Tom Hoffarth, Staff Writer for the Los Angeles Daily News wrote about his experience watching Wimbledon in 3D live at his local movie theater. We talked about how the Wimbledon finals would be broadcast in 3 dimensions but something about the was Hoffarth described the event was much better than any review we could have done ourselves. Enjoy!
Already a bit frazzled by an erratic performance in a first-set loss, and now acting frantic in the face of a 2-1 deficit in the second set of the Wimbledon women’s final, she stood rigid at the baseline, her back to the net, and tried to regroup.
Maria Sharapova looked as if she lost her focus.
Please, take my 3D glasses. Seriously. My focus may be lost, but I can just as easily run out to the lobby and get another pair. And a popcorn refill.
Oh, like Sasha Vujacic could do any better right about now.
This was a history-making moment in the 125th edition of Wimbledon. A live 3D feed was available in nearly 200 theatres worldwide, from Australia to Uruguay.
Southern California had five of the 50 U.S. theaters. England had 40 more.
That must have been the reason why a couple dozen of us had rolled out of bed before dawn and shuffled over to the otherwise deserted Rave 18 theatre over at the Howard Hughes Promenade near Westchester, getting there in time for the 6 a.m. start.
“Enjoy your movie,” the half-awake ticket-taker said as she handed over a receipt. “I mean, your film … I mean … Just go up the escalator.”
And there it was, Centre Court on the planet’s most famous tennis venue. Grass, in all its visual ultra-dimensional splendor. And it wasn’t even an episode of “Weeds.”
During Friday night’s Dodgers-Angels broadcast, Vin Scully marveled at the fact that it was 70 years ago – July 1,1941 – when the Dodgers played the Phillies at Ebbets Field on the first day of programming for the first commercial television channel.
Department stores had just starting selling TV sets back then, but very few people had one in their homes. Anyone curious enough to want to see the game on WNBT Channel 1 in New York likely did so while standing on the sidewalk peering in through the store windows.
“And the reports were that the picture was awful,” Scully said. “We’ve come a long way in 70 years.”
Now, 3D TV sets are supposed to be new hot ticket at the local Best Buy; plain-old HD sets are so last week. But take it further – when you’ve got access to specially-equipped theaters presenting a big-time, fan-friendly event that even encourages behavior like yelling at the 50-foot-wide screen, why buy into that home-experience hype job?
Yes, some actual cheered in the theater. And the noise even simmered a bit when the chair umpired called for quiet.
It felt that real in the mind’s eye.
When a blue-outfitted ballboy jumped up after a point, sprinted to the net, grabbed the loose ball, and scrambled out of the picture, it was more than just another “Avatar” moment. The surround-sound picked up every thump of his feet pounding the sod.
All that was missing was “Smell-a-vision.”
Even Sharapova’s sharper-image shrieks – “shouts or screams or whatever you want to call them,” as BBC commentator Barry Davies described – became far more pronounced in this venue. For better or worse.
Unlike the way NBC or ESPN presented Wimbledon coverage over the past two weeks, this 3D production stuck to the low-court angles. Viewers could make a distinct visualization between the players and the crowd.
Most of the live play was from eye-level behind the baseline, with the occasional head of a line judge getting in the way. That only added to the feel that you were actually there watching over his shoulder.
Previous 3D experiments with football and basketball work to some degree, but not as well as tennis or boxing. The screen is less cluttered, the combatants more intimate and dynamic. It can feel like a video game at the highest level, but with real human movements.
At the right angle, a 100-plusmph serve flies right at the audience. It’s tough not to flinch.
Like at that point in the match when the strikingly embraceable Sharapova was trying to refocus.
Petra Kvitova was serving, down 40-30 at break point. She hammered a backhand right at Sharapova, who somehow returned it with a two-handed flick of the racquet, sending the ball fluttering back over Kvitova’s head.
And directly toward me.
The ball dropped in for the point, and then hopped into the crowd. How could I possibly let it get past me? Must have been the glare.
Next time, I’ll be better prepared. With 3D sunglasses. Unsmudged by popcorn butter.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News
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