Coverage of the Games will be shown in picture quality 16 times better than HD TV on 50ft-high screens at three UK locations
The BBC is to use next year's London Olympics to debut a new broadcasting technology, Super Hi Vision, that delivers picture quality 16 times better than high-definition television.
In 2012 the BBC intends to erect custom-built 50ft-high screens at three locations around the UK to allow the public to catch a glimpse of the future of television, although consumers will have to wait until at least 2022 before TV sets will be available on the high street.
"When you sit and watch it you really get the experience of being in seat D5 in the stadium," said Roger Mosey, director of London 2012 for the BBC, speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. "Super Hi Vision might be a better long-term prospect than 3D in some ways a it gives you the feel of being in the stadium. People are knocked out by it."
Super Hi Vision screens will be erected at the BBC's Pacific Quay building in Glasgow, Broadcasting House in London and – subject to negotiations – the National Media Museum in Bradford.
The BBC is likely to broadcast the Olympic opening ceremony using the technology, which employs a single camera to capture a wide shot. It has already been tested with sports such as basketball and "big stadium events".
Mosey would not be drawn on the costs of the screens, which are being custom built for the Olympics, but added that its Japanese broadcast partner, NHK, has "led on the investment".
He said the BBC trialed the technology last year to prove it could successfully work by broadcasting a Charlatans concert and the Scottish Taekwondo team to NHK in Japan.
Mosey added that Sharp is working on an 85-inch TV set using Super Hi Vision technology but that it is unlikely to be widely available until 2022.
He also said that the BBC is aiming to deliver some 3D programming for the Olympics but details were dependent on the final plans of host broadcaster OBS, which will provide footage from the various Olympic venues to all broadcasters covering the 2012 London Games.
The debut of Super Hi Vision is part of a tradition of trialing new TV technology at the Olympics.
Mosey said the BBC led the way delivering the "first properly televised" Olympic games when they were hosted in London in 1948.
The Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 was the first to use HD cameras. However, it was not until Beijing in 2008 that the BBC first broadcast in HD.
Mosey said that despite the importance of providing the best possible broadcasting London Olympic coverage across TV, radio and online for the BBC brand, there would be no editorial edict for positive coverage across the corporation.
"Panorama is Panorama and Newsnight is Newsnight," he added. "If they want to be critical about the Games they must be able to do that. Our journalism must be fearless and independent."
The BBC wouldn't be drawn on costs, although the corporation will publish figures next year. Mosey said the BBC took 437 staff to cover the Beijing Olympics, while US broadcaster NBC took 2,850.
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