The entire 2011 French Tennis Open Roland Garros was broadcast live in 3D to more than 17 countries across Europe in cooperation with Eurosport making it one of the first multi-day sporting events available in 3D to thousands of European homes. 3D broadcast of the event was provided in France in partnership with Orange. Eurosport’s live 3D broadcast was distributed by many of the largest operators across Europe. Panasonic equipment is being used extensively in the production at Roland Garros including Panasonic’s latest 3D camcorder the upcoming AG-3DP1 which is being used for the first time for live broadcasting. Laurent Abadie chairman and CEO Panasonic Europe says “We were extremely excited to be able to fulfil the promise of live 3D TV in people’s living rooms. We feel we have come a long way from last year when we broadcast live to almost 3000 European retail stores to now be delivering 3D directly to peoples’ homes in over 17 countries as well as more than 7500 shops this year. Sporting events especially like the prestigious French Tennis Open offer a compelling 3D TV experience so it is important that the industry strives to do more live 3D sport broadcasts to help drive the 3D market forward.” Laurent-Eric Le Lay chairman and CEO Eurosport says The successful uptake of Eurosport's 3D coverage of the French Tennis Open by operators across Europe demonstrates the attractiveness and growing potential of live sports programming in 3D. Eurosport is delighted to take its longstanding partnership with Panasonic one step further to bring the French Tennis Open direct to sports fans homes in 17 different countries. This P2HD series 3D camcorder comes with a newly developed 17x twin lens zoom lens system (tentatively) and features an expanded range for both wide-angle and telephoto settings to provide an angle of view for diverse shooting situations. It combines high-sensitivity high-resolution sensors and high-quality 3D HD recording in a compact package making it easily portable for high action filming like sports events and movie production. HbbTV is a new pan-European initiative aimed at harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services. The countries Eurosport’s live 3D broadcast of the 2011 French Tennis Open was available in were: • UK – Virgin • Spain – DIGITAL+ • Italy – Sky • Belgium – Telenet Belgacom Voo • Denmark – Canal digital • Norway – Canal digital • Sweden – Canal digital • Finland – Canal digital Elisa • Switzerland – Swisscom Cablecom • Poland – Cyfra+ • Ireland - UPC • Czech Republic – UPC • Hungary – UPC • Romania – UPC • Slovakia – UPC • Estonia – Starman • Bulgaria - Blizoo
