ADS Pitches Low Cost 3D Conversion

Advanced Digital Services has launched a new service offering that allows content owners and distributors to convert 2D content to 3D stereographic TV much faster and at a lower cost. The move comes as some content owners have been looking for ways to convert their content to 3D. Most notably, CBS has reportedly been pitching a 3D channel to operators that would feature prime time programming and other fare that had been converted to 3D.

ADS believes its solution would make it cost effective for producers and content owners to expand their 2D to 3D conversion efforts, which in the past had either produced lower quality product or was so expensive that it was only suitable for big budget Hollywood fare. That would also help overcome the lack of content that has limited consumer demands for new 3D TV, notes ADS CEO Thomas Engdahl.

Currently 2D to 3D for major feature films is an extremely labor intensive process can cost $60,000 to $90,000 per minute, or more, Engdahl explained in an interview. While high costs have traditionally made conversion of 2D TV programming uneconomical, he contends that ADS can convert content for only $3,000 to $5,000 a minute and that they can complete the process very quickly, doing a 46 minute episode in as little as 4 days.

Such costs would also make the conversion of library product as well as new production practical. "We are seeing a lot of interest from the studios in conversion, and some major studios are already using the technology," he notes. Science fiction, space programing, and content with open spaces, ranches, aerial shots, car races, CGI and animation would work particularly well in 3D, Engdahl says.

But he also stresses that it is important not to overdo the 3D effects in conversion, which can produce eyestrain in viewers, and that certain types of content, such as hand held reality fare, do not work well.

"There is a market void for 3D content that this can help content owners fill," he says. "It could really give library content a new life."

By George Winslow, Broadcasting & Cable

Stergen 2D-3D ‘Even Better than the Real Thing’

Chairman and founder of Stergen Hi-Tech, Miky Tamir, has invented a new 2D to 3D software conversion tool which he believes boasts superior technology to that of live 3D captured natively with rigs.

Tamir is confident that his patent-pending software will be used by European sportscasters for the 2011-12 football season. The software is optimized for soccer, but versions for American Football, rugby, tennis and baseball are being developed; and it has been trialed by four broadcasters, with Stergen set to announce first sales at NAB.

“There are many 2D – 3D conversion systems and software codes based on general purpose algorithms which, when applied to a sports feed, give an impression of 3D but very far from real 3D because the depth perception is very weak,” says Tamir, who previously co-founded virtual sets specialist Orad Hi-Tech and sports data and tracking systems vendor Sportvu.

Stergen’s concept, specific to sports, takes cognizance of the geometry of the pitch and stadia: “If you could convert the video to a 3D model you could render the other eye very accurately,” says Tamir. “With sports we know about the environment such as the playing field, goalposts and stands, so we are able to separate every frame into its component objects - ball, players, stands, posts; and to each component, we apply appropriate geometry to generate a true and accurate 3D conversion.”

The geometry is classified as players and goal poles are vertical, the pitch is horizontal, and stands have a known slope. The bulk of soccer editorial is captured using the high and wide shot position which in 3D is widely regarded as looking flat.

“The virtual cameras in Stergen’s process have the versatility to be placed one or two metres apart from each other thus enhancing the 3D effect,” says Tamir. “We can play with convergence and converge as a function of a zoom which cannot be done in reality,” he says. “We have proved it to customers – our virtual cameras generate better 3D than real ones.”

The software, which runs from standard HP Z800 workstations, can be placed anywhere on the video path and will automatically detect a cut between camera and select the right algorithm for that camera angle.

“Broadcasters can operate it from the stadia or in a studio, saving greatly on the costs of a 3D outside broadcast,” says Tamir.

Input to the system is 2D SDI and output is either two SDI signals or side by side, line by line or whatever 3D format is required. Tamir says there’s a two second delay on the process, being brought down to one second; and that the technology is even applicable to horse racing or golf where there is undulating ground and less of a pre-defined area. Interestingly, archive clips of legendary soccer players Maradona and Pele have been post converted using Stergen’s software.

In addition, Tamir claims the technology is uniquely positioned to contribute 3D content to autostereoscopic displays: “To produce autostereo content you need not just two views, but eight to nine views; and to produce that, you need eight to nine cameras beside each other, which is simply not possible. So in that case you are left with generating the views in software – this is a byproduct of our system.”

Stergen High-Tech is an Israeli company founded 18 months ago and 20% owned by graphics developer VizRT.

Source: TVB Europe

BSkyB Amends 3D Content Rules

BSkyB has changed its regulations to allow more 2D-to-3D converted content within programmes broadcast on its Sky 3D channel. It is a tacit acknowledgement of the high cost and technical difficulties associated with trying to film stereo 3D content entirely natively with 3D rigs.

Its new guidelines allow up to 25% of non-3D content to be used in any 3D programme, up from the strict 10% of converted material written in its original specifications, published last February. The new rules came quietly into force last year, but Sky has yet to update the specification on the technical section of its 3D website.

Sky said the change brought its 3D guidelines into line with its HD guidelines, which dictate that 75% of content should be in true HD. It said the change was also about taking a “pragmatic approach to supporting the growth of 3D production in the UK”.

The 2D-originated footage must be HD and in segments that do not exceed five minutes during any 15-minute period. This only applies to post-converted 2D-to-3D material, and Sky is still adamant that automated conversion of 2D HD programmes to 3D is not acceptable as “original 3D content”. However, it makes an exception for the use of live conversion tools for certain scenes or camera shots during live events.

By Adrian Pennington, Broadcast

Raising the Bar on 2D-to-3D Conversion

BitAnimate (Lake Oswego, OR) is a small start-up company developing 2D-to-3D conversion technology. They envision their technology being used in a variety of ways- from an on-line conversion service for users to upload their clips and watch them in 3D, to embedded application like 3DTVs. They also believe their technology is at such a level that they can approach Hollywood to dramatically reduce the time and cost of making theatrical-quality conversions. Other companies are already in this space, most notably JVC and DDD. After seeing a demo recently, it seems the main differentiating feature is that it actually works as advertised without as many artifacts. And, it even works in real-time.

I know, the purists will say that converted 3D content will never look as good as native 3D content. But, we have seen some horrendous ‘native’ content too. The result of either approach ultimately depends on the skill of the artists involved. The challenge with automated conversion is that the machine is making artistic decisions, not a person, and is doing so very rapidly in the case of real-time.

We were invited to BitAnimate’s offices for an exclusive demonstration of their technology prior to their planned demonstrations in a private suite at CES in January. They provided a side-by-side demonstration of their software with the built-in 2D-to-3D conversion on the Samsung 3DTV (based on the DDD software). The source material was Jurassic Park and Troy.

We tried to look at a lot of converted content while researching our 2010 Real-Time 2D-to-3D Conversion report and developed a flow-chart of how most conversion algorithms operate. There is a lot going on in a very short period of time; analyzing the scene to figure out what is in it, creating a depth map using visual and/or motion cue, constructing the 3D image — filling in as many missing detail as possible and finally, some post-processing to make sure the colors and gamma are the same for each eye. And you do this about 30 times per second — whew.

BitAnimate considers their conversion process to be a trade secret so they wouldn’t reveal too many details. When asked directly about their process, Behrooz Maleki, President of BitAnimate used an automotive analogy; "While you could describe two cars as having an 8 cylinder engine, two doors, a transmission and four tires - you don’t know if it is a Ferrari or a Pontiac." So, perhaps our flow chart is fairly accurate, but how they do each step is the secret sauce.

Maleki’s experience in video process goes back to his days at InFocus in the late 1990s. While there, he developed a chip to do deinterlacing and image process to compete with the market leading solution from Faroudja. "The Farouda chip was $230, but our solution was a $15 chip — and it looked better in a side-by-side demo," commented Maleki.

The same approach is being applied to 2D-to-3D conversion. Maleki says that not a lot of hardware is needed to implement his algorithms. The graphics cards on modern PCs and the video processing cores in TVs should be adequate, he says.

In addition, they are developing a new 3D web site that will potentially offer a 3D conversion service. Upload your 2D content and get back streaming 3D content. This could go to your iPhone or PC (using Silverlight). BitAnimate uses their own 3D player, which allows the user to choose the output format for the 3D platform they are viewing the content on.

It seems logical that if 2D-to-3D conversion can be done very well there should be a market for it. BitAnimate seems to be another example of a small company with a good technology having the potential to raise the bar on everyone.

By Dale Maunu, Display Daily

Teranex Launching 2D-to-3D Conversion Software Aimed at Broadcasters

As 3DTVs roll out in the consumer market, there is a pressing need for stereoscopic content. To address this issue, broadcast and postproduction technology manufacturer Teranex is launching 2D-to-3D conversion software next month in the U.S. Aimed at broadcasters, the software is designed for real-time conversion of live events or library titles for television.

"You can buy a 3DTV today, but there is very little content," explained Mike Poirier, general manager at Teranex. "With these new algorithms, we have the ability to take client's content and transition it from 2D to 3D."

The VC1-2D-3D software is a cross converter application that allows for 2D-to-3D conversion in real time, and is priced at $14,995. It runs on Teranex's VC100 universal frame synchronizer and format converter hardware platform, which is priced at $23,995.

Teranex is also launching in the U.S. this December its VC1-3D-ENC encoder and VCI-3D-DEC decoder software for 3D production, each priced at $7,499.

The company has already started to roll out the technology in Asia, where it has sold 40 applications, and in Europe, where it has sold 12. It is planning events to demonstrate the new technology in the U.S. These will be held during the first week of December in Los Angeles and the following week in New York.

Additional manufacturers that offer conversion tools to broadcasters include JVC with its IF-2D3D1 stereoscopic image processor, which works as a real-time 2D-to-3D converter and is priced at $30,000.

Also, Sony's MPE-200 multi-image processor box, which was built with an eye toward live events and was used during the FIFA World Cup, lists for $38,000 and recently got new 2D-to-3D conversion software.

By Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter

iLab to Offer 2D to 3D Conversion

Film processing and post-production facility iLab is expanding its visual effects capabilities with a view to post-converting 2D features and TV projects into stereo 3D.

Its Poland Street office will grow to include at least 20 extra seats for conversion work. Tom Horton, a former Molinare VFX producer, will head the VFX operation, while David Fowler, formerly of MPC, joins as head of technology.

The move comes after iLab’s parent, Indian communications giant Reliance Media Works, ended its deal with conversion company In-Three. The plan had been to establish in India what Reliance said would have been the world’s largest 2D to 3D conversion facility. The In-Three and Reliance partnership, announced last December, was expected to be able to convert 15-25 feature film projects a year.

“In-Three has terrific technology, and we’re keen to continue the cooperation, but we agreed to end that part of the relationship and we are now in talks about licensing their technology,” said Patrick von Sychowski, head of strategy for Reliance Media Works in London.

By Adrian Pennington, Broadcast

World’s First 3-D Broadcast Nationwide for all TVs in Full Color

The Rachael Ray Show, along with 3-D Vision are taking a major step forward in the exploding 3-D TV market. On October 29, “Rach’s Halloween Bash in 3-D” will be broadcast to millions of viewers with 3-D Vision’s revolutionary new 3-D process called “FullColor 3D”.

The Rachael Ray show is the first to use this revolutionary 3-D process in a commercial TV broadcast (sponsored in part by Sarah Lee). The show will be viewable in full-color and in 3-D on all existing TV sets, 2-D and 3-D, thanks to a new type of 3-D glasses which will be given away to over 2.4 million viewers in the October 25 issue of TV Guide Magazine.

Previous 3-D broadcasts shown on regular TV sets over the past 50 years used red and blue (or red and cyan) glasses referred to as “anaglyph” glasses. Although they provided 3-D, full color viewing was not possible with these glasses. In addition, due to an inherent brightness imbalance between the left and right eye filters used in the glasses, prolonged viewing created discomfort, eyestrain, and even headaches, imposing shorter 3-D segments.

Recently, a new 3-D process called “ColorCode”, used during a Super Bowl halftime show broadcast, produced an even greater brightness imbalance between viewers’ eyes.

The new “FullColor 3D” process, however, uses glasses that eliminate these problems by providing full-color images in 3-D, utilizing patent-pending balanced brightness and color filters, that can be worn during an entire 3-D show without discomfort. 3-D Vision is now making this new process available for use with all TV broadcasts. The same glasses also provide full-color 3-D viewing of all printed images for the first time ever, as demonstrated in the same upcoming October 25 issue of TV Guide Magazine.

Another revolutionary aspect of the new 3-D process used for “Rach’s Halloween Bash in 3-D” is the way the 3-D was made, allowing completion in a short time at a reasonable cost. Normally, 3-D shows can either be shot directly in 3-D using special expensive 3-D camera rigs operated by specialists with expertise in 3-D stereography, or they can be shot in conventional 2-D video and then converted to 3-D using a complex and expensive computer-assisted process that requires scores of graphic artists working simultaneously to convert the video to 3-D, frame by frame. Such conversion of a single full-length movie, for instance, can take several months and cost from $5-15 million just for the 3-D conversion alone. In contrast, using 3-D Vision’s revolutionary patented “Auto-3-D” conversion process, the Rachael Ray 3-D episode took only 2 weeks to convert, utilizing only 3 computer operators, and was done at a fraction of the cost of conventional 3-D conversion.

Another advantage of this new “Auto-3-D” conversion process is that it can produce a more natural-looking 3-D experience than the conventional conversion methods, which often produce images that look like a series of flat cardboard-like planes. This occurs because, in the conventional 3-D conversion processes, the graphic artists assign depth values to various parts of the image based on their own guesses about depth within the frame. The “Auto-3-D” process, on the other hand, uses actual 3-D information present in 2-D video frames and automatically displays scene components at different depths based on the depth information in the original frames.

3-D Vision developed these revolutionary patented and patent-pending technologies over the last 5 years based on its research on how the human brain works and creates the experience of 3-D, as well as on optics and TV technology principles.

Source: 3-D Vision

SBS Launches 3D Pilot Channel

SBS has launched a pilot 3D channel in the Netherlands which will offer up to 20 hours of 3D programming per day, including material converted from 2D. The 2D/3D conversion strategy is in contrast with the approaches of other pioneering 3D channels including Sky 3D in the UK and Discovery in the United States.

“Some content will be up-converted, and that could be up to 12 hours a day,” explained Josbert van Rooijen, CTO, SBS Broadcasting Netherlands. “We do simulcast of the 2D channel and the 3D channel. On the 3D channel, sometimes there will be a 3D version of the same programme. In some cases there will be separately produced 2D and 3D.”

SBS is already using tools such as the JVC IF-2D3D1 Stereoscopic Image Processor, which works as a 2D-to-3D converter. “We are looking for other systems as well,” reported van Rooijen. “Conversion is a necessary element of the experiments. It is something you need to learn. I think if I look into, for example, 3D sports, I think it will always been assisting in producing 3D.”

For 3D production, SBS has acquired Panasonic’s new AG-3DA1 twin lens Full HD 3D camcorder, which will be used for instance to shoot original 3D programmes such as a talk show about astrology.

For 3D on-air graphics, SBS has installed the first VidiGo Live 3D which was launched at IBC. “We are already using their system in 2D production,” van Rooijen reported. “3D is something they embraced right away and they used their technology to get it on the road really quick.

“We have produced just one 3D on-air promo to go through the learning process,” he said. “The same with IDs and commercials.”

By Carolyn Giardina, TVB Europe

Toshiba’s Glasses-Free 3-D Panel: Worth the Wait?

At CEATEC 2011, Asia’s biggest consumer electronics show held here this week, Toshiba Corp. unveiled two glasses-free 3-D TV models, challenging the current practice of forcing consumers to wear special glasses when watching 3-D TV.

Although many consumer electronics manufacturers, including Sony, are believed to be working on “glasses-less” 3-D TV technologies, all are keeping mum on their progress.

Toshiba decided to steal the 3-D-crazed industry’s thunder at CEATEC, showing 20- and 12-inch glasses-free LCD 3-D TV sets, both scheduled to launch here in December. Toshiba also demonstrated a 56-inch LCD TV prototype and another 3-D TV model that requires no special glasses. Toshiba has no immediate plans to introduction the 56-inch model.

In an interview with EE Times, Yuzo Hirayama, chief research scientist at multimedia laboratory of Toshiba’s corporate R&D center, said: “Our management has decided that there is no reason to keep the fruits of our research results hidden in our lab. If we know it works, they said, we should get it out there as commercial products.” Hirayama has been working on glasses-free 3-D TV technologies since 2005.

The use of a lenticular lens system is a well-understood principal for those who want to build an auto-stereoscopic high-definition 3-D TV that doesn’t need special glasses. That’s exactly what Toshiba did.

To some, 3-D TVs that don’t require glasses is a non-starter since the technology has been plagued with two well-known problems: lousy resolution and limited viewing angle. However, Toshiba claims to have solved some of these problems.

The demonstration showed that Toshiba’s new 3-D TV has a viewing angle of about 40 degrees. If viewers step out of that boundary, they see doubled images on a screen. Hirayama, however, noted that the viewing angle in the conventional glasses-free 3-D TV was about 20 degrees. “We doubled the viewing angle by developing special software to optimize light emission from the center, right and left of the screen.”

Toshiba made two crucial innovations in terms of the resolution delivered by its own glasses-free 3-D TVs: An engineering team developed a special panel technology; and several LSIs designed to do multi-parallax conversion were integrated with Toshiba’s Cell processor engine.

Special Panel Technology
Toshiba developed a special high-definition, LED-backlit LCD panel packed with 8.29 million pixels. “That’s about four times the pixels used in a full HD panel,” Hirayama explained. The new high-definition panel can produce the final 3-D image at a 1280 x 720 resolution, Hirayama noted, when deployed in Toshiba’s 21-inch glasses-less 3-D TV. The panel also uses 1,440 LEDs positioned directly under the LCD panel to brighten 3-D images.

When compared with a 1920 x 1080 resolution reproduced on a regular large-screen 3-D TV with glasses, Toshiba’s approach, at 1280 x 720, still falls short in terms of resolution. Still, Toshiba’s glasses-less 3-D TV looks far better than other conventional glasses-free 3-D TVs.

Beyond packing more pixels into its LCD panel, Toshiba engineers also arranged each pixel to support the display of RGB in a layout expressly designed for 3-D imaging. By systematically aligning pixels and adopting a perpendicular lenticular sheet, Toshiba’s LCD panel eliminates “blurring” – a vertical wavy pattern caused by interference in the cycle – often observed in conventional 3-D technology without glasses.

Toshiba’s 3-D panel displayed much better images compared to Sharp’s 3.8- and 10.6-inch 3-D LCD panels that require no special glasses. Sharp’s 3-D LCD modules, also demonstrated here, showed annoying vertical wavy patterns. Sharp is a supplier of a LCD panel for Nintendo's upcoming 3-D handheld.

Toshiba collaborated on 3-D panel development with Toshiba Mobile Display Co. subsidiary that is focused on small to medium-sized LCD displays. Toshiba declined to identify its partner for its 56-inch glasses-free 3-D TV prototype.

Heavy-duty Post Processing
At the heart of Toshiba’s 3-D technology is an integral imaging system and a perpendicular lenticular sheet to display natural images, according to Toshiba. Toshiba’s image processing technology creates nine parallax images from the original content to deliver 3-D images.

Hirayama said Toshiba engineers developed several special LSIs to accomplish various parts of image post processing. “In principle, what such LSIs have to do is to take 2-D image, estimate its depth and create nine images from nine directions to deliver 3-D images,” he said.

The custom chips are now part of Toshiba’s new Cell Regza Engine, which serves as the heart of Toshiba’s new 20-inch 3-D TV requiring no glasses.

Those hoping to see Toshiba’s glasses-free 3-D TV demonstration had to wait a minimum of 90 minutes. Was it worth the wait? Based on a string of earlier disappointments, the answer is yes. For consumers waiting to buy a 3-D TV, they wait for Toshiba’s glasses-less 3-D TV will be even longer.

At a time when many consumers are already exposed to a slew of large-screen 3-D TV models, Toshiba’s 12- and 20-inch 3-D TV, even without glasses, may seem a little underwhelming. Toshiba Mobile Display has no plans to develop big-screen LCDs, so finding a large-screen LCD panel partner is a must for Toshiba if it plans to offer its glasses-less 3-D TV to the market.

Price remains a big issue. It will cost roughly $1,400 for the 12-inch model and $2,800 for 20-inch model. Hence, Toshiba must figure out how to improve its 3-D architecture in order to reduce panel production costs.

Toshiba may also have to decide sooner rather than later whether it should allow its chip division to sell or license Cell engines to other OEMs. For now, Toshiba has no answers to these questions.

By Junko Yoshida, EE Times

Teranex Introduces 3D Applications

Teranex is introducing a suite of 3D applications for the VC100 product family. Engineered as a dual channel architecture, the VC100 product family is uniquely suited for stereoscopic processing.

The programmable platform can evolve with the transition to 3D to provide a feature set that meets the needs of the industry. Existing VC100 product family customers are able to take advantage of the new 3D applications without the need to install new equipment, making the switch to 3D very simple.

The three applications available are VC1-3DSP for stereoscopic processing allowing 2D to 3D conversion, VC1-3D-CCP for capture and correction processing of 3D content, and VC1-3DE for encoding and decoding of various 3D formats.

Advanced stereoscopic processing is available with the VC1-3DSP software application used to transition from 2D to 3D enabling broadcasters to use standard 2D programming and simulate 3D programmes. VC1-3DSP gives clients the ability to mix 2D content with 3D and create seamless 3D content including the addition of 3D logos.

Capture and correction processing is available with the VC1-3D-CCP application which includes format and frame rate conversion, positional and axial rotation adjustments to compensate for mechanical, optical and electronic stereoscopic camera misalignments, and includes 3D logo insertion.

The VC1-3DE application provides encoding and decoding of 3D streams, and supports all popular 3D formats as well as some optional proprietary transmission formats.

Source: Teranex

Discovery Warns Against Conversions

Discovery Communications has taken a strong stance against 2D to 3D conversion for programming intended for its 3D channel launching in the US next January.

“We have played around with conversion and the technology is shaky,” said John Honeycutt, Discovery's EVP & Head of International Business Operations. “Conversion is a concern because some consumers may have an adverse physical reaction when viewing it. The effect is like that of reading a book in a moving car.”

Until April this year Honeycutt was CTO of the business responsible for Discovery’s global strategic media technology planning and instrumental in bringing together Sony Pictures Entertainment and IMAX to launch a joint venture 3D channel with Discovery. Now based in London, Honeycutt is responsible for guiding the operational structure of Discovery's international operations in more than 180 markets including the rollout of its 3D channel.

Discovery has commissioned a range of 3D content for launch which will be shot in native 3D. Sony and Imax will also supply content to the channel.

“My philosophy is this: you have one opportunity to impress consumers and you better not waste that chance,” he said. “When we launched HD Theater (in 2002) the channel was materially a 100% HD network. For us to put out anything substandard goes against the DNA of the brand.

“We’re going to spend an appropriate amount on 3D content without being foolish about it. We are commissioning now to a high standard shooting native 3D. We are not going to put out low quality content. That said, if there is a single shot that just cannot be achieved natively and you can spend the time and effort to generate a good conversion in post then we’ll consider it.

“We have been pushing manufacturers for a 2D to 3D conversion tool which features the ability, like a telecine, to be able to control light and control the image itself but we are not going to take our library or any individual show and pass it through any realtime 3D processing.

“It’s all about the consumer,” he emphasised. “If they turn on the TV and see poor quality they will turn off. On the other side if they experience amazing quality they will want to watch.”

The US launch date of Discovery’s 3D channel was confirmed by Honeycutt as January 2011. It will screen a mix of natural history, space, exploration, engineering, science and technology programmes.

Earlier this month Discovery Communications Europe secured a UK broadcast licence for the Discovery 3D channel. It will most likely secure a birth on Sky’s platform making it the first third party 3D channel to join with Sky 3D which is launching October 1 to the home.

Discovery is pursuing a similar license on India, one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for pay-TV.

“As a business we want to put our content in as many places as possible,” Honeycutt says. “I am looking at appropriate platforms and timing. We have always been a technologically innovative company but we also need to time a 3D launch with when the market is right.”

He added: “It will be a very, very long time before we create every piece of content in 3D. Certain things just don’t work in 3D for us. Many of our shows which are filmed in remote and hostile places are hard enough for a cameraman to film in HD let alone in 3D.

By Adrian Pennington, TVB Europe

Into the Depths: 2D Conversion Companies Meet the Demand for 3D Movies

As 3D has moved out of theme parks and into story-driven movies like the game-changing Avatar, their presence in theatres has grown exponentially. Early arrivers like 2005’s Chicken Little and 2007’s Beowulf grew into around five 3D films in 2008, ten in 2009, and over 20 scheduled for 2010. 2011 already has over 30 films planned for 3D release—and those are only the ones that have been announced.

Helping to drive this exponential growth is the process of 2D-to-3D conversion. Instead of capturing the 3D on-set using a stereoscopic camera with two distinct lenses, a number of companies use proprietary processes to convert an image from 2D to 3D. After Avatar made waves with its 3D in late 2009, many studios selected projects for conversion, quickly increasing the amount of features planned for 3D release.

“Most of the 2D-to-3D process is a visual effect, it’s just a specific application of different [FX] things,” explains Matt DeJohn of In-Three, which converted part of Alice in Wonderland and G-Force. “We’re creating mattes like you would on a green screen, we’re keying out characters, we’re doing paint like you would in rig [lines used in stunt work] removal, and we’re modeling, like you would in CG.”

While every conversion company goes about the process in a different way, each with its relative strengths, conversion generally requires three steps: separating out the different elements in a shot, adding depth, and painting in the gaps. In the first step, effects artists define each element and separate out characters, objects and background elements. Here, the biggest challenge for many companies is elements like transparencies, smoky areas and wispy hair, which are difficult to separate from the background. In-Three uses rotoscoping for this step, a technique in which artists and/or computer programs trace over live-action sequences. “In Alice in Wonderland, she has a lot of wispy hair,” DeJohn notes. “A bad version of the roto for her would make it look like she had a haircut that took all the wispy hair off her head, or conversely, it could be falling to the background and stuck to the background.”

Legend3D, which also had a hand in Alice in Wonderland, doesn’t use rotoscoping for this step, instead applying a pixel-specific process developed from the company’s original focus, colorizing black-and-white films. As Barry Sandrew, the founder and president/COO, describes it, the creative team will decide which pixels in an object to separate in a couple of representative frames in a shot. At the end of the day, they send their work to India, which carries out the work over the rest of the shot, a labor-intensive process in which those two frames may grow to ten seconds’ worth of frames. Because the Indian office is twelve and a half hours ahead of San Diego, work goes on continuously, passed off to the next office at the close of each business day.

In the second step, artists gauge the depth in a scene, inserting depth cues that pop out elements and draw others farther back. The work involves both skill and the opportunity to make artistic decisions. DeJohn, who started out as an artist, speaks highly of In-Three’s artists. “We’ve been doing it for five years and our best artists have been there for that long. We know how to look at a 2D image and recreate the depth realistically. That’s definitely a learned skill.”

Prime Focus, which converted Clash of the Titans, emphasizes its ability to change depth in real time. “What’s cool about our process is it’s iterative,” Rob Hummel, CEO of post-production in North America, enthuses. “Meaning that if you don’t like the depth cue, if we made it look like he’s five feet in front of the tree and you want it to look like he’s ten feet in front of the tree, we can stop and make those adjustments. In fact, we can stop on a frame and show you these adjustments in real time, interactively, and kick off a render and show you the new rendered version with new depth cues to you 15 minutes later. There’s not a negative cost impact if you change your mind late in the game.”

Besides creating space between elements, artists also need to mold out the objects. “You want to convert a beach ball so it doesn’t look like a disc, it looks like a sphere,” Hummel offers as an example. Overly flat objects can make the 3D objects look like cardboard cutouts. To round out an object, some companies create a CG model of the object, on which they overlay the image. Sandrew feels that process is “primitive.” Legend3D “separates out all the different parts of every single object, and then within our program we mold it. We don’t create CG elements, we actually mold this into the actual object in 3D space.”

In the final step of the process, artists fill in gaps that appear when you create more extreme depth. Part of the reason why Prime Focus’ “iterative” depth process works is because it avoids the paint step. In the over 2,000 shots in Clash of the Titans, Hummel says they used the paint step just 12 times, and in another feature film they recently participated in, only 30 adjustments were painted out of over 600 shots.

However, not everyone in the conversion business accepts this kind of work. DeJohn is skeptical of a process that avoids the paint step. “If they actually created distinct separation between their objects, they would have to paint because there’s just no way to create the effect otherwise. So what they’re doing is compromising the quality of the depth in order to avoid the detailed paint and matte work.” DeJohn describes the Prime Focus approach as creating more of a “rubber sheet” effect. “If you imagine the movie screen like a rubber sheet and you push and pull to get a 3D effect, it’s popping off the screen and pushing into the screen. You essentially have no distinct separation,” he declares.

In response, Hummel says, “I think it’s quaint to say that you can only do it with paint, but that’s the same kind of person that, if they were going to manipulate a photograph, would do it in a darkroom, rather than with Photoshop. We live in a digital world with digital manipulation tools where we’re able to manipulate the images in ways that don’t require that kind of burden. It’s not like we never paint, but I would say it’s less than one percent of the shots we do.”

Legend 3D also doesn’t do extensive paint work, using a technique that Prime Focus also employs. “We can create two eyes, which is a more natural way of handling it,” Sandrew explains. While most companies keep the original flat image as the left-eye image, for example, and create a new right-eye image, Legend3D will usually create two new images, which minimizes the size of the gaps. “If you do one eye, the gaps are quite large, but it’s only in one eye. So anyone with compositing skill can clean that up. If you create two eyes, then the gaps are separated into both eyes, so they’re about half as wide. We have automatic gap-filling that’s algorithmic—a lot of people don’t have that—provided the gap is not too wide.”

2D to 3D conversion has a wide range of applications and offers an alternative to many of the challenges of shooting “natively” in 3D. Even filmmakers shooting with a 3D camera may need to use 2D-to-3D conversion for select shots or to fix technical problems. Because each technique has strengths and weaknesses, the public will be seeing more 3D films that use both cameras and conversion to achieve their effect.

“I think the hybrid approach is probably the smartest approach for a lot of the studios, a lot of the producers and directors,” Sandrew observes. “One of the projects we are about to get into was originally supposed to be a 2D-to-3D conversion completely, and it turned out to be about 50% captured natively and 50% 3D conversion. For most of the heavy effects scenes, it’s much more efficient and effective to use 2D-to-3D conversion rather than capturing in a camera.”

“3D conversion is just another tool in a filmmaker’s arsenal,” Toni Pace, a senior visual effects producer at Legend3D, explains. “Even if they are committed to shooting in stereo on-set, the camera can be misaligned, it could be too big to take to a location, it could be a hostile environment like water.” The technique also gives filmmakers a chance to “revise their decision” in post if they want to change the depth in a scene, for example.

2D-to-3D conversion was even used in that pinnacle of 3D cinema, Avatar. Prime Focus did several shots for the movie, a fact not widely known. “A couple times the best way to incorporate the composite was to convert part of the image,” Hummel reveals. “On an occasion or two with the original photography, there was a problem, like one lens was closer than the other, so rather than resizing the image, it was easier to convert one of the images to match the stereoscopic imagery. However, it was always done in service of the visual effects and under the guidance of the Avatar creative team.”

The conversion of library titles into 3D is also anticipated to be a huge market. Currently, conversions are underway for 2D films with upcoming 3D sequels. “I think it will take one really big film to test the waters to see if the public will go back to the theatre to see it in 3D,” DeJohn speculates.

The home market will provide yet another venue for 3D viewing. The newest line of HD televisions is going to be bundled with 3D capability for no extra charge, making the technology easy to embrace. Studios hope 3D titles will ramp up Blu-ray sales. Currently, theatres have an edge on the 3D viewing experience. Many home 3D sets use expensive active shutter glasses, and “a little bit of depth on a smaller screen is pretty unimpactful,” DeJohn observes, noting that a film like Avatar will still look good on a small screen.

So far, 2D-to-3D conversions have generated some negative comments in the marketplace, but this hasn’t stopped their growth. With so much business coming in for more conversions, no one seems worried. “I don’t think 3D is going to disappear at all because there’s too much momentum right now from the consumer-electronics industry, the studios, the exhibitors. It’s huge. The momentum that’s been built up is so significant, it’s unstoppable,” Sandrew argues.

The whipping boy of 2D-to-3D conversion was this April’s Clash of the Titans, which drew the ire of critics, moviegoers, and people that didn’t see the movie. “Even though it was trashed worse than any movie I’ve ever seen, it still broke a record for an Easter film and made over $200 million,” Sandrew says of the movie, which was converted by Prime Focus, a competitor. “The only problem they had was taking on a project that didn’t [give] enough time to do it right, that’s the only thing that they were responsible for. The audience is demanding 3D, and no matter how badly critics trash a movie, people still go to it. The Last Airbender also got trashed, it was done by StereoD, and that did well too.”

Those working in visual effects acknowledge that bad 2D-to-3D conversion exists, but see it more as a growing pain that market forces will faithfully correct. “The quality is there, it’s a question of whether the studios will pay the money to get that quality product, and give them enough time to do it to the full degree,” DeJohn observes.

Companies also expect that audiences will become more discerning consumers. “I think what’s important is for the audience to become more sophisticated observers—once that happens, the quality is going to go up significantly,” Sandrew predicts. Pace, a recent hire who worked on Avatar, thinks the unique emotional effect of 3D films will sway audiences. “I think that people really want immersive experiences, and 3D stereo projection in theatres is the next generation of immersive experiences. I think it’s only going to get better from here.”

Exhibiting 3D films properly requires adjustments that not every cinema has mastered. “3D exhibition is kind of like the Wild West right now,” Hummel states. After seeing Clash vilified, “I believe that something happened in the rollout of that film into theatres. People saw what they saw, but a lot of the descriptions that I read on the Internet were of eyes being flopped—meaning the projectors got out of phase and the left eye was seeing the right-eye information and the right eye was seeing the left-eye information.”

Another potential problem in 3D viewing is “ghosting.” In some theatres, you can see a double image in high-contrast areas. Dialing down the contrast can help fix the problem, but that also reduces the quality of the image.

One of the most noted problems is the loss of light that occurs when audiences put on 3D glasses, which filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan have pointed out as a major defect of the 3D experience. Most projectors throw 14 foot-lamberts, but theatres will still show a movie if their projector is measuring at 12 foot-lamberts, Hummel explains, since it’s just a 14% loss in light. The problem is when you add 3D to the equation. 3D glasses are equivalent to a two-stop loss in light. Going down one stop reduces the amount of light by half, so going down two stops gives you 75% less light. If a projector starts out at 14 foot-lamberts, glasses bring it down to dim 3.5, but if it started out at 12 foot-lamberts, it’s down to just two. What would have been a 14% loss in light in 2D becomes an almost 50% loss in 3D.

“A two foot-lambert swing on normal digital cinema is not that bad, it doesn’t damage the picture that much,” Hummel observes. “A two-foot-lambert swing on 3D is death. It will absolutely devastate the image and ruin the experience for the audience.”

Some films, like Avatar, created different DCPs (Digital Cinema Packages) for exhibitors based on the amount of light they could get from their projectors. “No one other than James Cameron and Jon Landau, they made sure the audience was seeing the best representation of the movie,” Hummel enthuses. “If they knew the theatre could show it at six foot-lamberts, they delivered a file to that theatre that looks good at six foot-lamberts.”

As 3D exhibition becomes more commonplace, conditions are expected to improve. Sandrew thinks the “demands of the industry” as well as technological improvements will drive change. “The professionals that are producing the creative product don’t want their product to deteriorate in any way, and certainly when it’s being exhibited they want it shown the same way that they intended.”

While 3D films seek consistent exhibition quality, ironically every audience member experiences 3D in a unique way. “I’m startled,” Hummel says. “I worked many years at Technicolor ensuring that every single print looked exactly the same, and then suddenly people make 3D movies and it doesn’t seem to matter anymore that the people sitting in row five are having a different experience than the people sitting in row twenty-five?”

When audiences watch a 3D film, their seat in the theatre will determine where their eyes converge to see the stereoscopic effect. Looking for that big 3D effect? Viewers seated farther back will experience amplified depth, with images appearing both deeper and popping out more. “If you walk up to the screen, all the things that seem deep behind the screen won’t seem very deep at all,” Hummel explains. “But then as you walk to the back of the theatre, everything will look incredibly deep. If you walk laterally left to right, you’ll notice that the behind-screen images tend to rotate on an axis at the screen plane.”

Perhaps because each audience member views the image differently, 3D movies engender an individual experience—and not just because it’s easier to hide those Pixar tears behind your 3D glasses. “The nice thing about 3D is that it becomes a personal experience. Every audience member is taking it in in a personal way, whereas in a 2D film it’s more about group dynamics,” Sandrew reflects.

3D movies also have the potential to bring viewers outside of the film by throwing an image out into the audience, breaking the fourth wall. “There are some feature films where the director really wants to come out and scare the audience, which is something that most of us hope goes away,” Sandrew says. “There are places for that, there are some movies that are intended to be cheesy like that, and it works. But for the most part, what we like to see is 3D being used as a way of telling the story in a more immersive way. That doesn’t involve scaring the audience by having something fall in their lap, so we try to avoid that.”

One of the “wow” scenes in Avatar, for example, involved floating seeds from the Tree of Souls. “Those seeds were actually significantly out into the audience,” DeJohn points out, “While in some scenes there is just as much depth as if they were pointing a spear at the audience, they’re not breaking the fourth wall in terms of the story, so people don’t notice the effect as much because it’s not screaming, ‘Look at me!’” While a movie like G-Force will break the fourth wall—“It’s a kids’ movie and that’s the right genre to do that,” DeJohn believes—movies like Alice in Wonderland create extreme depth without distracting the audience from the story.

“A lot of the shots in Alice in Wonderland were actually outside of the screen near the audience,” Sandrew reveals, “But you didn’t realize it, because it wasn’t there for shock value, it was there for aesthetics. If you look at a scene that we did for Alice, you’ll see that maybe half of the interior of a shot is outside of the screen.”

Alice in Wonderland was also originally planned to use the extra dimension for a Wizard of Oz-type effect. The real world would be shown in 2D, and Wonderland in 3D. “From what I understand,” Sandrew remarks, “Tim [Burton] was worried that people would just take off their glasses, think it wasn’t working, or think it’s bad 3D, so what they did was create a shallow representation of stereo [3D] in the bookends.”

In G-Force, “we played a lot with the sense of scale,” DeJohn recalls. “When we had a hamster’s point-of-view shot of a human, we would accentuate the depth of the human, so the human would have more or less the same depth as a skyscraper. We used 3D as a metaphor. I think we’re going to start seeing more of that. Just as composing a shot brings meaning to the shot if you shoot it from a low angle, or if you stage your characters in such a way to indicate who’s more powerful in the scene,” depth can bring meaning to a scene, he expounds.

For 3D to be more than a gimmick, this kind of storytelling will need to become a recognizable part of the 3D experience. Hollywood has undergone great formal changes before, from the lightning-speed transition to sound in just a few years, to the gradual predominance of color films in the marketplace, which took decades. Early entrants couldn’t resist flaunting their new tricks with vivid, saturated color and song-and-dance routines that delighted in the novelty of the experience. Primitive 3D movies, in fact, predate sound, but throughout 3D history the medium has been used for spectacle, not story. 3D faces the bizarrely contradictory goal of making the 3D effect part of the story and thus more invisible, while convincing audiences to spend five extra bucks for a more immersive experience. Compared to 3D’s brief heyday in the 1950s, this generation of 3D has better technology, more exhibitors lined up, and the ability to convert a 2D image into 3D. Audiences have already voted with their glasses, turning out in waves, setting box-office records, and propelling one movie, Avatar, to Titanic levels. This time, 3D may be here to stay.

The Science of 3D
What makes 2D-to-3D conversion so promising is that it’s all an illusion anyway. Whether you shoot natively in 3D or convert afterwards, no one would argue that the depth they see in a 3D movie matches what they see in real life, though they might not be able to explain why.

The 3D effect is created through a stereoscopic illusion, which forces your eyes to go against nature and focus on one place and converge in another. In real life, your eyes focus and converge at the same point. Hold a pencil in front of your nose. Each eye focuses on the pencil and the brain converges on the object, creating a composite image and also gauging depth by interpreting the difference between what your left eye sees and what your right eye sees. If you rotate between shutting your left eye and right eye, for example, the pencil will appear to jump left and right, because your understanding of an object in space is determined by both eyes. Each eye has a slightly different perspective on an object.

Stereoscopic illusions work by separating the left-eye image from the right-eye image (the job of those polarized or active-shutter glasses) and giving each eye slightly different pictures of the pencil, forcing the eyes to meet or converge in front of or behind the screen. Because your eyes are focusing on the screen plane but converging in front of or behind it, the illusion of depth is created. When you take off your glasses, you can see double images on the screen. The farther they are apart, the more depth there is when you put on your glasses.

If people are forced to maintain a huge difference between their convergence and focus points for a long time, a headache may ensue. According to Rob Hummel, Prime Focus’ CEO of post-production in North America, that’s also the reason traditional 3D theme-park rides with in-your-face 3D top out at less than 20 minutes: Eyes can’t take it much longer.

The stereoscopic illusion also has to battle with “primal” monocular cues. An object jumping out in front of you initiates the fight-or-flight reaction, a technique well-suited to horror movies like Final Destination 3D but less so to other genres.

The stereoscopic illusion is also at risk as an object moves to the edges of the screen. If a 3D object gets clipped by the screen border, the illusion can be destroyed. For that reason, many movies use both floating windows, which mask the left and right sides of frame, as well as top-and-bottom masking. For most of the film, these areas will appear black, but occasionally an object will break the edge of the screen, 3D effect intact. The technique has been around for decades, and many studios, such as Disney, employ it on their 3D films, including G-Force and Toy Story 3.

Matt DeJohn, whose company In-Three converted G-Force, explains: “Certain individual objects are allowed to go outside the border. Because they’re already playing out in audience space, you’re not perceiving it as an aspect-ratio change, you’re just perceiving it as being farther out of screen and in the theatre with me.” Besides avoiding depth conflicts, use of these borders can also create intense 3D effects.

The stereoscopic illusion is also at risk when filmmakers add too much depth too quickly. “For off-screen effects to work really well, you need to bring the objects off slowly, because you’re asking your eyes to do something they don’t normally do, they cross in a way. Your eyes need to be able to track with it,” Hummel explains.

Aware of this effect, companies try to keep depth and eye placement consistent from shot to shot. “What we often do is make sure that where you’re looking in the scene from one shot is fairly well-matched to the next shot, so the focal elements are matched in depth,” DeJohn elaborates. “We’ve been able to play with pretty aggressive depth through entire films. Because of the way the depth was controlled, and transitioned from shot to shot. It was still a comfortable viewing experience.”

So why doesn’t 3D look like real life? “In real life, you have infinite planes of depth that exist instantaneously wherever you are focused,” Hummel reveals. “When you shoot with a camera, you can’t escape the fact that when viewing the images you will be forced into disconnecting your natural focus/convergence connection. The images have a type of depth illusion, but never quite what we see with our natural binocular vision”—a fact many watching a horror movie appreciate.

By Sarah Sluis, Film Journal International

Cinesite Launches Stereoscopic 3D Services

Cinesite has announced the launch of stereoscopic 3D visual effects services catering for films shot in stereo, as well as conversion of 2D films into 3D. Cinesite’s first stereo 3D project will be Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, for which it has been awarded a significant volume of stereoscopic visual effects work.

To accommodate its new stereo 3D services, Cinesite is undergoing a major expansion which includes growing its production staff by 40% and taking on a new floor in its building to accommodate 85–100 additional visual effects artists — adding another 7,000 square feet to its 30,000 square feet of custom-designed post production facilities. Having already added 250 terabytes of storage from BlueArc, Cinesite anticipates that it will have added almost half a petabyte of disc space and around 1,000 cores by the end of 2010, with an additional 1,000 cores in 2011.

As well as investing in a site licence of The Foundry’s Nuke compositing software, providing an additional 500 visual effects seats, Cinesite has purchased a Dolby stereoscopic projection system for its 36-seat screening room, a stereo 3D-capable Scratch viewing system and stereo 3D editing suites.

Source: Cinesite

Mickey Mouse in Switzerland

In 2008 cooperation between the Walt Disney Company and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH) was announced as part of the Disney Research group. This unusual combination of no-nonsense Swiss thinking and the nonsense-centric Disney creativity raised some eyebrows and many thought this is not going anywhere. Well, in March of 2010 "Disney Research Zürich" was officially opened with a group of 20 scientists and is poised to grow to 40 by 2011.

As nobody really knew what the goal was for this research group, the targets are now becoming clearer. In an ETH publication two main focus areas were described as modeling human faces (a holy grail for animated movies) and 3D movies. The latter one became clearer with a recent announcement. 2D editing methods for movies don’t really work well with 3D and don’t address any 3D issues. New is an algorithm that allows editors to correcting the depth of individual objects. This can be done in a post-processing step or even on the fly for live events. It may also allow converting 2D content into 3D content.

The attached 3D anaglyph pictures (from ETH Life - Ein Algorithmus für mehr 3D-Sehgenuss) show one of the key issues that exist with today’s 3D imaging.

If an object is coming out of the screen (top picture) it can create eye strain if the out-of-screen effect is too strong. It can also lead to an uncomforting viewing experience when the out-of-screen object overlaps the edge of the display (which it does). This breaks the 3D illusion by creating contradictory depth cues. In such cases, our brain has to resolve this issue through more processing. If we do this in a computer the processor, will heat up and the fan will start spinning faster to keep it cool. But in the human case, we just get a headache. This is a typical case where new technology is required to make 3D ready for the consumer not only in the movie theater but also in the home.

Disney Research is addressing this issue by making it possible to alter the depth structure at the pixel level. This allows varying the depth structure of single objects or planes of the complete scene. In the lower picture, the car is pushed back into the picture and the edge of the car is closer to screen depth so as not to have a conflict with the border edge.


Click to watch the video
More information:
Nonlinear Disparity Mapping for Stereoscopic 3D

By Norbert Hildebrand, Display Daily

Sony Builds 2D-3D Conversion Tool

Sony is to build realtime 2D to 3D conversion capability into its 3D Processor box, while a potentially serious power shortage involving the 3D setup nearly derailed World Cup production.

Sony is taking stock of the technical lessons it learned during the intense 3D match day production schedule during the recent World Cup tournament. Future iterations of its MPE-200 3D processor are likely to include 2D to 3D conversion, finessed colour correction, QC for 3D on ingest into edit suites or before transmission and improved configuration tools between the lenses, rigs and processor box.

JVC’s IF-2D3D1 video image processor was used to convert 2D images shot from helicopter, Spidercam and some pitchside steadicams for the production.

“One of the things we are sensitive to is that when companies buy into the hardware power of the MPE-200 processor they need to look at return on investment around 3D,” explains Mark Grinyer, Head of Sports Business, Sony Professional. “We’re looking at what we can do around the hardware platform (based on the Cell engine which drives the PS3) and 3D conversion is one of those ideas. For outside broadcasters the flexibility of a production tool is also key. We want to automate as many 3D processes as possible with this platform.”

By all accounts the system itself worked almost without hitch during the 25 match 3D run. According to Duncan Humphreys, Creative Director of CAN Communicate who was technical consultant to production team HBS for the production: “It was a very smooth operation. I always believed eventually that 3D correction would be done digitally rather than mechanically and what Sony has achieved in such a short period of time is unbelievable.

“We had virtually no problem with the 3D boxes. In fact it’s a game-changer – producing quality live 3D with standard broadcast lenses and cameras. The one thing that will kill off 3D is expensive 3D, because broadcasters are not going to pay the kind of premiums that are being required at the very top end.”

Humphreys revealed that the production team had to solve one major technical glitch during tests in the run up to South Africa. The fault, which took a month to identify and fix, turned out to be an issue with the Sony HDC-1500’s power supply.

“The cameras were working just fine until we went into live trials and the system was zooming strangely and at one point failed all together,” says Humphreys. “We eventually realised that since we were powering the Element Technica rigs including all zooming and lens matching alteration, and communications traffic that there wasn’t enough power in the cameras to be able to do everything we needed.”

The problem was resolved by attaching an external power supply to the rigs although Sony is addressing the issue. “In stadia or other venues with power sources there’s no problem but in certain locations it could be, so we’ll look into it,” says Grinyer.

The next version of the Sony 3D boxes’ software will be released shortly after IBC. At the Amsterdam event Sony will also reveal the next stage of its prototype 3D single bodied dual lens camcorder which is not thought to be radically different in design from that released earlier this year by Panasonic.

By Adrian Pennington, TVB Europe

Yankees, Mariners Step into 3D Spotlight

This will be another historic weekend in sports broadcasting: the YES Network, FSN Northwest, and DirecTV will broadcast two games between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners in 3D. For hardcore baseball fans, it signals a new day in enjoying the game at home, and, for hardcore sports-production professionals, it signals a new challenge: is baseball 3D-friendly?

“It’s a learning experience,” says Ed Delaney, VP of operations for YES Network. “We want to put the best broadcast we can on the air, and there is a lot to learn.”

NEP’s recently refurbished SS31 production unit will be on hand for the broadcast. Similar to its original incarnation, SS31 is a single-expando with a front-to-back control room and a Calrec Q2 audio console. The truck also features a Sony MVS-8000A production switcher, EVS XT[2] servers, support for 10 tape machines, and the ability to support 14 PACE 3D camera rigs in a variety of configurations. Chyron graphics will be used for the games, and a B unit will house the stereographer and convergence operator, with 3D expert/PACE CEO Vince Pace and his team on hand to oversee the production.

Tonight’s game will be produced in 3D as a full rehearsal to enable the team of nearly 40 personnel to iron out some of the kinks. Delaney says the technical side of the operation is in great shape, with six 3D camera positions to be complemented by 2D cameras whose signals pass through HDlogix 2D-to-3D converters.

“We did a test with HDlogix during spring training and had some success with it,” says Delaney.

Five hard cameras will be in place: one each at low home, low first, low third, centerfield, and high home. A sixth camera, a handheld 3D beam-splitter rig, will also be used for game coverage. And shots in the announce booth will be captured with the Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D camcorder, a unit that is quickly earning the nickname “Wall-E,” given its uncanny resemblance to the animated robot of Pixar fame.

Delaney expects the shots from low home to deliver the best 3D impact. The high-home camera position, however, remains a concern because it will be shooting through the screen behind home plate. During tonight’s rehearsal, the quality of those images will be evaluated, and, if necessary, the camera will be moved to an alternative position that is not behind the net.

“We will learn a lot during the rehearsal,” says Delaney.

The biggest challenge during the broadcast will rest on the shoulders of the director since baseball broadcasts typically involve a lot of cutting from one camera to the next.

“The pace of the game and how it is cut is an issue, and it isn’t going to go away,” says Delaney. “It isn’t cut like football, hockey, or basketball, where the action goes side to side and you can stay wide with a shot. Baseball is about cut-cut-cut. With 3D, that can blow people’s heads off. So that is going to be the biggest learning curve.”

Delaney is already assembling a 3D wish list for future broadcasts, including the desire for a low camera position that is closer to the dugout and can give the viewer the sense of watching the game from the top of the dugout: “It would be like having the best seat in the house.”

By Ken Kerschbaumer, Sports Video Group

How to Surf the 3D Movie Wave?

Investors looking to cash in on the 3D craze take note: rather than betting on a volatile box office, your best bet might be with companies that make watching and screening movies in three dimensions possible.

With 3D all the rage at the local cineplex -- thanks largely to James Cameron's Avatar -- RealD, the top supplier of U.S. 3D theater projection gear, is set to debut on July 16 with strong expectations for its initial public offering.

Analysts advise buying into infrastructure companies like RealD for now, rather than bet on box office fortunes or the theater chains sinking billions in upgrading to carry 3D.

"The 3D market is an embryonic growth market right now. If you get in early with a company that dominates the segment, you could do well," said Francis Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop.com.

Analysts spy hidden gems among smaller hardware and services vendors such as RealD. They favored companies that focus on hardware to aid the upgrade or film-conversion to 3D, or provide technology to screen it.

Media Valuation Partners principal Larry Gerbrandt likened the boom to high-definition TV, when the likes of Technicolor SA's Grass Valley -- which made broadcast switches needed for the transition -- became early beneficiaries.

"It's more of an infrastructure play. You can't point to any one company and say they're going to be 'the' 3D play," he said. "It's one of these things where, over time, the whole infrastructure gets upgraded to 3D."

The 3D film business has mushroomed since Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all time. Hollywood is cramming its release schedule with high-profile films like Toy Story 3. And theaters are scrambling to upgrade screens for 3D -- an estimated $3 billion exercise in North America alone.

The question is where to invest.

Marla Backer, analyst with Hudson Square Research, likes Ballantyne Strong Inc -- which prepares theaters for digital projection. That's despite the Omaha, Nebraska, company's stock price more than tripling to $7.50 from $2.20 in the past year -- to a pricey 29 times estimated 2010 earnings.

Carmike Cinemas Inc, a small theater chain, has a greater proportion of 3D screens than larger competitors -- about 500 out of 2,200 -- and would thus be a disproportionate beneficiary of the 3D craze.

And she likes IMAX Corp, with its seven-storey screens, as a popular showcase for such movies.

Chinks in the Armor
Less certain is whether big-name theater chains and studios actually make money, longer-term, off this emerging technology. Exhibitors like Regal Entertainment have charged up to $5 on top of a standard ticket for 3D films. But some analysts suggest 3D is already showing signs of weakness.

BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield said box office revenue from 3D screenings is already declining. Walt Disney Co's Toy Story 3 made 60 percent of its opening weekend gross from 3D, compared with 70 percent for Alice In Wonderland"in March.

"With the economy still recovering, we worry that movie exhibitors' view of consumer demand for 3D is disconnected from reality," he wrote.

Infrastructure may be a safer bet. Of some 130,000 screens globally, only 10,000 are 3D enabled. More than 5,000 theaters carry RealD 3D equipment and it said it has deals to convert another 5,000.

If RealD's IPO take-up is strong, that might encourage others. Some are already plugging rivals such as X6D Limited, which sells under the Xpand brand, and Burbank, California-based MasterImage 3D.

"RealD is the biggest by far in the U.S., but I'd say MasterImage and Xpand will give RealD a run on the global business and will make inroads in the market domestically," said Scott Hettrick, editor of 3DHollywood.net.

RealD competes with audio equipment maker Dolby Laboratories Inc, which also sells 3D projection systems for theaters. Eric Cohen, corporate development vice president for Dolby, told a tech conference in New York that the company's 3D systems are installed in about 3,300 theaters worldwide.

Burbank-based 3ality Digital is a maker of 3D cameras that industry sources also peg as an IPO candidate.

"Business is growing at an extraordinary rate and we expect to be profitable in 2010," 3ality CEO Sandy Climan said.

Conversion -- A Big Play
Outfits that convert regular film and television shows into 3D may be another choice investment, analysts said. One expert pegged the market at $35 billion in the next five years.

Filming live-action 3D is costly and untested, apart from Avatar. Conversion is more of a known quantity and can fill a home entertainment market for 3D content. IMS Research expects over 200 million 3D-equipped TV sets to be shipped by 2015, and Hollywood cannot turn out new movies fast enough.

Conversion costs range from $50,000 to $150,000 a minute per film, depending on the visual challenges involved.

Prime Focus, a company started in India that has grown to 1,200 employees and become one of the largest players in 3D conversion, was stung by bad reviews for its job on this year's Clash of the Titans. Its London share price fell 4.5 percent after the movie's release, but has since bounced back.

Other major players in the arena are In-Three Inc, Legend 3D and Sony Corp's Imageworks. All worked on Alice.

"The conversion companies will do a big business over this next period," said Michael Peyser, a movie producer who teaches in the University of Southern California school of cinema.

Rob Hummel, Prime Focus' post-production chief, said his phone is already ringing off the hook.

"I want to get us so we never have to say no," Hummel said. "We tell them, 'You better book us soon because if you don't book us, someone else will.'"

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Sue Zeidler, Reuters

Vet Filmmaker's Aim is 3D for the Masses

Randal Kleiser, best known for such iconic 1970s hits as Grease and The Blue Lagoon, has become a passionate advocate of stereo 3D who hopes to spread to mobile devices. But Kleiser is no recent convert: He was actually part of the team of directors, including James Cameron and George Lucas, who came to ShoWest to promote digital 3D in 2005, when their passion still seemed something quixotic.

A principal in 3D technology startup CubicVue, Kleiser said he's been fascinated by 3D ever since he saw the Ping-Pong sequence in 1953's House of Wax when he was a kid. But the first opportunity to work in 3D came to Kleiser, who directed the 1992 sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, when Disney asked him to direct a 70mm 3D attraction Honey, I Shrunk the Audience that ran in theme parks for more than a decade.

Lensed by Dean Cundey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) with two interlocked 70mm cameras, the film was shown in a theater with 600 seats "mounted on a computer-controlled platform that could move in sync to the screen, and various devices built into each seat that would stimulate the viewers' senses," Kleiser said.

"The concept was that the audience was experiencing a live stage event," he added. "To create this effect, we calibrated the distance of filming and projection so that an actor's onscreen image would be life-size on the 54-foot-wide screen. To give the impression that everything was live, we could not have the intrusion of film grain. Because a beam splitter was used for the second camera, an entire stop was lost. The movie was shot with a huge amount of light on 5248 (color negative) film to give it a sharp quality. In preparing to shoot the film, we screened every 3D movie we could find to analyze what worked and what didn't," he added. "It soon became clear that this was another world with its own techniques, terminology, rules, problems and choices."

So Kleiser came to study the grammar of 3D, becoming well-versed in topics such as convergence points and the causes of eye strain.

"Cutting patterns in 3D greatly affect the viewer's comfort," he said. "Every time there is a cut, the eyes have to readjust to the new planes of depth. This is a physical effort by the viewer's eye muscles each time the scene changes. A fast cut sequence would send most people screaming for the exits. In Honey, since we were trying to create the feeling of a live event, there are no apparent cuts. The eyes never have to adjust to a new plane; the 3D effects happen within the proscenium.

"One of the most distracting phenomena in the 3D format is when an image 'breaks the frame,' that is, when it appears to be closer than the plane of the screen but cut off by it," he continued. "For truly controlled and effective 3D, the screen needs to be thought of as a window. Any image can be inside the window, or come through the window, but can't break through the window frame."

Kleiser's interest in 3D took the director to various technology conferences.

"At one of these I met inventor Michael Mehrle, who showed me an iPod he had converted so it showed 3D without glasses. I was blown away. It was basically a piece of plastic with thin lines of color that sent one image to each eye. It was like the screen was wearing the glasses instead of the viewer. His process uses magenta and green as the two colors that, when viewed, are merged into full color by the brain." (The system could be developed to support other color systems.)

With this development, Kleiser, Mehrle and several additional partners formed CubicVue to bring this technology to consumers with an appetite for 3D. The CubicVue technology essentially displays glasses-free 3D on a cell phone, tablet, game console, media player or other portable flat-screen device.

"Now we are searching for the perfect partner to take this technology to the next level," Kleiser said, adding that CubicVue is talking with potential partners for licensing, manufacturing and distribution of the technology. The aim is to have product on the market before the end of the year.

The technology uses a patent-pending color filter that could either be embedded into handheld technologies or layered over screens on existing devices. Mehrle said the technology is capable of supporting full-resolution imagery to each eye (1280x1024), and theoretically could be applied to any size screen, though small screens are practical and thus the company's focus. CubicVue is aiming to create the standalone filters for a retail price of less than $50.

Mehrle said the system could be used to view any stereo content that was encoded with a free open source code, which the company will make available.

"The 'standard' that we support is already available on YouTube," Mehrle said, explaining that there is therefore a wide range of 3D content on the Internet that is already encoded for use with the CubicVue system.

"Available 3D content is growing by the day. But I think gaming will be the killer app in the future, because it is interactive," Mehrle said. "Games can be very quickly supported. And if a game studio decides to adopt our system, all of their content will be automatically in stereoscopic 3D."

While serving as chief industry liaison for CubicVue, Kleiser also is in discussions about directing some new 3D productions and monitoring 2D to 3D conversion opportunities for some of his films, such as his classic Grease (whose sing-along version opens July 8 in theaters).

"It needs to get a little better before I do that," the helmer said of the conversion process. "I don't think conversion techniques are there yet. It can be effective, and it can be not so effective with the current technology. Sometimes I think it is better not to do it at this point. Sometime it is distracting because the current technology is not up to speed to really make it flawlessly invisible. I imagine that will change in a year or two."

Kleiser also shared his thoughts about uses of 3D. "I'm not that interested in seeing My Dinner With Andre in 3D, although some people say they would. There are certain movies that don't need it."

Kleiser said that once the CubicVue technology is released, he would also like to create specific content for the portable platform.

"There aren't more autostereoscopic screens on the market right now because they are not very friendly for the user," said Rob Auten, CubicVue's chief development officer. "They are very particular. They are either very expensive or require complicated integration from the manufacturing level. We are -- with technology that is around right now -- trying to create something that is easy for the consumer to apply or for the manufacturer to integrate and that doesn't require a new panel.

"Our base product is very simple," he said. "We are hoping simplicity and a higher-image fidelity will provide an exciting product."

By Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter

3D Production: FIFA World Cup 2010

In December 2009, FIFA and Sony announced plans for 3D coverage of 25 FIFA World Cup matches. Integral in the selection and adoption of the technologies were Peter Angell, HBS director of production & programming, who served as FIFA special 3D project leader, and Duncan Humphreys, 3D consultant to HBS for the World Cup and partner in UK-based 3D production company Can Communicate.

The aim was to deliver to TV-viewing soccer fans a new experience of their sports and to cheer even more about the World Cup. The tournament should help to kick off what TV makers, networks – and advertisers – hope to become a new dimension in home sports viewing and sports viewing in cinemas. Just as high-definition TV improved sports viewing by adding a sharper, wider field of vision, 3D adds depth to the field, increasing the illusion that you are watching the event in person but closer to the action.

For the 3D production of the 2010 World Cup, Sony has developed a 3D platform that combines processor, switcher, lenses and camera rigs. The company’s system integration facility in Basingstoke was fitting a 3D layer onto the T16 HD truck from UK outside broadcast supplier Telegenic as well as onto the Car8 HD truck from the French production company AMP. Both units were air-freighted directly to South Africa with Antonov aero planes. The AMP truck handles productions in two stadiums, Ellis Park and Soccer City in Johannesburg while the Telegenic unit does matches in Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth.

AMP Car8 being air-freighted with an Antonov to South Africa

The 3D Layer OBVans from AMP and Telegenic
The Sony MVS-8000 production switcher in the AMP Car8 and in the Telegenic T16 were upgraded with a 3D software package and in the monitor wall 24- and 42-inch LMD series 3D displays were installed. PVM 23-inch monitors were utilized to view camera setup and stereo channel balance. A convergence area was implemented where eight MPE-200 multi-image processors with MPES-3D01 stereo image processing software help the convergence engineers to maintain camera alignment and to control the rigs. Each box takes in two video streams along with lens metadata from camera left and right outputs and provides electronic picture correction. It can correct horizontal and vertical image shift, toe-in correction, tilt and rotation, zoom synchronization, color misalignment and any inversions caused by the use of mirror rigs.


3D Camera Layer with MPE-200 (click to enlarge)

The MPE-200 is designed to give outside broadcasters the ability to produce quality 3D without necessarily the expense and additional time required for use of fully motorized rigs. The box calibrates the optical centers of the two lenses throughout the entire zoom range. After alignment, a convergence operator can set the required interaxial distance of the rig, and the software will calculate and correct for any misalignment during production. He can also monitor and adjust the signals to ensure they do not go beyond the depth budget boundaries.


MPES-3D01 stereo image processing software (click to enlarge)

At the FIFA World Cup the HDC-1500 cameras are working with Canon HJ22ex7.6B lenses, but Fujinon lenses are likely to be supported as well. Same is true for the rigs: At the World Cup the MPE-200 is controlling 3D rigs from Element Technica, however there is no reason why it won’t be able to control 3ality-, P+S- or Swiss-rigs at some point. The product combines hardware based on the Sony Cell processor found in the PS3 and 3D software developed at the Sony R&D center in Basingstoke.

In later versions of the software it is also planned to deliver enhanced graphics manipulation and digital effects. The processor includes a histogram displaying how much convergence is being pulled and also provides a variety of 3-D monitoring methods, including 50 percent mix, above/below, anaglyph, difference and side by side. To each camera pair a convergence puller is assigned, responsible for alignment, set up of cameras and rig, and pulling convergence live.


Telegenic T16 3D Layer
The vast majority of coverage is captured in native 3D by mixing the signals from the eight HDC-1500 pairs, but certain shots are up-converted in order to deliver the best possible presentation of the action. Peter Angell explains: “Our primary goal is to tell the story of the match as well as possible, but that doesn’t mean littering the coverage with 2D shots. If there’s a particular incident which has only been captured on a 2D camera, or a 2D camera has the best angle, then, editorially, that shot is critical to the story, and we would be penalizing the viewer if that weren’t included.”


Telegenic T16 (click to enlarge)

After weeks of tests in the run up to the World Cup, the team finally decided to go with JVC’s IF-2D2D1 2D to 3D conversion box, although some specific shots being adapted for 3D using the Sony MVS-8000 vision mixer. The video effects function of the MVS-8000 switcher can be used to split the image and create, what Angell terms, a “pseudo-3D” image from 2D cameras.


Convergence operator (click to enlarge)

AMP Car8 3D Layer
For the inclusion of 3D live graphics HBS is working with FIFA’s graphics supplier deltatre for the positioning of graphics on the Z-axis depending on the shot selection. In South Africa both outside broadcast vehicles are housing XT[2]+ servers which enable dual feeds to be recorded and played back instantly in full timecode synchronization.

The combination of hardware and software (XT[2]+ and MulticamLSM) renders all existing capabilities of MulticamLSM available for live 3D productions including instant replay, loop recording, live clipping, playlist management, live slow motion, cuing and highlight editing.

Each of the two 3D OBVans is housing six XT[2]+ servers under control of an LSM remote device for the production of the matches. All the 25 matches are recorded in HDCAM SR (SRW-5800) with full bandwidth left- and right-eye signals on a single tape.


AMP Car8 (click to enlarge)


Production area (click to enlarge)


Convergence area (click to enlarge)

The Positioning of the 3D Cameras in the Stadiums
For coverage of all the 25 3D games in South Africa the Quasar rigs from Element Technica are used with Sony’s HDC-1500 cameras and Canon HJ22ex7.6B zoom lenses. There are 16 Quasar rigs in total, eight with each of the two 3D OBVans from AMP and Telegenic.

Each game is covered with eight camera pairs, with four positioned on slightly lower main camera shooting platforms (compared to 2D) and four at the field level. In each stadium there are four positions for Quasar side-by-side configurations: Main camera wide, main camera tight, and goal line left/right. The side by side camera pairs are far enough away from the action that they are not likely to converge.

There is nothing coming very close and there are no deep-background elements as opposed to the positions on the pitch where the action might be 5-20 meters away with deep background elements in between 50-100 meters. Therefore four under/thru configurations are positioned at bench left/right and behind the goal left/right. These are mirror rigs because the action gets close to them. The cameras have to get closer together than the side by side ones. The under/thru rigs also allow the cameramen to have a full viewfinder and the lens controls in the back as normal.


3D Production Camera Plan (click to enlarge)

Any camera operator can go to the back of the camera and know how it works. With the level of integration through the Quasar rigs, the Canon lenses and the Sony cameras with the Sony MPE-200 processor box and the CCU, there is one fibre running from the truck to the rig, so all image data, communications, rig control, lens control, metadata — everything including power — is now going through a single SMPTE fibre. For instance, interocular and convergence can now be set with the Sony box or locally at the rigs. And full metadata information is available to the convergence pullers and stereographers in the 3D OBVan for analysis of the two images.

The camera positions in each of the five 3D venues (Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg with Ellis Park and Soccer City) are pretty identical and similar positions make it easier for the production crews to work in different venues without having to massively adjust production philosophies.


AMP 3D Cameras at Ellis Park
The ability to quickly break down and set up the 3D production gear has been almost as important as the new skills related to the production. The team quickly realized that color coding all of the equipment for a given rig made it much easier to ship and assemble. About an hour of optical adjustment is all that is required to get the cameras ready for the match.

Also helping with the quality of the production is the decision to match a camera operator with a convergence puller. HBS even made the teamed-up camera and convergence operators swap roles to understand how the other half lives and allowing them to learn how things they do in their regular position can lead to problems for their partner.



The convergence puller must intuitively follow objects, like the football, out of the screen and make a decision to pull convergence in a split second. It’s a bit like a camera operator reacting to an event but the key thing is to understand the impact of what the convergence will achieve. While some people argue that convergence pullers should be replaced by automated convergence technology for financial reasons, the lesson learnt in South Africa so far is that for convergence pulling you need a human brain.


Telegenic 3D Cameras at Cape Town


Click to enlarge


Click to enlarge

The 3D Creative Aspect
While the first of the World Cup matches were focused on just using 3D to create uniform game coverage, the crews have now graduated to making the productions more sophisticated with better cutting and timing. With each match, the productions improve. Many of the veteran 2D crew members are relearning their craft at the World Cup.

For example, the crews have learned that shooting in 3D allows the production to "cross the line" more often by allowing the cutting to cameras on both sides of the field. With 2D video, if the action is moving from left to right all the camera cuts need to be from the same side of the field to prevent the viewer from getting disoriented. Not so with 3D. With 3D, it is easier for viewers to orient themselves, and there is an increased perception of where the camera is on the field.

Another lesson learnt is the need to frame the main stadium 3D cameras a bit tighter on game action. However, the camera operators face a delicate balance because if they are too tight on the shot it requires more panning. That can lead to quick movement, which can introduce motion blur and compression artifacts into the picture. It is a delicate balancing act for the camera operators, however already the coverage of the first game South Africa – Mexico presented stunning results.

During breakaway and wide-angle shots, the 3D effect was more subtle, as if you were watching from the stands. But in replay and other close-ups of individual players, the 3D effects almost put you into the action. The post-goal close-ups of celebrations of fans in the stands and players on the field brought home the energy of the event. Ironically, while the cameras in the stand are going a little tighter, the cameras on the field are going a little wider. Wider shots from the field level introduce more elements that can add depth to a scene.

The quality of game coverage remained high throughout the broadcast, with few if any transmission glitches or convergence problems. The highlights were the replays, with the replay of the South African goal when the ball seemed destined to fly out of the screen and hit the viewer, topping the list. Most of the game coverage shot from the traditional soccer upper-level camera positions also provided enough depth, giving viewers a sense of the distance between players and the speed of the action.


The Coverage of the Games in 3D: The Directors View
When Bruno Hullin, one of the two directors working on the 3D World Cup productions, sat down for his first 3D production on June 11 for the game between Mexico and South Africa, he knew the challenge ahead of him: how to take his skills from years of directing in 2D and apply them to 3D. And it’s a challenge that dozens of directors around the globe will face in the near future.

“The secret in 3D is that you start wide and zoom while, with the lower-pitch cameras, you need to be very wide and have players in the front of the image,” he says.

Telling the story of the match is paramount, and Hullin says, when relying primarily on cameras that are close to the action, the production team needs to learn new ways to follow the action.

“In 2D, I always cut by looking at the men on the pitch because that tells me what is happening,” says Hullin. “But, when I am on a 3D camera on the pitch, I have to look at the eyes of the players to understand what is happening and where to cut.”

One of the top tools in the 2D productions at the 2010 World Cup have been ultra-motion camera systems. Shooting at upwards of 300 frames per second has given viewers a great view of tightly shot with emotional facial reactions. For the moment, however, those shots don’t work for 3D.

“With 3D,” Hullin notes, “we need layers of objects and, with low, tight shots from ultra-motion systems, we only have one layer, which is the player or the coach on the background, so there is no depth.” That said, he does believe there is a role for those shots within a 3D production because the images are so impressive.

One of the issues still to be sorted out for all 3D broadcasts is the number of cameras. Does 3D need the same number as a 2D broadcast, or can it get by with fewer? Hullin says that eight cameras is enough for the 2010 World Cup but more cameras located at a lower level would help tell the story even better since pitch cameras are the primary tool for telling the story of the match in 3D.

“You can direct it like a 2D game, but it will not be interesting,” he says. “To be interesting, you need to find the spirit of 3D, because there are things that are possible in 3D that cannot be done in 2D. For example, you can stay with a wide shot in 3D while, in 2D, you would force the cut and force the view. But, in 3D, you allow the viewer to choose what they want to look at.”

On the creative side, 3D enables camera operators to finally leave the 4:3 “safe area” and use the full 16:9 screen area, as there is no letterboxing in 3D. In 3D, graphics can be pushed to the true edge of the picture and the full screen can be utilized for game action.


The 3D Master Control and Playout at the IBC
All the 3D productions in the stadiums were supervised by Peter Angell and Duncan Humphreys in a small 3D control environment at the IBC in Johannesburg direct next to the 3D playout rack.

“Ninety-nine percent of people will see the World Cup in 2D HD so we can’t do anything to risk that coverage,” stresses Angell. “As long as 3D is a premium event proposition, it will face issues in the short term at any stadium which is already full of cameras and paid seating. If we were starting from scratch it would be straightforward but the 3D element adds another eight positions to the 32 per World Cup venue already dedicated to the 2D host coverage so it is difficult to get space.”


Click to enlarge

One rule to have emerged about 3D outside broadcasts is that coverage requires fewer cameras than 2D, with cut-aways and replays not as necessary to tell the story. Nonetheless no specialty cameras have been included in the 3D mix for the World Cup with HBS looking to convert occasional 2D shots from the armory of its other cameras to augment the 3D.

“We have to be judicious about it,” Angell insists. “The goal is to tell the story as well as possible but that doesn’t mean littering the coverage with 2D shots. Ideally we need a means of cross conversion that retains enough of the 3D image so that it makes sense in the story we tell.”

Angell and Humphreys concluded that a conservative approach to 3D would be the best option, which meant devising a depth budget that wouldn’t jar the audience’s perception.

“We needed to decide exactly how to manage the depth budget and also how we decide to break it,” explains Humphreys. “Having it fixed at the beginning of production is fine but it’s important that you know how you can break that budget for effect and when it makes sense to do so.”

Footballs randomly booted into the stands and toward a 3D camera would make an obviously stunning 3D shot but decisions need taking about what the outer limits of the convergence should be. For the World Cup games the convergence was settled broadly on a depth budget of 2-2.5% positive parallax (into the screen) and 0.5-1% negative (out of the screen).


Click to enlarge

The FIFA World Cup 3D coverage will be delivered to cinema screens and to 3D TV sets. The position and size of graphical elements needed consideration for both types of viewing environment.

“Graphics can contribute to the overall 3D impact but if you play with them too much they become enormously distracting,” says Humphreys. “We initially put the clock and score as far into the screen corner as possible only to find it was more a problem in the cinema than it was for TV.”

“We are working out a set of values for where the graphics are best positioned on screen to give maximum effect without being completely overpowering,” says Angell. “The graphics will generally sit just in front of the screen plane, but if a player runs towards a camera we have the possibility of shifting it so we don’t end up with a situation where the graphic appears in front of the action when in 3D terms is should be behind. It’s a subtle trick to pull off.”

Recording is on HDCAM SR dual stream VTR (SRW5800) on-site and at the IBC in Johannesburg, as well as to an EVS XT[2] server controlled by IPDirector and one EVS XF[2] (removable storage) at the IBC for long term archive.



Discreet left and right eye channels of 1080i50 HDSDI are sent from the 3D OBVans to the IBC over a JPEG2000 contribution network compressed to 300Mbps. From the IBC two redundant 3D signals will be sent via satellite to European theaters and homes via London, the site of FIFA’s distribution partner GlobeCast, using eight International Datacasting encoders (two at each of four venues) with integrated Sensio Technologies 3D processing.

From London the 3D contend will be distributed to signal providers such as Eutelsat for transmission to cinemas across Europe.


The 3D Cinema Experience
It is not just at the IBC FIFA HD Cinema that the FIFA World Cup is being delivered in stunning 3D. Ten broadcast networks and 400 theaters are distributing the World Cup 3D feed, including ESPN, Al Jazeera, SBS Korea, SBS Australia, SogeCable in Spain, TF1 and Canal+ in France and SKY Perfect JSAT in Japan.

The 3D feed is being screened around the world as cinemas are being turned into impromptu ‘stadiums’ for 3D broadcasts. Cinema chains in Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Italy, Belgium, the UK, France and Spain Korea and Japan have signed up to receive the live 3D broadcast of the 2010 World Cup. The remaining four matches from the half finals onwards will be broadcasted to large screens including Gaumont and Europalace in France; Kineopolis in Belgium; Movieplex and Cine Cite in Italy and Digital Cinema Media in the UK, which has signed a deal with SuperVision Media to show both semifinals and the final in 40 screens across the Odeon, Cineworld, Vue and Empire chains. In the United States, Sensio is working with digital cinema delivery group Cinedigm.

By Reinhard Penzel, Live Production