Thanks to Ericsson kit, Nine Network Australia will provide a world first when the Harvey Norman State of Origin rugby league tournament becomes the first sporting event to be broadcast live in 3D on free-to-air television.
“The Harvey Norman State of Origin Series is one of the biggest tournaments in Australia’s sporting calendar and we’re delighted to pioneer 3D sports broadcasting on free-to-air television and provide our viewers with the best seat in the house,” said Charles Sevior, network manager broadcast technology, Nine Network Australia. “Bringing 3D to terrestrial television presents obvious challenges in terms of available bandwidth, so we were pleased to be able to draw upon the knowledge and expertise of the Ericsson team to deliver this revolutionary coverage using the latest H.264 MPEG-4 encoding to rugby league fans throughout the country.”
“3D innovation has fast become a reality for consumers, but this is the first sports broadcast of its kind anywhere in the world on terrestrial television,” said Staffan Pehrson, head of solution area TV, business unit multimedia, Ericsson. “Having pioneered technology for the HDTV market, Ericsson is now providing the solutions required by innovative broadcasters like Channel Nine to bring ground-breaking 3D broadcasts to consumers. We are pleased to be playing a key role in making this world first a success for the Nine Network.”
All three Harvey Norman State of Origin matches will be broadcast live in 3D. The first match between the Maroons, representing Queensland, and the Blues, representing New South Wales, was broadcast from the ANZ Stadium in Sydney on 26 May 2010, with the remaining two games taking place on 16 June and 7 July. Nine has deployed an Ericsson solution that will enable this world first 3D terrestrial broadcast, including the EN8190, Ericsson’s latest HD encoder. Channel Nine has also installed Ericsson RX8200 receivers, the MX8400 multiplexer and the nCompass Control by Ericsson for this pioneering broadcast.
