Sony puts 3D into Bravia LCD’s

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Sony used last week's IFA consumer show in Berlin to showcase its new Bravia LCD 3D units. It is yet another sign - as if the industry needs it - that 3D will be one of this week's ‘hot topics' at IBC.

Sony has certain advantages as regards 3D, in that it is can vertically integrate its movies-to-games-to-Blu ray and even computers as far as the new technology is concerned.

"It is the perfect moment for an announcement like this, even if its plans are ambitious," Ralf Tanger, an expert on 3D technology at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz research institute, told AFP. "Now the target is the living room," Tanger said. This is helped by the fact that some firms are considering launching channels that will show 3D programmes.

"At the moment the big handicap is that we are lacking in material," Joern Ostermann, head of the Laboratory for Information Technology at Leipniz University in the northern German city of Hanover, added. "But that is changing."

However, there's the very real prospect of a very confusing set of 3D ‘format battles' ahead. On the one hand certain key broadcasters (like the UK's BSkyB) want to use existing transmission technologies, while some in the TV set industry (from the likes of Panasonic) are favouring ‘full 3D' using twin 1080p at a very high refresh rate (and some reports are suggesting 400 Hz as the likely future).

There's another battleground over the transmission ‘standard' (which doesn't yet exist), with some looking to use Polarising spectacles (Sony favours those from Dolby's Real3D) while Panasonic favours active shutter technology. Panasonic used its massive 103" display at IFA, as well as again showcasing its combination Plasma/3D unit which they will commercialise next year.


Source:RapidTVNews