3D Mats on cricket/football pitches

[Dom Tuk]

Who is credited with inventing those crazy and sometimes annoying mats on football/cricket grounds that are adverts but appear as 3D shapes on TV. The variety on offer now is quite mind boggling

[delboy3]

I don't know who's behind it (apart from advertisers of course) but I have a vague recollection that these started to appear either in the 1994 World Cup (USA - surprise surprise) or in the Italian Serie A games on Channel 4... At one point I felt sorry for the groundsmen having to clean it up afterwards (d'oh!). It's only a matter of time before we get 'pop-ups' on our telly...

[jenstar]

Satan, I think the fella's name was...

[Dom Tuk]

Ah but the till reading changes if the writers want to send out a subversive message. Among some of the numbers that have cropped up are the dates for Kennedys assasination, the dropping of the atom bombs, assasination of Gandhi, the invasion of Iraq and even Bin Ladens birthday

[Dom Tuk]

wrong question sorry, 2 points for guessing which question is above one the answer to.

[David H]

I thought they were computer generated for the TV- are some actually painted in the grass? I've clearly missed something...

[bernardo]

What on earth are you talking about?  Can you give me a link to show me pictures of what you mean?

[Chillum]

This guy takes the effect to a different level. http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/portable.htm

[David H]

So they are just pavement drawings on grass- though I never see any at Barnet FC.