Channel 4 to Capture Magic of 3D

Channel 4 is joining the 3D revolution by ordering UK-made content that can be viewed in 3D on standard TV sets. The broadcaster is planning a week of stripped peaktime 3D programming this autumn featuring footage of the Queen’s Coronation plus a Derren Brown spectacular.

BSkyB plans to launch a 3DTV channel next year that will require a 3D-ready set and employ the new polarised 3D technology increasingly used in Hollywood movies. But C4 is using a different technology, based on ColorCode 3D glasses, and has secured a deal with Sainsbury’s to give away the glasses the week before TX.

ColorCode 3D requires viewers to wear glasses with amber and blue filters - amber for colour information and blue for depth. C4’s new 3D footage was shot on twin-lens stereoscopic cameras and encoded using the system after editing. The result is a single full-colour image with the 3D information encoded in the colours.

NBC used the technology for a Chuck special during this year’s Superbowl, gaining the series’ biggest audience. Virgin 1 airs the episode next week and is giving away glasses with TV & Satellite Week magazine.

The centrepiece of C4’s season is the 2 x 60-minute Renegade Pictures series The Queen in 3D. It will showcase a 3D colour newsreel of the Coronation shot in 1953 and a new 3D film shot by Arena TV at the Garter Ceremony at Windsor Castle in June. Renegade has worked with the British Film Institute and with 3D specialists Can Communicate on the series.

Derren Brown’s 3D Magic Spectacular, from Objective Productions, will feature specially shot tricks from a range of magicians, plus archive 3D footage.

Objective is also compiling The Greatest Ever 3D Moments, including Jaws 3D and a 1993 Doctor Who Children in Need special. The shows will air alongside some classic 3D movies converted to the new format. The content is watchable without the glasses but has slightly increased contrast.

C4 science commissioner David Glover, who ordered the Renegade series, said: “Watching period 3D documentary footage is about as close to time travel as one can get. You watch as the crowds wave at the Coronation and you see the young queen walking right past you.”

The Objective shows were commissioned by Syeda Irtizaali.

By Robin Parker and Adrian Pennington, BroadcastNow