It's down to the final week now, and preparations are well under way. Office-goers the world over are finely examining their work-at-home clauses or looking to eat into their sick leave, supermarkets are stacking up munchies and chilled beverages and the more hardened are blocking their social calendars due to… ‘family commitments’. Chances are high that if you’ve read this far — you’re not making the pilgrimage to South Africa either. But preparations are in order, nonetheless — it’s the football World Cup, folks, and it promises to be the most widely watched events in the globe! Here’s all the tech you need to make the most out of your footy watching experience — I leave the ambience-creating, kid-shushing, spouse-pleasing nuances up to you!

Televisions

Buying a big LCD TV, the largest you can afford, is a no-brainer. Occupying pride of place in your living room and ready to please you and your gaggle of friends for those too-frequent-to-be-impromptu World Cup parties. And while plasma pundits will tell you that some LCD screens have a tendency to blur fast moving sports images, if you pick up a newer LCD with a 120Hz or 200Hz refresh rate, you should be safe. If you want to go all out, I’d suggest the Sony Bravia NX800 series of HDTVs. Built to almost Apple-like minimalist ethos, this HDTV is one of Sony’s sexiest yet. You can tick off all the checkboxes here — full HD 1080p resolution, edge LED-backlit LCD screen in 46-, 52- or 60-inch sizes, integrated WiFi, and ambient light sensor, the Bravia Engine 3 video processor and the crucial Motionflow 200Hz technology for smooth on-screen motion. It doesn’t support the buzzword of the year (3D), but that content is just a pipe-dream in India right now. Now, if only our TV operators would turn on that high definition feed for the sports channels at least…

Sony Bravia KDL-52NX800:

http://www.so-ny.co.in/product/kdl-52nx800 Pocket pinch: Rs 2.49 lakh

Projector

If the sticker shock of the TV got you feeling like you’ve scored an own-goal, have a dekko at a home-theatre projector like the BenQ W1000 if your living room can afford the space. The small speaker and the PC inputs would have you believe this one has escaped from the boardroom, but the W1000 fights a mean battle for living room domination with full-HD resolution, impressive fine-tuning capabilities for a variety of playing environments and connectivity options that include component video and two HDMI inputs. The projected image — ranging from 30-in to 300-in- is bright yet features acceptable black levels — a good investment for movie watching well after the World Cup is done and dusted!

BenQ W1000:

http://www.benq.co.in/products/Projector/?product=1574&page=features Pocket pinch: Rs 95,700

Home-Theatre

Big picture, small sound — doesn’t sound right, does it? If you want to complement the visual spectacle that will be the World Cup, a good speaker system is a must-have. Of course, you could go shopping for individual components — Onkyo, Sonodyne, Denon and a host of others have plenty of options — but if it’s much too much of a rush, may I suggest a home-theatre set-up that will wake the neighbours and drown out your mid-match jeering? Think integrated home-theatre set-ups, and the first name that springs to mind is Bose Lifestyle 48 home theatre system. Bose’s top-end offering features a special calibration CD in the box to optimise your set-up to your room shape, and the in-built hard disk lets you switch from the commentary to house party mode in a flash. And mind you, the speakers may look diminutive, but they can blast the wax out of your ears — and your bank balance away too. A less scary prospect is the LG HB954TB Blu-ray Home Theatre Set, with its champagne glass speakers and Blu-ray capabilities (see left).

Bose:

http://www.boseindia.com Pocket pinch: Rs 2.71 lakh

LG:

http://www.in.lge.com Pocket pinch: Rs 51,990

Digital Video Recorder

Unless you plan to stay up for those post-midnight mat-ches and skip work the next day, a digital video recorder is your best bet. Just select the channel and the match and hit record, and it will record up to 200 hours of TV — that’s more than the entire World Cup put together! I’d even go so far as to recommend Reliance Big TV’s high definition-capable DVR, but that’s a moot point since the sports channels are still in standard definition. The choices are many — Airtel DTH’s DVR and Tata Sky Plus offer the most features, including recording from the mobile and the Internet. Added bonus: match times conflict with primetime reality show/ soap opera timings, so a DVR = family harmony!

Airtel:

http://airtel.in/digitaltvrecorder/

Big TV:

http://www.big-tv.co.in/-hd_dvr.html

Tata:

http://www.tataskyplus.com/

UPS

No recommendations here — just pick up one that can support the load of your TV and satellite set-top boxes if you don’t want the frequent power cuts that are the norm this summer to play havoc with your TV watching. Plus, it helps protect all the fancy equipment.

World Cup Games

Every four years, football World Cup fever spills over onto the gaming industry, and gamers get treated to a special edition of the FIFA Soccer series from EA Sports on their video game consoles and iPods. With all the players and teams due to feature in this year’s contest, and 10 exclusive World Cup venues, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is as real as it can get. You begin the game by picking one of the 199 teams from around the world and you can start in the finals in South Africa (quick-fire games). Or you can begin your World Cup campaign in the qualifying rounds (many more hours of gameplay). Graphics and audio departments of the FIFA series have been strong, and they remain strong in this version too! The game also brings in the rich culture associated with the World Cup, and with more gameplay and content, 2010 FIFA World Cup is an excellent football simulation game and is definitely worth the buy. Available on all major gaming console platforms.

2010 FIFA World Cup SA:

http://fifa-world-cup.easports.com/home.action

Football 2010 Apps

For your daily fix once the games — real or virtual — get going, there are a host of apps for your smart phone that will keep you in the thick of things all day. If you have a Windows Mobile phone, try the World Cup 2010 Fixtures app, which shows you the standings of teams in each group until the tournament concludes. On the Android platform, World Cup 2010 - FotMob looks to be an excellent app that will get even better once the actual tournament starts. For now, it offers extensive news coverage, a fixtures calendar and information on the group tables, and will show live scores and top scorers once the tournament is underway. And on the iPhone, the iPhone FIFA World Cup 2010 App will bring live coverage of all matches, along with News, Fixtures and Schedule, Venues, Tournament History and a Bracket Predictor.

Football Gizmos

Head over to eBay where retailers are cashing in on the World Cup madness by peddling football-shaped webcams, USB hubs, mice and the like. The World Cup does come only once in four years, so eve-rything’s legit and there’s no better time to wear your football colours and have a blast for an entire month. Happy viewing folks!

eBay:

http://www.ebay.in/

3D Technology at the World Cup

There’s an added dimension to this year’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup, quite literally. FIFA and Sony will be jointly responsible for broadcasting the World Cup in 3D, with the latter organising seven pairs of Sony’s professional HDC cameras on rigs at the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches to capture the action in 3D quality. In all, 25 matches will be filmed and broadcasted in 3D, and this includes the opening game on June 11 at Soccer City, Johannesburg and the final game on July 11. Apart from the lucky few broadcasters who will be streaming this content to their viewers, Sony will also set up “Sony 3D experience” pavilions in Johannesburg and six international cities where visitors will also be able to watch highlights of the 25 matches filmed during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. These highlights will be compiled into a 3D Blu-ray disc and will be released later this year.

Not altogether surprising, given the big move to 3D for all major consumer electronics manufacturers this year. At this point for example, you can go out and pick up 3D laptops, cameras and TVs, and Blu-ray players and 3D PlayStation games are planned for the near future. The 3D hardware premium isn’t expected to be much, but the glasses could retail separately for upto $150.

For now, the bad news is that the 3D broadcast isn’t coming to India, so if it is a 3D World Cup experience you want, be prepared to hoof it all the way over there!