SportsNation to Shoot First Ever ESPN Studio Show in 3D

[keithlewis]

SportsNation to Shoot First Ever ESPN Studio Show in 3D at CES


Michelle Beadle and Colin Cowherd will be Joined by UFC’s Dana White for Wednesday’s Episode Live from Las Vegas


SportsNation will be the first ESPN studio show to air an entire episode live in 3D from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week. Hosts Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle will be joined by the UFC’s Dana White, and they will tackle some of the days’ sports topics in Vegas-style, including the “10 Luckiest Plays of the Football Season.” To add special drama to the show, Michelle Beadle has volunteered to be sawed into 3, in 3D, by Las Vegas magician Shimshi. Shimshi is currently the resident magician at Wynn | Encore Las Vegas and has appeared on America’s Got Talent and Ellen.

SportsNation in 3D at CES will air live at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2/ESPN 3D and is presented by Toyota and sponsored by Sony 3D and The PlayStation Vita. Technophiles may be interested in the following elements that will make SportsNation’s 3D episode come to life:

First-Ever Stereoscopic Studio Graphics Package

SportsNation’s iconic lower third element, the “Widget Bar,” has been specially tailored for maximum stereoscopic viewing impact. The different graphic elements and content layouts have been precisely separated into “layers” for a never-before-seen stereoscopic presentation of a topic bar for ESPN 3D.

Innovative Playback System

Another first is the configuration of 4 stereoscopic graphics channels being controlled by a single graphics operator through ESPN’s proprietary command and control system, VCS. Stereo-rendered topic bars, editable front-ends, text transitions and immersive graphics (a.k.a. “The Virtual Desk”) will be rendered using real-time, stereoscopic render engines.

Stereoscopic Virtual

ESPN will also be featuring a first-ever execution of immersive “virtual” graphics in a 3D television live production. The graphics render engine will deliver full resolution left and right stereoscopic streams to a production switcher. The “Virtual Bars” graphic element includes a real-time motion tracking system that will accurately map the results of SportsNation’s online Featured Polls (http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/polls) in both virtual and stereoscopic “space” to create a seamless composition of dynamically updated graphics over a live action background.

The Sony HDC-P1 Camera System

The SportsNation 3D telecast will use the Sony HDC-P1 camera system in 3D rigs supplied by the Pace Cameron Group with signals being sent through a Sony MVX-8000x production switcher. This SportsNation production is the latest ESPN event to use 3D technology from Sony Electronics.

SportsNation, hosted by Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle, is a live sports television show born from the Internet, fueled by fan interaction and focused on fun. The one-hour weekday show airs at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2.