The bizarre idea of people wearing their beer goggles to view football matches finally arrived with the top secret screening of a 3D clash at the Red Lion pub in Withington last weekend.

The lucky few invited to watch the stereoscopic action unfold – with Wayne Rooney helping United beat Arsenal by three goals to nil – were each required to wear 3D glasses.

What might have looked faintly ridiculous to onlookers was part of a quiet revolution which is gradually transforming the way we watch television and cinema.

Having got used to the idea of 3D movies like Avatar now being so blockbusting that they deserve an Oscar nomination, action so real it almost hits you in the face is now going to be the way we see top sports action, too. Sky hailed last weekend’s coverage as a world premiere, the first TV company anywhere to broadcast a live 3D TV sports event.

Tomorrow, the revolution continues, this time with a special screening of England’s centenary rugby clash against Wales at 40 Odeon and Cineworld cinemas throughout the country, including the Odeon cinema in the Printworks, Manchester, and Cineworld at Parrs Wood, Didsbury.

This time the lucky few are mainly valued customers of the mobile phone company 02, who were able to apply for priority cinema tickets for all of England’s RBS Six Nations fixtures. The screenings all quickly sold out.

But these fixtures are far more than gimmicks. In April, Sky will launch

Europe’s first 3D TV service – to pubs and clubs with weekly live Premier League games – and then to residential customers later this year.

“Sunday was just the beginning,” a Sky spokesman says. “We will work with Premier League clubs, examining the possibility of installing additional camera positions to optimise 3D coverage.

“There have been trials for 18 months and it’s a real learning experience for our team. The 3D broadcasts require a separate commentary for example – due to the distinct nature of the pictures.”

Andy Millns is a producer with the London television company Inition which will manage tomorrow’s broadcast on behalf of O2 and the Rugby Football Union. He says that 3D broadcasts of sport are now far more than a gimmick and that he expects the medium to become mass-market in a way which it hasn’t been since ’50s screen audiences watched horror flicks while wearing red and green glasses.

“The biggest breakthrough for cinemas has been the development of digital projectors,” he says. Whereas there was once a reliance on using two projectors and expert operators, digital projectors make it so much easier to achieve far better results.”

Millns says that the 3D glasses which people now wear are far superior to the old red and green versions, which relied on layers of colour to produce 3D images.

Modern 3D imagery is achieved using a different technique, called

polarisation, which allows for sharp, full-colour pictures, he says.

“In terms of filming the action, the fundamental difference is that at each camera position, we’ll have two cameras. And they have to be precisely aligned, using a motorised rig.

“The difference in depth of the 3D image depends on how far apart the cameras are.

“In terms of the viewing experience, this is more like looking inside a deep three dimensional box. It isn’t like the old fashioned 3D cinema in which gimmicks were all-important and spears would come flying out of the screen. This is the action as it unfolds.”

Of course the revolution will really be televised once 3D arrives in people’s homes. But there’s a catch, particularly if you’re one of the people who has already traded up recently to a big flat-screen telly capable of receiving

digital signals.

This time around you’re going to need a 3D television and the technology is so new that they start at £2,000.

Which means it’s going to be another dear do. Ironically, it might only be the footballers and rugby stars themselves who are able to afford to go

3D for the forseeable future.

A three-dimensional history

  • 1840 – The story of 3D beginswhen stereoscopy (3D imaging) is invented by Charles Wheatstone, making stills seemingly jump out at the viewer.
  • 1890s – British film pioneer William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D motion picture. The method was to have two films projected side-by-side, with the audience viewing them through a stereoscope.
  • 1922 – The Power of Love, shown in Los Angeles, has been confirmed as the earliest 3D film to be watched by a paying audience. This was viewed using ‘anaglyph’ colour filter glasses.
  • 1952-1955 – This period is considered to be when the golden era of 3D began, with the release of the first colour stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil.
  • 1953 – Two ground- breaking 3D films were released – Man In The Dark and House Of Wax. Film- makers saw this as a way to entice audiences awayfrom their television sets and back into film theatres.
  • 1960s – Viewing and projection issues saw a lull in new 3D film productions. However, this was revived in 1961 with The Mask, shot in 2D but enhanced with 3D. Space-Vision 3D, a film projection where the images are on the same film strip, made 3D more economically viable.
  • 1970 – The Stewardesses was released using a new format, Stereovision 3D.
  • 1980s – Another revival took place creating a new craze with Jaws 3D, Friday the 13th Part III and Comin' At Ya!
  • 1985 – IMAX began offering non-fiction films in 3D.
  • 2003 – The ‘modern’ revival began. The Polar Express made 14 times as much in cinemas showing the 3D version than the 2D theatres. It was IMAX’s first full-length animated 3D feature.
  • 2009 – Major 3D releases included Monsters vs Aliens, Up and, of course, Avatar.