Courtesy USA Today

(January 7, 2009) Fox's 3-D coverage in theaters of college football's BCS title game Thursday won't just be a big-screen re-broadcast of Fox's TV coverage.

Fox will use a separate crew — with its own announcers, cameras and production truck — for its 3-D coverage and a different game plan than Fox's 2-D TV counterpart. In 3-D, says Fox senior vice president Jerry Steinberg, the big idea is to get tight shots from low camera angles: "If you're isolated on a receiver and he's going long, the ball looks like it's going to come off the screen."

THEATER LOCATIONS:
Where you can watch BCS title game in 3-D
That's why, he suggests, the more than 80 theaters showing the game in 3-D might allow, or even encourage, fans to "hoot and scream."

While the NBA and NFL networks have tested 3-D action on movie screens for small groups, this is the first live 3-D sports experiment. Sony, one of the manufacturers of new TV sets that can get 3-D, will underwrite coverage in an effort to let viewers see the new technology.

Thursday, theater-goers will wear polarized plastic rather than the old paper 3-D glasses. Sandy Climan, CEO of 3ality Digital, whose technology will be used on Fox's coverage, says the key will be turning around consumer perceptions of "something that's been around 100 years." Climan says 3ality, which also shot a Sobe LifeWater 3-D TV ad that will air during NBC's Super Bowl, hopes viewers take a fresh look at a technology "that's been used as a stunt. Once you see sports in 3-D, you don't want to go back to 2-D."

Derek Manning, who'll direct Fox's game, will work in a standard TV production truck — but with monitors showing what shots look like in 3-D. He wants to avoid switching quickly between shots — "you can get a trailing effect with that and you don't want to put a mind freak on people" — and will heed feedback from guests at an NFL Network test at three theaters last month: "The No. 1 suggestion was to have more shots of cheerleaders. We won't shy away from that." What a surprise.