CBS: 3D broadcast of Duke-Butler game a win for network

It's been a busy time over at CBS, where March Madness-the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament-has just wrapped up, and the Masters Tournament, complete with Tiger Woods and all of his associated baggage is just teeing it up.

The network delivered a solid broadcast and mobile presentation of the NCAA tournament, and set a number of "personal bests" with its online video streaming of the 63 games in the tournament, including revenue, hours of video streamed, and unique visitors.

But the network also had a first, as in history: it sent the final game between Duke and Butler-a nail bitter that saw the Blue Devils win 61-59 after dodging a last-minute 3-point game winner from Butler-- to 55 movie theaters around the country in 3D using Cinedigm's technology. Both semifinal match ups also had been sent out in 3D to 20 theaters Saturday. The network had planned a bigger splash, but ran short on screens because of 3D movie releases that ate up some of its planned venues.

The network said the its array of six Fusion 3D cameras, which also will be used for 3D coverage of The Masters tournament this week, provided an outstanding viewer experience, despite a few technical mishaps that included loss of picture attributed to transcoding issues.

Nonetheless, "it was way past my wildest imagination, it was really good," said Ken Aagaard, EVP of operations and engineering for CBS Sports. "Everything really worked well."

The 3D broadcast was underwritten by LG Electronics.

For more:
- see this Broadcast & Cable article

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