Recently tried on the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow,
Scotland – is the 3D virtual reality video broadcast of the games the future of
3D broadcasting?
By: Ringo Bones
The average American may have become jaded – even bored with
anything pertaining to 3D after its boom in 2010, but for the rest of the
world, 3D enthusiasts are still clamoring for the latest improvements and
innovations on whatever makes 3D a more enjoyable experience. Given that the
trial 3D virtual reality broadcast of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games seems to have
rekindled everyone’s interest in anything 3D related in Britain and her former
colonies, is 3D virtual reality the future of sports broadcasting?
The latest 3D virtual reality broadcast of the 2014
Commonwealth Games is a technological tour-de-force in itself because it is the
first ever sporting event that was broadcasted worldwide in 3D virtual reality
format. But it would not have been possible without the Kickstarter crowdfunded start-up
company called Oculus Rift who has improved those wrap-around virtual reality
goggles that make them no longer headache-inducing unlike their VR Goggle
predecessors of the late 1980s of the early 1990s. Thanks to recent advances in
wrap around 3D virtual reality goggles, 3D virtual reality viewing is no longer
the nystagmus inducing chore that it used to be.
To the eagle-eyed viewers who had noticed, the video quality
of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in 3D virtual reality format is slightly
compressed - at the moment – in order for it to allow to be transmitted in our
current internet infrastructure. Faster computer processor and internet
transmission speeds in the future would only mean better picture quality – make
that better 3D picture quality of future 3D virtual reality broadcasts via the
internet. Only time will tell if all sporting events broadcasts and movies will
be judged by their “you are there” 3D image quality - as in 3D Virtual Reality.
