BBC Olympic Coverage

The BBC will be broadcasting the London 2012 Olympic games in a way that has never been achieved before. For a starters the coverage will all be filmed in high definition. And the Olympics will be broadcast live on 24 dedicated digital channels - this is too cope with the maximum number of simultaneous live events during the games. ALL 24 channels are coming to your Sky HD Planner very soon!

Here's your options for watching the BBC Coverage:

• On TV Olympics coverage will be available on the BBC channels BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC One HD and BBC HD as well as through the Red Button digital streams for digital Freeview viewers.
• Sky will be launching 48 new channels dedicated to the BBC's Olympic coverage. 24 will be standard definition and 24 high definition. The channels are free-to-air and available to any Sky home, including Freesat from Sky homes. The HD channels are available on any Sky+HD box and do not require a subscription, but do require an HD ready TV. Customers will require a Sky subscription in order to use Sky+. These channels will be availble from the 24th July 2012. More Info from Sky. 
• Online at the BBC Sport Website through the BBC's new interactive video player which will provide standard definition and high definition video streams, separated into chapters. You can watch a live event or previous events throughout the day, and overlay detailed information about the athletes and events to help guide you through each sport.
• On the new BBC Sport App which provides the 24 live streams too, where ever you are. If you want to catch highlights from events which have already happened, or check the statistics such as the medal table, it's all on the app.
• BBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics can also be enjoyed on mobile phones via the mobile browser version of the BBC Sport website.
• A 24-hour digital radio station, Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.

So between the coverage online, on TV, and on mobile devices everyone should be able to get access to watch their favourite sports during the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony will be live on BBC One and BBC One HD on Friday 27th July at 7pm (Ceremony starts at 9pm).

Get yourself ready for the games with the UK version of the BBC Olympic app for smartphones and tablets that can be downloaded now for these platforms:

• Android 
• Apple 
• Blackberry 

And for those outside the UK, the global version of the app (does not contain live video streams) can be downloaded now from:

• Android 
• Apple 

Sky's New Formula 1 Channel

Sky have announced that Formula 1 will be shown on a dedicated new channel: Sky Sports F1 HD.

They have also launched a new webpage on their Sky Sports webiste to include news, opinion and reaction to on and off track action. And keeping up to date with Sky's F1 coverage can be achieved through their new Twitter account: @SkySportsF1.

Sky's deal is to show all of the 2012 Formula 1 races and qualifying live, whereas the BBC will be reduced to showing a selected number of races (these include Silverstone, Monaco & Brazil) next year. Sky Sports currently consists of 4 channels (imaginatively named 1,2,3 and 4). There is also a Sky Sports News channel to show the latest sports news. It is great news for Formula 1 fans that the F1 will not be squeezed into one of the existing 4 Sky Sports channels as these are largely concerned with Football, Rugby, Tennis, Golf, the list goes on. This is also a huge positive for the fans as the pricing structure is different to Sky Sports 1,2,3 and 4.

Sky Sports F1 HD will be available to all HD Sky customers and a SD version will be available to non-HD customers who have Sky Sports 1 and 2 in their subscription pack. - although their appears to be much confusion at the moment and lots of questions on Twitter be directed at @SkySportsF1

Sky confim that the races will be shown uninterrupted, unlike when F1 was shown on ITV, much to the fans continued disgust.

More info from Sky's announcement

Image from Sky's webpage.

Wimbledon Finals in 3D

Introducing Web Warp Blog's first guest blogpost by PunctualWaffle

This weekend saw the first free-to-air Television broadcast in 3D, as the BBC showed the Ladies’ and Men’s finals of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships live from the All England Club. The matches were freely available in 3D to anyone with access to the BBC HD Channel and a 3D compatible TV. (And of course those magical 3D glasses, without which 3D viewing would be rather unfulfilling).

Sport in 3D on UK television is not a particularly new development, with Sky launching it’s dedicated 3D channel in October 2010. But this weekend’s showing was the first time that 3D viewing was available without subscription.

Wimbledon has a history of technological experimentation and advancement with regards to television, being one of the first events to be broadcast in colour, and then in HD a few decades later. This could yet prove to be an important historical event in the technological development of Television, although ultimately only time will tell.

Currently a technology available in very few homes, an event like this broadcast in 3D could be exactly what the technology needs, to capture the public’s imagination and gain popularity. Maybe the draw of one of the world’s great sporting events will result in 3D television becoming a slightly more familiar sight in the average living room.

Perhaps the relatively slow uptake of 3D television (apart from the obvious cost factor and the current scarcity of 3D content,) is due to the mixed opinion on the quality of 3D viewing in general. 3D does not appear to be universally loved by all those to have sampled it. 3D TV and indeed 3D films in cinemas appear to have split opinion amongst the public, and there are certainly differing views on which sports are best suited to 3D.

Many feel that Tennis in particular may lend itself to especially engaging 3D viewing, with it’s simple camera angles and the relatively confined environment of the court; perhaps more so than football or rugby, for example.

I for one am not a fan of the oversized glasses and am yet to be convinced of the true merits of 3D viewing, especially in the cinema. But I would love to know if seeing Tennis in 3D has converted any viewers, who until now had made a similar, sceptical judgment.

Did you watch the Wimbledon finals in 3D? Is this the kick-start of 3D TV? Or will it be just another passing fad? Let Web Warp Blog know what you think with a comment below.

PunctualWaffle

Sky Sports News HD

Sky Sports News HD has launched on Sky Channel 455 (Standard Definition Channel 405). There are lots of changes to the Sky Sports News channel apart from the change to high definition. It is no longer on Freeview. It is now on any Sky package but only until February 23rd 2011. After then it will only be available to subscribers to either the News & Events package or a Sports package.

Full Details: Click Here