PPC to Provide 3D Content for Philips WOWvx Users
"The Picture Production Company (PPC), which has operations in the UK and the U.S., has been selected by Philips to develop content and what will effectively be a complete digital-signage system for the vendor's 3D WOWvx display technology.
PPC says it will convert two-dimensional content such as TV ads, programmes and other presentations for the 3D WOWvx screen system using Philips' BlueBox software suite, as well as creating what it calls “2D-plus-depth”-based content.
Using this approach, PPC says it can develop 3D content quickly and cost-effectively from existing 2D material, although Mark Hurry, PPC's director of legal and commercial operations, said that original 3D content will also be created by his company.
“Content is the critical factor when it comes to using the 3D WOWvx technology in signage applications,” he said, adding that the plan is for PPC to aggregate, as well as produce, content for its customers.
“What we're seeking to offer is a complete, 360-degree turnkey solution based on the 3D technology, for use by signage clients in a wide variety of environments.”
Hurry said that the technology seen in the new Philips' 3D screen system is steadily falling in price and he fully expects to see 3D displays in the home within three to four years' time.
“During that time we expect the price premium on 3D WOWvx over conventional signage to be around 20 percent,” he said, but added that even at the current price premium, the Philips' 3D screen system is still cost-effective.
“It has the capability of stopping people in their tracks and creating a truly effective wow factor. That factor really creates the marketing buzz that companies are looking for,” he said.
Currently, he added, PPC is promoting the 3D WOWvx technology as part of a “WOWzone” setup of nine 42-inch screens arrayed in a three-by-three matrix.
“Seeing is believing with this technology. That's why it's called Wow. We fully expect clients to buy a complete turnkey offering from ourselves, complete with content, although we also expect to service the needs of the signage rental market too,” he said.
In the longer term, he added, the plan is to replace existing 2D LCD signage panels with the Philips 3D system.
How it works
Previously known as auto-stereoscopic 3D, the WOWvx technology uses a multi-view lenticular lens system to achieve the required effect. The system centres around the use of a transparent lenticular sheet – an array of partial cylinder-shaped lenses –over a high-brightness LCD screen. The sheet is fixed so that the image plane of the LCD is at the focal plane of the lenses. This means that when the user looks at the screen with both eyes they will see the LCD pixels directly under a lens with one eye, and pixels off to the side of the lens with the other eye. This allows a different image to be viewed by each eye, so creating the 3D effect. Software places the appropriate images in each area in real time.
In some reviews of the technology, users report that the screen resolution has been been traded off to provide the 3D depth, since pixels which would normally provide higher 2D resolution are being used to provide depth perception instead. But Philips claims that its 3D WOWvx technology minimises this reduction and maintains a more balanced pixel shape."
By Steve Gold, Screens.tv
