ESPN’s first 3D-only production also for 2D

Mounting two side-by-side productions for every live sporting event in 2D and 3D has become so costly for ESPN that, for the first time, the company is going with only 3D cameras and a single 3D production truck for simulcasts this week of “Friday Night Fights” on ESPN and making its 3D debut on ESPN 3D.

The 2D audience on ESPN HD will see the feed from only the left camera of the two-camera rigs, said ESPN 3D coordinating producer Phil Orlins. There will be six manned cameras — three handheld, one jib (on a boom), one ultra slo-mo, and one on a tripod. There will also be a seventh unmanned camera in a fixed position.

But shooting only in 3D will create some other challenges for the production team; namely commercial insertions and promos which are different for the two networks. The handling of that situation was still being worked out Wednesday, when producers spoke to 3DHollywood.net and a few other media outlets.

The same cost-cutting approach will be used next Thursday (Feb. 24) for a college basketball game to be simulcast on ESPN 3D.

This week’s Friday Night Fights will be broadcast at 9 p.m. (ET) from the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland.

Although the basic approach to the coverage of the three boxing matches on Friday — a 10-rounder, 4-rounder, and 10-rounder — will be the same with the 3D cameras events, there will be some subtle differences.

Friday Night Fights senior coordinating producer Matt Sandulli said that the graphics of the clock counting down the time of each round, and the fighter’s names, will be at the top of the screen instead of the bottom. That’s because the depth of the people and objects in the camera usually conflicts with the pre-set depth of the graphic overlays.

It’s a problem that was noticed in other sports that resulted in scoreboards for football and basketball games also being moved to the top of the screen.

Orlins said there may be some subtle reduction in the number of cuts to different cameras since switching between 3D cameras requires a moment of adjustment by the viewers’ eyes.

The director will probably also work in a few more shots from the handheld camera to get closer to the boxers and therefore greater 3D visual impact, Sandulli said, but noted that, “It will not be drastically different than a normal boxing match.”

And the news and information usually delivered from the studio will be delivered entirely from the ringside announcers in 3D, including ESPN 3D play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore and announcing partner Teddy Atlas, but that decision was driven by the availability of personnel and not the 3D element, according to Sandulli.

All these subtle changes are welcome by the producers and announcers of Friday Night Fights, who believe boxing could be the sport that benefits more than most others by 3D because all the cameras are so close to the action.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment since ESPN 3D was announced,” Tessitore said. “We can’t wait to see results.”

So, why is boxing one of the last sports that ESPN 3D tackled? Timing. The Friday Night Fights season was winding down last year in August just as ESPN 3D was initiating its experimental coverage of the MLB All-Star Game and college football. The boxing series began again last month.

Although Orlins says boxing is deal for 3D because it creates fewer challenges than sports in big stadiums and arenas where players and the center of the action are much further from the cameras, there is the opposite risk in boxing with getting too close to action. If anything gets too close to a 3D camera, the line of vision of the two lenses cannot converge, creating a double image. One way to minimize the required distance of separation is to use what is called a beam-splitter camera rig that straps two cameras together with the lens of each pointing into a mirror that allows the lenses to be closer together. That usually requires a much bigger set-up.

Orlins said on Friday night they will be shooting with a beam-splitter on the handheld camera.

Graphics on ESPN 3D will once again also be in 3D.

There are fewer commercials for the 3D broadcast so that network will sub 2D spots on ESPN HD with new promos for ESPN 3D hyping that network increasing its programming day to 24/7 on Monday.

Friday’s boxing card will feature three middle weight match ups: Fernando Guerrero vs. Derrick Findley, Shawn Porter vs. Anges Adjaho and Dominic Wade vs. Grover Young.  Guerrero, Porter and Wade are all ranked as top prospects for 2011 by ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael.

— By Scott Hettrick