for the Augusta National campus, Comcast already has a team on the ground in Augusta, making the transmission and distribution process a bit simpler. The Augusta production team will hand the signal off to the Comcast team on site, which will format it for Internet and broadcast cable distribution utilizing the DOCSIS 3 network.
The 3D Masters coverage is the first live stereoscopic 3D broadcast to be carried by a U.S. cable operator. It will be delivered across Comcast's national footprint and will also be available through video-on-demand after the tournament. Comcast has no deals to carry any other 3D content in the near future, said Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer, though the operator has had preliminary discussions with ESPN about carrying its 3D channel when it launches in June. DirecTV is the only U.S. pay-TV operator which has committed to deliver a full-time 3D service, with its planned launch of three 3D channels by June.
The 3D Masters coverage will be produced by ESPN using the NEP SS 3D truck. Comcast will ingest the feed at Comcast Media Center in Denver and then transmit it to customers using the 1080i, "side-by- side" frame-compatible 3D HD format. The 3D broadcasts can be received by Comcast's latest HD set-tops and transmitted over HDMI connections to new 3D TV sets without requiring any software update to the set-tops. Comcast does plan to make a firmware upgrade to its HD set-tops later this year to make sure that they can support the program guide and other functions in 3D.
“We take the signal from Augusta across our national backbone to our production center in Denver where we do national distribution,” explains Mark Francisco, Comcast technology fellow. “The 3D signal has a lot of information in it because you’re putting both eyes in there, but it works really well on our DOCSIS 3 network, the highest high-speed data network. We put the appropriate formatting equipment on the golf course so that the left eye and right eye can be transmitted on a single channel.”
The 3D coverage will be delivered separately from conventional 2D broadcasts from Masters rightsholders CBS and ESPN, and may include branding from Sony and IBM, the Masters' longtime technology partner. Comcast and IBM will also work together to provide the same 3D feed over the Web via www.masters.com, which can be viewed by 3D-capable PCs with special 3D monitors and companion glasses.
Following the Masters, Comcast will look to make more stereoscopic 3D content available, says Moyer, including movies and sporting events. "This is the beginning of the future," she said.
By Ken Kerschbaumer, Carolyn Braff and Glen Dickson, Broadcasting & Cable
