Cinemas go HD 3D with GlobeCast Australia

June 10, 2010

GlobeCast Australia announced today a major delivery deal with Event Cinemas that will delight audiences with 3D HD coverage of more than a dozen sporting events over the next month.

In a first for Australian cinema audiences, the cinema chain will screen at selected locations nationally HD 3D coverage of 15 games from the FIFA World Cup (tm) in South Africa; and exclusively, two State of Origin Rugby League showdowns in HD 3D.

The first FIFA World Cup broadcast will be this Friday night at 11.59pm (AEST), when South Africa meets Mexico, while the Australia vs Germany game will be scheduled pre-dawn on Monday June 14, at 4.30am (AEST).  Also in HD 3D on the big screen, the next State of Origin bout - Round 2 on Wednesday June 16 - will be followed by the final showdown for 2010 on Wednesday July 7.

The website, eventcinemas.com.au, will list locations mounting the 3D HD sports broadcasts.  General Manager Edge Digital Technology (a division of Event Cinemas parent company AHL) Peter Williams said: “From Friday night we’ll launch with at least nine cinemas, building towards 20 cinemas by the Finals.  This means thousands of Australians will have the thrill of watching their teams play in HD 3D, in the shared experience of a cinema with the benefit of a giant screen and tremendous sound.”

GlobeCast Australia Operations Manager Peter Doueihi said: “We will deliver this outstanding coverage using 40 Mb per second and 27Mhz of satellite capacity, a state of the art approach to HD 3D transmission.” 

GlobeCast Australia will access the FIFA World Feed provided on AsiaSat5. GlobeCast Australia will then deliver the coverage via its lease on the Optus D2 satellite to cinemas nationally.  It has previously also successfully delivered 3D transmissions to broadcasters; and, the cinema deal announced today builds on two years of delivering live events in to dozens of Australia cinemas (ranging from concerts to media launches; and including a live global broadcast of an Andre Rieu concert across Australia and live to cinemas in the Netherlands in 2009).

The latest 3D cinema deliveries are just part of GlobeCast Australia’s involvement with global distribution for the FIFA World Cup. 

The exclusive and official broadcaster of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (tm), SBS, has signed GlobeCast Australia to provide its connectivity between studios in Sydney and South Africa, according to GlobeCast Australia Commercial Director Andrew Nealon.  This will enable the SBS Cape Town studio to receive SBS off air from Sydney.

GlobeCast Australia operates a global network of fibre and satellite capacity, backed by a 24/7 Broadcast Centre.  It regularly handles major events, including global distribution of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and worldwide delivery of Rugby Union Super 14.