Bytemarks

Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Sony Electronics held a joint press conference showcasing consumer 3D television viewing. If you have digital cable and select channel 1217 you can watch highlights from the Masters Gold Tournament in 3D beginning today through April 30, 2010. You will also need a 3D television.  Oceanic plans to roll out out more 3D programming over the summer. In addition, Sony will roll out their 3D Bravia LCD TV in the summer. In the meantime, Sony is outfitting hospitality suites in Augusta, GA with the monitor and holding “private screens” across the country.

While at the press conference Nate Smith, President of Oceanic Time Warner Cable, talked about supporting 3D with the existing network and implied delivering 3D is an additional demand on the cable network. I pulled Met Lebar, Transmission Systems Director on the side and asked him if Oceanic will have to build out the infrastructure to support 3D. He said not at all. The 3D signal requires about 15Mb of bandwidth which is what is delivered over their current digital service. I am curious how many televisions this service can support in one household. I suspect it is only a couple since delivering 3D on one tv and HD on another will require more than 15Mb. Met also mentioned that this service was available 10 years ago but at that time the major television manufacturers were not building 3D monitors. The ones that did were ahead of their time and have since gone out of business.

An element that has not changed from the 3D experience is the requirement to wear 3D glasses. Sony requires these Active Shutter Glasses that run on batteries and communicates with the 3D LCD monitor. The active shutter switches very rapidly depending on the content being viewed. The glasses are heavy and costs around $133. Karl Okemura, Sr. Vice President at Sony Hawaii, said two glasses will be provided with the purchase of a 3D Bravia LCD but did not say how much the monitor would cost. Gizmodo puts this price around $3900. Just like the first generation HD televisions, these 3D monitors are expensive but will likely go down in price as more units are sold.