benjo
18-08-2004, 01:53 PM
Below is my idea of the perfect interactive tv for football. I originaly posted it in a reply to a thread about Digital TV Restrictions, but later realised that the subject now doesn't really apply. So, I've pasted it below.
I think I now have a handle on the restrictions, so now can somebody tell me if my idea for ideal football multiview would work. We'll assume the limit is 21Mbps. This may get a little complicated, but bare with me.
Firstly, you have your regular SD signal showing what is normally shown to everyone, call it the main view. This would take 6Mbps.
Secondly, you have highlights, similar to what both 9 and fox footy do. On the highlights screen you would have the highlights running at about 70% of the screen size. You would also have the live game taking up 30% of the screen, with some sort of graphic in the background showing the score (pretty much identical to fox footy's highlights screen). My question with this is, would you have to transmit the whole screen, or could you just transmit the highlights, and the STB could be set to take the main view which is already being transmitted, reduce it to 30% and put it on the screen? Because the highlights are only 70% of the screen size, surely it wouldn't need the full 6Mbps, and would probably be ok with 4Mpbs?
Thirdly, you have a couple of options all brought about by a single high definition camera being placed at the ground at a spot where the entire oval can be seen in shot. It would be stationary, however there would be a fair bit of movement on the field. Because the camera is stationary, would the bandwidth required only be about 8Mbps to still get the higher resolution high definition signal?
Now what to do with this high definition picture, and this is where it gets complicated.
Firstly, you give the viewer the illusion of being able to watch whatever they want, and essentially move the camers themselves. This is achieved by enlarging the camera to 200 - 300%, and when the viewer wants to "move the camera", the STB just moves the enlarged image accross. Is this at all possible? Can a SD STB receive a HD picture even if it doesn't have to output in HD? I'm assuming for this to be possible, the STB would need software to be installed so that it knows what to do with the HD signal.
Secondly, you have player track. The idea is put a sensor on every player which can transmit their coordinates at every point in time. (Similar to what channel 9 did with 2 players per game). The difference is, these coordinates are tied into the HD wideshot, and turned into coordinates on the screen pointing to where each player is on the screen. These coordinates are sent to the STB, and using these coordinates and the HD picture it zooms in to 400 - 500% of the HD picture at the coordinates of the player selected. At 400 - 500% the quality would probably decrease if it was displayed at full screen, so instead this picture following the player would take up a quarter of the screen. The rest of the screen would have stats on the player selected, a top view map of the ground pointing to where the player is, and also a smaller live picture of the main view. Again, this would definitely require the STB being configured to be able to understand all this stuff being transmitted to it, but is it possible?
Lastly you have stats on players, other games, team stats etc (similar to the fox footy stats).
Is all or any of this possible? I don't know much about the technical side of digital tv, but I know it can be better than what it is now.
Any ideas, thoughts, answers, queries would be appreciated.
Benjo
I think I now have a handle on the restrictions, so now can somebody tell me if my idea for ideal football multiview would work. We'll assume the limit is 21Mbps. This may get a little complicated, but bare with me.
Firstly, you have your regular SD signal showing what is normally shown to everyone, call it the main view. This would take 6Mbps.
Secondly, you have highlights, similar to what both 9 and fox footy do. On the highlights screen you would have the highlights running at about 70% of the screen size. You would also have the live game taking up 30% of the screen, with some sort of graphic in the background showing the score (pretty much identical to fox footy's highlights screen). My question with this is, would you have to transmit the whole screen, or could you just transmit the highlights, and the STB could be set to take the main view which is already being transmitted, reduce it to 30% and put it on the screen? Because the highlights are only 70% of the screen size, surely it wouldn't need the full 6Mbps, and would probably be ok with 4Mpbs?
Thirdly, you have a couple of options all brought about by a single high definition camera being placed at the ground at a spot where the entire oval can be seen in shot. It would be stationary, however there would be a fair bit of movement on the field. Because the camera is stationary, would the bandwidth required only be about 8Mbps to still get the higher resolution high definition signal?
Now what to do with this high definition picture, and this is where it gets complicated.
Firstly, you give the viewer the illusion of being able to watch whatever they want, and essentially move the camers themselves. This is achieved by enlarging the camera to 200 - 300%, and when the viewer wants to "move the camera", the STB just moves the enlarged image accross. Is this at all possible? Can a SD STB receive a HD picture even if it doesn't have to output in HD? I'm assuming for this to be possible, the STB would need software to be installed so that it knows what to do with the HD signal.
Secondly, you have player track. The idea is put a sensor on every player which can transmit their coordinates at every point in time. (Similar to what channel 9 did with 2 players per game). The difference is, these coordinates are tied into the HD wideshot, and turned into coordinates on the screen pointing to where each player is on the screen. These coordinates are sent to the STB, and using these coordinates and the HD picture it zooms in to 400 - 500% of the HD picture at the coordinates of the player selected. At 400 - 500% the quality would probably decrease if it was displayed at full screen, so instead this picture following the player would take up a quarter of the screen. The rest of the screen would have stats on the player selected, a top view map of the ground pointing to where the player is, and also a smaller live picture of the main view. Again, this would definitely require the STB being configured to be able to understand all this stuff being transmitted to it, but is it possible?
Lastly you have stats on players, other games, team stats etc (similar to the fox footy stats).
Is all or any of this possible? I don't know much about the technical side of digital tv, but I know it can be better than what it is now.
Any ideas, thoughts, answers, queries would be appreciated.
Benjo