Paul Gray – Director, European TV Research, DisplaySearch

IFA’s first press day saw the official launch of the 50th IFA and press events from Panasonic and Sony.  As usual, they approached their communication in their own styles: Sony provided World Cup goals, Howard Stringer and a live performance by Lang Lang; Panasonic was heavier on product and technology.

However, underneath they had broadly similar messages. Both spent a significant part of the presentation in 3D: Panasonic had 54 3D plasma sets, with chairs clustered round each of them, while Sony had a large 3D LED public display screen and passive glasses.

It was always going to be a difficult event for either of them—the message this year is one of incremental development of 3D with more TV models, more Blu-ray players, and the arrival of 3D camcorders and (finally) 3D digital cameras.

While to me the 3D sports events are still not particularly convincing, the 3D gaming sequences shown by both Panasonic and Sony were breathtaking in their realism and added hugely to a sense of presence and immersion.  Although 3D in TV remains an open question (dogged by lack of content), if 3D gaming is anything like as good as the demonstrations, it is definitely here to stay.