The NBA Tech Summit was full of interesting people, some good panels and a lot of conversation. I can tell you that you’ll benefit from what I heard and learned in a lot of ways but I couldn’t live blog — unless a participant gives his or her ok after the fact, what’s said in the room can’t be published. If I can work some approvals out, I’ll post more. Among those who participated: Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt; Mary Meeker; Turner’s Mark Lazarus, David Levy and Phil Kent; MTVN’s Denmark West; ESPN’s George Bodenheimer, Sean Bratches and John Skipper; Mark Cuban and more. Among those in attendance: Blake Krikorian, whose Sling Media continues to be a matter of great interest for sports and programming execs; Yahoo’s Scott Moore; Qualcomm’s Gina Lombardi and Dan Novak (Las Vegas is a test bed for MediaFlo so they could show off the service); a number of active NBA and WNBA players, and many more. I was able to spend some quality time with Skipper after the summit and will be sharing that interview as soon as possible.
I think it’s fair to say the topics under discussion in the room and the hallways are just what you would expect from such a gathering. But I can also say the conversation has advanced considerably since the first summit I attended in 2003. One major change: a lot that was merely theoretical back then in terms of the ways technology would affect sports is actually happening.
Sports in 3D HD: While other folks were partying Friday night, I was in on a little bit of video history as I caught the tail-end of the first live production in 3D HD. It was a test run for a fascinating experiment as the NBA with several partners produced the main events in the new format. But the audience was limited to a few hundred each night wearing special glasses at a viewing party at Mandalay Bay and there’s no telling when it will be ready for more than that. The picture here was taken in a special production truck created just for the weekend. You can’t tell from the flat images on the monitor that in 3D HD, players, backboards, nets — anything that’s 2D — literally pops off the screen. Vince Pace, the CEO of Pace, the company behind the technology, and the NBA’s Steve Hellmuth walked me through what it took to pull the production together. With HDTV nearing critical mass, this was a reminder that people are still trying to push the video envelope.

Not quite worth 3D HD: But almost worth the trip in its own campy way … the McDonald’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was a crazy quilt of celebs from various levels. Hard to think of anywhere else you would find Boris Becker (interviewing), Barry Bonds I(watching), Nelly, Grey’s Anatomy’s James Pickens (an assistant coach), Wayne Newton (an assistant coach), Carrot Top, Taye Diggs, BowWow and more. Beyond beyond. Pictures here.
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