Football World Cup to go 3-D: Sony, FIFA

Matches at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be filmed in 3-D for the first time in a deal announced Friday by international football body FIFA and Sony.

Up to 25 matches from the tournament, to be held in June and July, will be produced using Sony’s 3-D professional cameras and shown to fans at special sites in cities around the world, they said in a statement.

“3-D viewers around the world will feel as though they are inside the stadiums in South Africa, watching the games in person,” Sony chairman and president Howard Stringer said in the statement.

The recorded 3-D images from the World Cup will be shown at official public viewing events in Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Rome, and Sydney during the tournament, and later in retail stores.

Sony plans to incorporate 3D compatibility into a wide range of consumer products such as televisions, personal computers and PlayStation game consoles and hopes the World Cup will provide a platform to introduce the technology to a wider audience, the statement said.

FIFA will use the technology “to spread the passion inside the stadiums at the greatest sport event in the world to more people than ever before,” it said.