Stereoscopic 3-D Tools at NAB
Camera Rigs
ZGC were showing the beautifully engineered P+S Technik beamsplitter rig, fully outfitted with focus, interocular, and convergence motors and 2 Sony EX-3 cameras, as well as a Maxi side-by-side rig from Stereotec.
KUK Filmproduktion and Fraunhofer IIS were around the corner in the German Pavillion and showed several more stereo cinema product. A Mini version of the Stereotec side-by-side rig (also shown by Transvideo), a large beamsplitter with 2 Arriflex D21, etc.
Binocle 3D, a French company, had systems and/or literature at several booths, especially Silicon Imaging. Both a side-by-side rig and a beamsplitter with 2 tiny SI-2K Mini cameras. Their literature lists several configurations for different weight cameras.
NHK Enterprises America (NEPA) was exhibiting several stereo rigs, including a side-by-side with two Sony F900, using (I believe) a motorized prism lens mount to get the lenses closer together and control the convergence, plus a beamsplitter rig with dual Sony 1500.
Pace had a display in a nearby booth with 2 rehoused Sony F950 in a custom beamsplitter.
Swissrig offered the fully equipped and highly accurate beamsplitter Swissrig 3D with 2 Red cameras hooked up to Piranha’s system.
Inition from the UK displayed a side-by-side rig with an unusual approach to convergence. The cameras were 1080i’s from Toshiba.
Transvideo showed a custom beamsplitter rig built by Alain Derobe with 2 Canon camcorders.
Cameras
Panasonic had one of the most anticipated products of the show (though only a mockup), the AVC-Ultra 3D camcorder. Many if not most of the features are apparently not finalized. They’re promising a complete integrated system, with recorders, Blu-Ray, monitors, etc.
Monitors
Transvideo offers the 3D CineMonitor family: 6”, 12”, and 15” LCDs with 2x HD SDI inputs, anaglyph mode, and an optional shutter glass interface. Prices range from $8900 to $13500.
Softwares
Stereotec showed a Stereoscopic Calculator application for interocular and convergence.
Inition also offers Stereo Calculator software.
Andersson Technologies has SynthEyes, a motion-moving stabilization application which promises to be able to geometrically match footage from the two cameras, correct mis- aiming, rotation, and zoom mismatches without keystoning, and more.
Frantic Films showed Awake, a plugin package for Eyeon Fusion that allows for stereoscopic compositing.
CineForm was demonstrating new applications, Neo3D and FirstLight 3D, which essentially allow a CineForm file fully compatible with most editing systems (FCP, etc.) to be attached via metadata to the second stereo file. While cutting it appears as a single image, but can be played back as 3D on most monitors. Also allows for convergence adjustment and anaglyph preview. About $3000.
IFX makes the Piranha Stereo On-Set Tools for fast calibration of the camera rig and automatic recording of dailies into QuickTime. Demonstrated with the Swissrig.
Binocle 3D offers the Stereo Visualization and Correction Tools, as well as motion control capabilities.
Hardwares
Fraunhofer HHI showed the Stereoscopic Analyzer, a box that can automatically control the optimal stereo baseline, correct in realtime both geometric and colorimetric distortions, remove vertical disparities without keystoning, fix color mismatches, calculate scene depth, etc.
JVC demoed a new system, a real-time 2D-to-3D converter. They were understandably secretive about the technology, but did admit that there was a built-in bias to keep the upper imagery on the screen further away from the viewer. It was generally successful, but there was a cartoony quality and some objects, such as fences, seemed behind the objects that they should be in front of.
Zaxel had a fascinating system, a combination of the Zaxtar 4K DVI server (around $30K) and a software package that works with digital projectors and a Canon digital SLR. You can, for instance, project a 4K stereo video by using 8 1K projectors, loosely overlapping the images, and the software will correct all overlap, warping, brightness and color differences, etc., and give you a perfect image. The demo was amazing. Software is about $2K per 1K of resolution and can work with some other servers.
cmotion announced C3D software for their remote lens and camera control system, in order to give precisely synchronized control of focus, iris, and zoom on two lenses.
Inition has two Stereobrain Stereoscopic Processors, the SB-1 for viewing stereo streams on many different systems, and the SB-221, which can compress the two video streams into one stream losslessly (when recorded uncompressed), shift convergence live, etc.
Source: BLMP Blog
