Page 43 - The Channel Issue 2 2010

THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2010 | 43

3D

2010 is hailed as the year of 3D – LG, Panasonic, Sony and

Samsung are all getting 3D TVs into the shops this year. In April UK broadcaster Sky launched Europe's first dedicated 3DTV channel and Norwegian company Vizrt, which provided the

graphics system for the world’s first 3DTV virtual reality studio in Germany, won the contract to provide the core graphics platform for Sky. Rex Jenkins, MD of Vizrt in the UK, was closely involved in the project – what are the particular challenges of producing 3D content?

t is so new, producers are still learning as they go along. You have to make the viewer feel comfortable throughout and it is terribly easy to make them feel uncomfortable, even sick, if you get it wrong. When you are looking around in the real word, the point of convergence of your eyes is the same point where they are focusing. So when you look at a TV screen the focal point is the flat plane of the screen itself but with stereoscopic 3DTV the point of convergence may now be behind the plane of the screen or coming out from the screen towards you. Therefore you don't want to make a lot of fast cuts from camera to camera because then your eyes have to adjust to the changes. When you are covering sporting events you would use far fewer cameras for stereo than you would for an HD production. Also, if a football match is being covered for an HD channel, the cameras tend to be much higher up to give a broader view of the action, whereas in stereo it is better to be quite low down. Which means many of the

camera positions will not be the same as for HD so for stereo you may need almost double the live production operation. That's a challenge.

A live stereo 3D shoot costs up to 50 % more than HD – how can broadcasters economise?

For any new technology, you have to allow for added costs while you upgrade. This is much more the case for upgrading to stereo than was the case for upgrading to HD. I think these costs will come down in time as people will think of more economical ways to incorporate stereoscopic storage, processing, editing etc using conventional resources. What I expect to happen is that the next generation of production equipment will be stereo-enabled, but it will also be backwards compatible to do HD and SD.

What is Vizrt doing for Sky Sports’ new 3D channel?

One of the things that can really enhance the 3D experience of any live event is the graphics that you add when there is nothing very much going on – let's say during a

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