Someday soon, that long pass downfield by Joe Flacco will appear so close that you might be tempted to reach for it from your easy chair. Or the pass rusher swarming the Ravens quarterback will seem so real that you'll be ducking along with Flacco.
That kind of visceral, "you are there" fan experience is the promise of three-dimensional broadcasting of sporting events, a promise that might begin to see fruition tonight when the Oakland Raiders play the Chargers in San Diego.
For the first time, an NFL game will be broadcast live in 3-D, and that version will be shown to invited audiences in New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Eight digital 3-D cameras will capture the action, and the signal will be transmitted to theaters where the game will be shown on 3-D enabled movie screens and similarly equipped big-screen monitors.
While details have not been released, 3-D industry executives say tickets for such a live telecast would be more expensive than a typical movie theater admission but would cost less than attending the game.
The conventional game telecast will be carried on the NFL Network.
General audiences will get to see live 3-D football next month when Fox broadcasts the Bowl Championship Series game, David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports, said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, tonight's 3-D broadcast could be a landmark in sports television history - such as ABC's first Monday night prime-time football game - and pave the way for home 3-D telecasts on enabled TVs, or it could simply wind up a curious footnote.
"This is a proof of concept [event], and we simply want to see what it looks like," said Howard Katz, the NFL's senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. "I'm not sure where it takes us."
Former Ravens President David Modell, chairman of 3ality Digital, the Burbank, Calif.-based company putting together the broadcast, is confident about 3-D's potential as a vehicle for events such as pro football.
"We've all seen those great NFL Films images where the ball spins in super slow-mo and the receiver reaches for it and falls into the end zone," said Modell, the son of Ravens minority owner Art Modell. "Now imagine you're reaching with the receiver and falling into the end zone with him. People won't want to leave the theater when it's over. They'll want to see it again."
