In Broadcast September 2012 - 50

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 12 - SEPTEMBER 2012

InFOCUS

3D Acquisition And Production
The future of stereoscopic television broadcasts may well lie in glasses-free production. Adrian Pennington investigates the prospects
“We see 3D as the future and the future of 3D is broadcast,” declared Director James Cameron at NAB earlier this year, but as compelling as Cameron’s argument was few broadcasters appear to be listening. No network on either side of the Atlantic has committed to a 3D TV episodic series either with Cameron Pace Group (CPG) or any other vendor. CPG, of course, hires its services to multiple Hollywood blockbusters, among the latest being 47 Ronin and Life of Pi, but Cameron has his eye on the bigger picture. A 3D evangelist who believes 3D is a natural evolution for all content, he loves what it can achieve for ﬁlmmakers. But he is nothing if not a shrewd businessman and knows that the bigger volume, if not bigger individual budgets, lie in TV. It is from broadcasters where the bulk of content that can ﬁll airtime on dedicated stereo 3D channels needs to come from. In turn that builds a bigger 3D distribution market leading ultimately to greater demand for tech supply. From CPG’s point of view the argument is win-win. License our technology and services and shoot 2D and 3D by mirroring 2D camera positions so that the cost difference over separate productions can be reduced to zero. “Don’t give us one episode to shoot and think you can extrapolate from that what the cost of a whole series will be,” said Cameron. “The numbers we offer will make it proﬁtable for you.” Yet 3D TV remains stuck in a live sports routine and one-off event production, such as Sky Art’s live three day 3D TX of the Isle of Wight festival in June or the BBC’s planned Last night of the Proms in September. Many broadcasters, including the BBC and Sky are dabbling in different 3D genre and business models but the cost and complexity, and perhaps actual consumer demand, remain in doubt with the BBC actively comparing audience reaction to 3D with 8K format Super Hi-Vision during the Olympics. “From a business point of view, signiﬁcant investments have been made the last few years to develop stereo 3D television,” says Andreas Dasser, Managing Director of P+S Technik. “But still more has to be done to complete the infrastructure from capture to broadcast while develop an ease-of-use business model is also important.”

Adrian Pennington

Stereolabs’ Commander system has been used on major events such as the 2012 Opera Festival in Verona produced for DBW Communications for Sky 3D Italia

Episodic 3D TV Trials
P+S Technik Managing Director Andreas Dasser

“…more has to be done to complete
the infrastructure from capture to broadcast

”

In the US, Sony Pictures has conducted scripted 3D production trials and concluded that 3DTV shows can be made cost-effectively. It shot trial episodes of multi-camera NBC soap Days of Our Lives and of ABC’s Happy Endings, a singlecamera style sitcom. The soap may seem an unlikely candidate for stereo production – its settings are primarily interiors

which would appear to limit visual possibilities. Yet Sony stated in its white paper ‘3D Television and Motion Picture Production’, April 2012, that 3D can be used to enhance character-driven drama, for example by increasing the emotional bond viewers feel for characters. Sony’s EVP of Technologies Spencer Stephens will detail in a conference session at IBC. The depth budget for Days never exceeded 1% background (positive parallax) and 2% in the foreground (negative parallax) which Sony describes as “a good rule of thumb for multi-camera TV.” “Even within those constraints the 3D effect can make a big impression. Two percent forward on a 48inch screen is a large amount of parallax. As a result, effects of that magnitude should be reserved for the show’s more dramatic moments. In an emotionally charged scene, a character might be brought forward past the screen plane to increase viewer empathy. For most scenes, however, the action would be kept behind the screen plane.” The production required a 3D monitoring station on-set to which dual stream media from the three rigs was recorded to Codex recorders. During the shoot, a stereographer monitored all three camera pairs on three 42-inch 3D screens – similar to the home viewing experience.

Additionally the 3Ality rigs required a stereo image processing (SIP) station operated by 3D technician. Each shoot used 3Ality TS5 rigs mounted with a pair of Sony PMW-F3 cameras and cine-style Angenieux Rouge zooms with focal lengths of 16-42mm and 30-80mm. These were swapped for Nikon stills lenses on Happy Endings to enable zooming. “ S o m e e x t r a c o s t s a re unavoidable,” the trials concluded. “A three-camera show would require three additional cameras and three rigs. In post, a show would have twice as much data to manage. While editing could follow a standard 2D schedule, the productions may entail an extra conforming step. A final convergence pass will be required to ﬁne tune a small number of scenes. Productions can avoid many other added costs and experience virtually no impact on schedule.” Effectively then this was a 5D production using 3Ality rigs. Cameron is candid enough to admit that CPG did not coin the phrase ‘5D’ to describe its approach but it nonetheless markets its services heavily on the concept. The most recent live CPG 5D shoot was of the X Games at LA’s Staples Centre for ESPN in July
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In Broadcast September 2012

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