LONDON — Digital broadcaster Sky has demonstrated and tested the delivery of 3D programming to a television in the U.K. via a high-definition set-top box.

Sky has been filming a number of events using three-dimensional capable cameras over recent months. The TVs for receiving these signals are not yet available in U.K. stores, and viewers would need to wear 3D polarising glasses.

Earlier this year BBC engineers broadcast a Six Nations rugby union international in 3D to an audience at a theatre in London.

Sky says it has gone further by showing that 3D could be delivered into homes, straight to its Sky+HD set-top box. The broadcaster stresses this is not making a product launch, but a technology demonstration. "We have shown it is a technical reality. Now we have to find a way to bring it to viewers," said Sky's director of strategic product development, Gerry O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan said major TV manufacturers were beginning to look at building 3D sets and at January's Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, a number of prototypes are expected to be on display. He added that for broadcasters, the move to 3D would not be anything like as expensive as the investment the industry had made in high-definition television, since much of the technology piggybacks on previous HD TV technology developments.

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