At yesterday's 3DTV 2010 event in New York City, panelist Steven Roberts, New Media and Business Development Senior VP for DirecTV, mentioned that his company was testing the possibility of covering this year's major league baseball All-Star Game in 3D. The game will take place at Anaheim Stadium on July 13.

This statement gives credence to rumors that Panasonic will soon announce sponsorship of a 3D telecast of a major summer sports event, given their existing partnership with DirecTV. The 3D format would likely be 1080i/30.

Oddly, there has been no news or even a hint of 3D program and sponsorship plans from Sharp, the 'official' TV sponsor or baseball.

In other 3D news, Ted Szypulski, senior director of technology research and standards, said at yesterday's SMPTE-DC Technology Conference that ESPN may have to carry its 3D World Cup coverage in the 1080i format, and not the network's standard 720p format. That's because the production will originate in South Africa using the 1080i/25 European standard, and multiple format conversions to get to 720p would likely degrade picture quality and resolution.

1080i 3D programs are typically delivered to your TV using a side-by-side frame-compatible structure to minimize problems with interlaced scanning errors, whereas 720p 3D content would be formatted using a top+bottom arrangement to preserve as much horizontal resolution as possible.