With golf and World Cup soccer having had good experiences with 3D, NASCAR is next up, announcing it's partnered with Turner Sports to roll out its own 3D broadcast from the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway July 3.
The production will be broadcast live to DirecTV subscribers and also be available online at NASCAR.com via TNT RaceBuddy, where users will be able to choose camera angles (and be able to watch up to four at once), chat with friends, see updated notes from pitrow, and have updated stats and a configurable leaderboard available throughout the race.
Like the 2010 Winter Olympics, users are going to have to jump through a couple of hoops--albeit small ones--to watch the race on their PCs, downloading and installing Silverlight, for example; but the interface itself is a smooth one.
Users can go to www.nascar.com/racebuddy3D to get more information about the hardware and software used to view the 3D production online. In order to experience the event in 3D, viewers will need a 3D TV or PC display with matching 3D glasses.
"One of our goals here at NASCAR is to continuously explore ways to improve the viewing experience for our fans," said Jay Abraham, chief operating officer of NASCAR Media Group. "Offering the Coke Zero 400 in 3D on NASCAR.COM and select television distributors is a great example of that consistent exploration. Our fans have been asking us about 3D for several months so we're excited to deliver that to them for the first time ever in what will likely change how NASCAR is consumed moving forward."
Televised coverage of the Coke Zero 400 begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with Countdown to Green, and continues with live race coverage at 7:30 p.m. ET. The continuous race coverage will be free of national commercial breaks and features more unobstructed race action than that of a standard telecast by using a letterbox widescreen format.
Turner and NASCAR's 3D experiment also will include six Sprint Cup Series race from Daytona International Speedway, available in 3D through DirecTV.
For more:
- see this release
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