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notanotherone
18-01-2011, 08:47 PM
What is claimed to be the world's first 3D TV service over digital terrestrial television (DTT) went live last week in Italy following a successful trial by Italian broadcaster Mediaset.

The service, known as 3VOD, operates on the Bestv set top boxes offered by Motive, enabling subscribers to watch a selection of 3D films, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Giuseppe Flores d'Arcais, co-founder of Bestv and a director of Motive, expressed his belief that the 3D TV launch over DTT was a "world first".

He added: "This latest innovation, 3D on terrestrial television, using our Bestv technology, is a major step forward, both for broadcasters and viewers. The success of this service confirms that Bestv is at the forefront of high added value, low-cost broadcasting."

Previously, 3D TV services have been limited to pay-TV platforms, such as Sky in the UK, due to the high bandwidth required to deliver the picture quality. As 3D TV requires two images per frame, the files are twice as large as normal 2D content.

Motive's 3VOD service works by storing files locally on the user's set top box, meaning there are fewer issues of buffering or reduced quality.

The system, known as Datacasting, enables broadcasters to offer a limited number of higher-end services to customers over existing DTT networks. It also uses a technique known as 'multiplexing', which optimises the under-used bandwidth on DTT multiplexes to deliver the 3D content to customers without impacting regular TV services.

"Within a multiplex you will always have different kinds of content. So on one channel you may have a soccer match that requires a lot of bandwidth, maybe on another channel you may have a cartoon or news bulletin," said d'Arcais.

"Within multiplexing you can always find some free space, even during primetime. We really extract the value of these networks."

Eugenio Pettazzi, head of the premium on-demand projects at Mediaset, added: "We are very happy to introduce 3D over terrestrial network so early on.

"The launch of this service confirms that true value added television is possible on the terrestrial platform and confirms Mediaset's lead in introducing ongoing innovation in TV viewing."

Last March, transmission operator Arqiva discussed possible future options for delivering 3D broadcast services over the UK's DTT networks.