Panasonic will provide the first 3D TV presentation of Olympics competition beginning Friday in Vancouver at the company’s Olympic Pavilion.
Sony may have jumped on as a sponsor for the world’s biggest soccer tournament in 3D this summer but Panasonic will showcase its own 3D products for the next two-and-a-half-weeks on the stage of the world’s biggest sporting event, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Panasonic’s announcement is expected during a media event Thursday in Vancouver when the company opens its Full 3D HD Theatre Thursday where visitors will see free 3D footage of many of the events and opening ceremonies of this year’s Games and stunning footage of the opening ceremonies from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing on two 103-inch displays from 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. Feb. 12 – 28.
An even bigger display – Panasonic’s 152-inch HD monster — will be positioned behind NBC Sports Olympic host Bob Costas in the NBC anchor studio.
But neither Costas nor that mega-display will be in 3D this time. After all, this Olympics is the first Winter Games to even be broadcast entirely in HD by NBC Universal’s broadcast and cable channels (835 hours in 1080i with Dolby 5.1 surround sound). As one of the major sponsors of the Winter Olympics, Panasonic will provide many of the 400 cameras used by host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Service Vancouver (OBSV) for the majority of feeds to NBC.
Meanwhile, insiders say Panasonic is working on many fronts simultaneously to negotiate partnerships that will generate 3D broadcasts of some of the biggest live events in the coming months and years.
In addition to this summer’s previously announced Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 3D with Fox on DirecTV, Panasonic is also trying to nail down alliances for 3D broadcasts of major tennis and golf tournaments.
An executive from Sony said last week that Sony videotaped its own Sony Open in Hawai’i last month in 3D.
Panasonic and Sony are two of the biggest consumer electronics companies competing to be associated with 3D by consumers for TVs, Blu-ray players, videogames, and by the professional industry for cameras and other equipment.
This week a Panasonic executive in Japan said the company will introduce its first two 3D plasma TVs in March/April – 50-inches (about $4,800) and 54-inches, about three months before Sony is scheduled to debut 9 models of 3D TVs this summer. Shiro Nishiguchi, an executive officer for Panasonic’s marketing of audio-visual products, said in an interview that Panasonic hopes to capture 50% of the fledgling market this year, according to a Bloomberg report.
Having been the first and most prominent company to put a stake in the ground for a 2010 launch of 3D TV products at the January 2009 Consumer Electronics Show and one of the primary companies that successfully pushed for a Blu-ray Disc standard for 3D that was announced late last year, Panasonic has been challenged to maintain that edge ever since.
Panasonic partnered with James Cameron and 20th Century Fox several years ago on 3D equipment and marketing alliances tied to “Avatar” – Cameron even recorded a taped endorsement of Panasonic for the 2009 CES and “Avatar” producer once again appeared at Panasonic’s pre-CES media event to support the electronics giant. But so far Panasonic has not been able to capitalize on that effort within the consumer arena as much as had been hoped while Sony has been trumpeting the use of Sony equipment used in the record-setting film. Panasonic may yet leverage the relationship as the movie moves into the home market.
Undercutting Panasonic’s long-planned announcement with DirecTV at CES last month, Sony surprised the industry with an announcement several days before CES of its own 3D TV network to be launched in 2011 in partnership with Discovery Channel and IMAX.
Panasonic announced its partnership with DirecTV to launch three 3D channels no later than June 1 but the All-Star game won’t come until July.
Sony quickly announced that it would sponsor the World Cup soccer games on ESPN 3D that begin in June.
Last week Sony held a media event for its new 3D Technology Center that is open to anyone in the industry to learn and provide input about new 3D technologies and filmmaking/TV production techniques.
Over at Panasonic, execs are working to finalize a deal with a high-profile venue to create the first live event 3D production facility.
Sources say the company is nearing a marketing agreement with a major videogame developer for 3D games and is in talks with cable and telco companies to create 3D programming services and will launch.
This week Panasonic disclosed a month-long 15-city “Touch the Future” technology tour beginning March 15 that is part of a $100 million marketing and advertising campaign by the company this year. The tour is designed to reach directly to millions of consumers for a hands-on showcase of many Panasonic products, with a focus on all things 3D.
At the NAB Show in April, Panasonic plans to introduce as ready-for-market the twin lens Full HD 3D camcorder that it touted as a demo model at last month’s CES, along with a Full HD 3D Home Theater System with screens ranging from 50” to 65” that are to be introduced to the North American market this spring. (The term “Full HD 3D” refers to Panasonic’s Frame Sequential Technology in which images are alternately reproduced at 60 frames per second for each eye for a total of 120 frames per second and then viewed alternately with battery-operated 3D glasses with electronic shutters that are synchronized with the video. The result is each eye viewing a separate 1920 x 1080 full-HD image.)
But first up is the Olympics showcase that opens this weekend at the Pavilion that is part of the LiveCity Vancouver Yaletown site in David Lam Park.
In addition to the 3D footage of Olympics ceremonies and competitions, Panasonic, which is an official Olympics sponsor, will also present the video of Sarah Brightman performing Panasonic’s global theme song, “Shall Be Done.”
“We’ve successfully moved from black and white, to color, to high definition television. But immersive, totally realistic 3D imagery has been the final frontier,” said Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, Chief Technology Officer, Panasonic North America. “With Panasonic’s new line of Full HD 3D products which will be launched in North America this spring, we will conquer that as well.”
Panasonic’s video highlights in the full HD 3D theatre are sourced from the International Olympic Committee. The theatre is created in cooperation with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), the City of Vancouver and Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, the official Canadian broadcaster of the 2010 Winter Games.