The BBC could screen some of the 2012 London Olympic games in 3D, a senior executive said today.
Roger Mosey, the director of the BBC's 2012 Olympics operation, said the corporation was looking at a number of new technologies to improve the spectacle for viewers.
"We could, and I believe should, capture some of the games in 3D," Mosey said in a speech to the IBC technology conference in Amsterdam. "Nobody would expect the games of 2012 to be comprehensively in 3D because the technology will be nothing like widespread enough; but it would be a shame not to have any images of London that were part of an experiment with what will be one of the next big waves of change.
"The Olympic stadium may only exist in its full 80,000+ capacity for a relatively short period. Not to have that at all in 3D would be, at the very least, a major gap in the archive."
Mosey also said that "super high definition" cameras could also be based at Olympic sites, even though homes would not have the necessary equipment to pick up the images at that point.
"There won't be a [super HD] set in your living room by 2012, but there could be a limited number of cameras and big screens that will give us a taste of the future – and could give a major creative boost to technologists and people thinking of the content of tomorrow," he added.
"Both 3D and super HD are currently posing questions and opportunities rather than solutions; but now's the time to start examining seriously whether there are answers that could make 2012 even more of a landmark year."
Mosey also used his speech to answer criticism from James Murdoch, News Corporation's chairman and chief executive in Europe and Asia, that the BBC should not be involved in digital media.
"We want to cheer James up and suggest his pessimism is unfounded – that a BBC still respected across the world as a model of public service can and does work with the private sector, and a healthy BBC with popular support is a guarantor of innovation and supporter of enterprise," he said.
