Cowboys buck giant 3D trial?

The much-promoted demonstration of live 3D at the Dallas Cowboys stadium today (Sunday, Dec. 13) went off as promised but the experiment did nothing to mollify fans who saw their home team lose another important game in December.

HDlogix of Edison, NJ, was providing a first-ever live 2D-to-3D transfer of the broadcast in a stadium on the world’s largest HD displays (11,520 sq ft; 160-feet x 72-feet) hanging in the stadium. About 80,000 fans were provided free glasses to see the effect beginning with second-half kickoff when the Cowboys were losing to the San Diego Chargers.

During its broadcast, Fox repeatedly showed fans and cheerleaders gamely sporting the cardboard glasses with red and blue lenses.

Simon Tidnam, HDlogix vp sales & marketing, said Monday morning that the experiement was a big success, with the 3D being displayed longer than expected, nearly 7 minutes of game action and about 20-minutes of screen time counting interstitial p.a. announcements.

“We’re ecstatic to see it on a screen that size in front of an audience that size,” he said. The company’s primary focus is offering their technology to TV programmers to deliver top HD quality 3D for soon-to-be-introduced home TV displays.

The football event delivered significant awareness and publicity for the company that will pitch its HDlogix’s new ImageIQ 3D(TM) technology publicly for the first time in a couple weeks at next month’s 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Tidnam says the technology, which enables the first real-time conversion of any HDTV signal to 3D on any 3D-ready display, will work with any of several different display technologies to be introduced, as well as the kind of on-the-fly anaglyph technology used at Cowboys Stadium Sunday. That technology can be enjoyed by consumers today on their existing standard TVs.

“We showed that this technology is ready to go right now,” he said.

As for the stadium experience, many fans were not impressed, and announcer Phil Simms, who said he had never experienced 3D, complained about the procedure, though he later said that when you wear the glasses, “it’s way cool.”

Less than halfway through the third quarter the in-stadium broadcast reverted to 2D on the hanging displays, drawing a loud cheer.

In a posting soon after the game, FanHouse Senior NFL Writer Nancy said that as soon as the 3D hit the screen, “almost immediately, I wanted a Dramamine. Watching the 3D video board was like riding the Zipper immediately after eating a funnel cake at the carnival in a Wal-Mart parking lot.”

She reported  that when the screen reverted to 2D with 8 minutes, 10 seconds left in the quarter, the sellout crowd cheered wildly.

Cowboys blogger Evan Grant of DallasNews.com, a product of the Dallas Morning News, confirmed the crowd cheers when the 3D was turned off but his complaint about the “nausea-inducing blurry broadcast” seemed to refer to those trying to watch the screen without the glasses. Duh.

Tidman says that in hindsight, they could have done a better job on a number of fronts, such as informing the fans at the stadium that they needed to wear the glasses, and that they probably should have done the demo at the beginning of the game instead of during a critical juncture in the second half. Some fans were upset that people were paying more attention to the experience than the game itself.

Also, the roof was open and therefore a lot of light was showing on the video board. Fans said it was better when the sun wasn’t directly on the display.

“It’s a learning thing,” he said. Although HDlogix would be interested in doing more stadium experiences like the one Sunday, the primary focus of the company is delivering their technology for home use.

Nonetheless, HDlogix feels the event was a success. “We wanted to prove that our technology could do what we said. In that regard, we felt our mission was accomplished.”

— By Scott Hettrick