Eutelsat to broadcast Russian ballet in 3D today

Satellite operator Eutelsat will broadcast a Russian ballet performance in 3D later today.

The operator has teamed up with Russia’s General Satellite Corporation and the Mariinsky Theatre to broadcast a sequence of classical ballet performances from St Petersburg in 3D. The footage will be transmitted on Eutelsat’s dedicated 3D channel on the Eurobird 9A satellite and broadcast to Samsung 3D TV sets in Moscow and Paris.

The dance sequences in St Petersburg will be filmed in 3D then mixed, encoded and uplinked to Eutelsat satellite capacity from an SNG truck at the Mariinsky Theatre. The live signal will be delivered to six Samsung 3D Ready 55 inch displays via a standard HD set-top-box produced by General Satellite. Viewers will be able to watch the ballet sequences using Samsung active glasses.

In an agreement announced yesterday between Eutelsat and General Satellite, up to 500 hours of 3D content produced by General Satellite will be added to Eutelsat’s All-3D channel.