Tuesday 29 June 2010

BBC 3d plans for 2012 Olympics

Found this article.
Quite interesting.
The BBC is lining up boxing and gynmastics as its lead sports for a 2012 Olympics showcasing 3D and Super HD TV.
But the corporation is unlikely to launch a dedicated 3D channel for the Olympics – using live venues and ‘red button’ event streams to air the coverage.
Sports with a sense of depth and confined space are expected to make the most impact in 3D, but major field games will also be captured to ensure the BBC has an archive packed with 3D and Super HD.
“The compact space of a boxing ring gives a real wow factor,” Roger Mosey, the BBC’s director of London 2012, told trade paper Broadcast.
“And with gymnastics, if you think about someone doing a vault, they start a long way away and move towards you – there is a real sense of depth.
“Team games and big pictures don’t really work – corner shots in football are good but often the players look like little models running across the field.”
International broadcasters are set to give their requirements for 3D, Super HD and other feeds to the Olympic Games’ official broadcaster, OBSL, this summer.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/broadcasters/bbcs-3d-olympics-plan-shapes-up/5013262.article

List of Stereo 3d Blogs.

Here is a list of blogs. Different flavours, different styles. Enjoy!
I have treid to avoid any rating system as you can decide which one works for you! (hopefully you'll still pop back here from time to time...)

http://www.convergence3d.net
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/3dtv/
http://www.3dcinecast.com
http://lennylipton.wordpress.com/
http://www.today3d.com/
http://www.stereoscopynews.com/
http://www.facebook.com/v3imaging
http://www.3DGuy.tv
http://www.3dcinecast.com
www.3dvision-blog.com
3d Magazine
http://thirdmagazine.com/
International Stereoscopic Union
http://www.stereoscopy.com/isu/index.html
You can also join the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Conference Linkedin discussion group - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1945944
http://www.stereoscopic.org
Found Peter Wimmer (Stereoscopic player) on here:
http://www.stereo3d.com/3dhome.htm
If you want a 3D blog in Spanish
www.cine3D.com
www.3DMagazine.com
http://www.enhanced-dimensions.com/wordpress/
http://www.realvision.ae/blog - stereoscopy and a bit on AR.
http://www.s3ddatabase.com/p/Resources.html
For a list of some of the more popular blogs and some other resource sites.
http://schubincafe.com/
David Newman, the CTO and co-founder of CineForm
http://cineform.blogspot.com/
new one just added:
http://www.stereoscopicfilmmaker.com

Monday 28 June 2010

List of world wide 3d TV channels

As a 3d Director I need to know where my 'marketplace' is, and I have been conducting some low level research into 3d TV channels across the world.
So far I have come up with the following:
UK. SKY 3d TV (launches officially in August 2010) Currently running promo loop tapes. and the occasional football (soccer) match / sports event. Sky have said they will take some 2d-3d converted material – depending on a quality assesment, but prefer original material shot in 3d.
UAE - 2 channels currently - DU and Etisalat.
SPAIN - TV3 3D (Barcelona) and Canal+ 3D (Madrid)
ITALY - No 3d TV channels. However, A company called 'Space' have the rights for the World Cup in 3d. These will be 3d cinema presentation I believe. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/
content_display/world/news/e3id19af428b9bf9144cbe367f54332359a
USA - NO 3d TV channels actually confirmed as On- Air yet?
DIRECT TV may have a channel in association with PANASONIC.
SONY may launch theirown 3dTV channel?
DISCOVERY plan to launch a 3dTV channel in the US in 2011?
ESPN plan to launch a 3d TV channel in 2011?
WEALTH TV plans on broadcasting 3D (via cable?)
FRANCE. CANAL+ 3D broadcast of the 2010 World Cup ORANGE are running an IPTV 3d channel.
NETHERLANDS Some cablecasts in 3D.
Almost all European and some US companies concerned are part of the DVB Project, which plans a frame compatible specification before the end of the year. The system requirements for this, which gives formats etc, should be available outside, if the DVB Steering Board approves, next Thursday (1st July 2010)
If you would like to add to my knowledge and share a comment on any 3d Tv channels I may have missed the please feel free!

Tuesday 22 June 2010

3d Broadcast Industry Insight Workshop - Sponsored by North West Vision and Media.

3d Industry Insight Workshop - 18th June 2010. Venue: Procam TV North.
The idea of the event started out as a small scale 3d demo but with the help of some friends and an obvious need for a 'firestarter' type seminar it grew into 3 two hour sessions. The first hour a more formal structured overview of shooting and post producing 3d for broadcast. We had a Mistika 3d post platform courtesy of Geoff Mills and Nico at Mistika and of course Sumners Post who are trialing the Mistika.
I will post a separate blog purely on POST solutions - but for now the actual demo that Nico did was of a young woman holding dumbbells 'out of the screen' in Positive parallax. Then he adjusted the overal depth, the convergence and the interocular settings. (I know it solunds inpossible - but the Mistika calculates a depth map based on the pixel disparites and allows adjustment at selected az depth points WITHOUT messing with the rest of the z depth...! So email em and I'll tell you all about it! reg@shoot3d.tv
Okay - we also had a Swiss Rig on demo http://www.swissrig.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=3. Robert Hedinger at Iamartis arranged for the 3d Village in Belgium http://www.3dvillage.be/ to ship one over for our session. It duly arrived with Joris and Erwin on board from 3d Village in Belgium. Great guys who bravely set about gearing it up with our EX3 EX1R combination. Sadly we needed a lockit box and they were all out -so we were able to demonstrate the principle without any actual 3d alignment possible. We also had a Titan Cinema projector form Digital Projection Ltd. it was one of the stars of the sessions - active flicker technology at 144hz. Beautiful, bright and clear images from 3d Blue Ray DVD player. Finally on the sessions we were showing, fresh into the UK a pair of matched stereo lenses from Fujinon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvlvoAHlrm8

Friday 11 June 2010

Liverpool University Psychology Dept. and Vision Lab. trains 3d director in Stereography. Industry Insight Event planned in Manchester on Friday 18th

Courtesy of knowledge transfer funding from the North West Development Agency, Rob Black and Dr Bernard Harper have recently collaborated with RDA Innovation Award winner - Reg Sanders, classically trained (drama on single camera) ex-BBC director who has worked for among others BBC America, Discovery and the BBC.
Recently he began a project called Shoot3D.

The goal is to provide training and equipment for TV producers and directors wishing to capture 3D content for cinema, advertising and television.

Using their research in the Vision Laboratory in the School of Psychology as a base, Rob Black and Dr Bernard Harper provided media training tailored to the requirements of the client. This included distilling widely published research on human perception with studies conducted for the Independent Television Commission in Liverpool.

The data from a series of ITC funded experiments on Cyclopean Vision and
Orthostereoscopic Imaging from Presence journal and conference proceedings *
were the main resource used to guide the teaching and training. Over the
course of the stereographic training, the Reg was equipped with a solid grounding in the processes underlying visual perception. By greater understanding of how the
human brain processes visual information, stereographers are able to modify their
shooting and production grammar to produce more naturalistic and satisfying
3D content.

Much of the 3D media published at the moment is shot without knowledge of
basic principles, and as a result can produce easily avoidable perceptual
problems The key issues that have recurred throughout the history of 3D
imaging have been eyestrain and nausea often coupled to misperceptions of
size, shape, motion and colour. ** One theory is that visual disturbance
from poor stereography mimics the visual disturbances that accompany the
toxic effects of alcohol, poisons or of motions of the inner ear that lead
to seasickness. So our natural reaction to poor stereography is to feel
nausea and also eyestrain if the camera alignments force our eye muscles to
exert unnatural tension for extended periods of time.

Giving clients a grounding in visual perception enables professionals wishing to capture 3D content avoid many of the common 3D pitfalls and produce imagery that is easy to edit and view for greatly extended periods. Inappropriate camera alignments at the editing stage too can induce eyestrain through miniaturization, motion artifacts,
excessive parallax and incorrect object scaling so must be avoided.

Reg Sanders as a Stereographer with a strong visual background as a 2d drama director, along with Shoot 3D can offer assistance at every stage of the stereoscopic video production process. The steps include equipment specification, production
grammar advice, shot-by-shot analysis, on shoot shot, complete post
production services using industry-leading products such as Quantel Pablo
and Mistika and also projector calibration.

A 3d Industry Insight Workshop is being held at ProCam North, in Manchester on Friday, June 18th - featuring 3 x 2 hour sessions. For information contact reg@shoot3d.tv