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hen a player scores a goal and runs off to the side, pulling off his shirt and waving it, you’ll see the depth of field behind him,” said Jonathan Pannaman, ESPN’s senior director of technology.
To be sure, the audience for the inaugural 3-D telecast will be limited. Fewer than 1 million sets in the U.S. are capable of displaying these newly dimensionalized images — which can be seen only with the aid of special glasses — out of 110 million households, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn.. And even this new generation of TVs requires a source for the 3-D signal, such as satellite service DirecTV or, on the East Coast, cable operator Comcast Corp.
Still, consumers are showing a growing appreciation for 3-D as more and more people experience it in theaters. About 1 in 4 adults online said they had watched a 3-D movie in the last year — and 40% said they preferred it over flat 2-D renditions of movie and television shows, according to a study conducted by the Entertainment and Technology Center at the University of Southern California for the electronics trade group.