BBC test 3-D HD in stadium for rugby matches

[no.8]

The BBC used test HD 3-D technology for the 6 Nations rugby telecast between England and Scotland on March 8 . The game was shown in a 3-D stereoscopic projected screen to an invited audience at the West London Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

The trial was a joint venture between BBC Sport and the 3DFirm, which is made up of Can Communicate, a production company; Inition, a specialist in 3-D production and technology; and Axis Films, a production and post-production equipment rental company.

Aashish Chandarana, an executive with BBC Sports, said that with Philips and Samsung producing plasma screens for the format, and with NHK in Japan having done some transmission tests with it, the BBC sees its potential for live sports and other major live events.

Can Communicate has been developing 3-D production and display techniques since 2005, when it worked on an experimental film for Coca-Cola that was used for the FIFA 2006 World Cup Trophy Tour. David Wooster, a partner in Can Communicate, said 3-D coverage works best as a live, close-up experience, not at a major multicamera event.

For 3-D coverage, three pairs of Sony HDC950 cameras are being supplied by Axis Films. One set of cameras will be located high up in Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium for wide shots, with the other two rigs at ground level.

The signals produced by each pair of cameras are genlocked together — a critical process because any differences will damage the 3-D effect. A Sony MVS-8000 HD production switcher will be used to mix the signals in sync, and then the two multiplexed HD signals will be uplinked over satellite to Riverside Studios. Once there, the signals will be decoded as an HD-SDI output and fed to two projectors for the screening with surround sound.
The audience will be wearing special glasses, however, a decision on which 3-D system to use, either polarized or color spectrum, had not yet been announced.

[jargan83]

interesting to say the least

[no.8]

Interesting but, nothing has been said about whether it works or not?

[jono]

if it does it would be good at pubs.
imagine that. gone are the days of "down in front"

now it will be
"get off the field!!!"
makes life easier for streakers as well

[BLR]

I can't comprehend how this would work...

[GIGS20]

By the looks of the cameras, it's stereoscopic 3D rather than holographic! in other words, the device that creates the image directs the vision from the left camera to your left eye, the right camera to your right eye.

They might be employing some tech to translate from these cameras to a 3D projection, but you'd need at least three set ups like the one pictured, otherwise, the projection would have gaps in it.....there is also th problem of timecoding the footage as well as ensuring redundancy of information........I'd go stereoscopic myself, the technology already exists, and therefore you're just producing a system to do it in realtime!

Given enough bandwidth you could broadcast this info to the public! Imagine watching the Wallabies in 3D on Fox Sports!

[BLR]

Given enough bandwidth you could broadcast this info to the public! Imagine watching the Wallabies in 3D on Fox Sports!

But what does that mean, like you are sitting in the crowd? I've only been to one 3D movie thing and it relied on the lot of the things coming out of the screen at you eg, fists, how would this work for rugby?

[GIGS20]

If it's stereoscopic, I'm not sure how the zoom would affect it, since to simulate the effect of actually getting your eyes closer to the action, when Zooming you'd need to move the cameras wider apart as well. You would be able to replicate the effect to a limited extent in Software, but it wouldn't be easy, and you'd need incredibly large format Collectors.

I could see an application for a system whereby a skycam (like used in NFL) would do the job pretty well, as the camera gets closer to the action it appears as though you are at the point of the camera.

Also Cameras on tracks around the edge of the stadium, with an intelligent control system which adjusts the spread of the camera along with the zoom would also enhance the effect, but, in reality, something like that would be costly, slow to react and fragile, I don't think it would be practical to solve all the problems for real time broadcast.

You could make some cool ads though!

You never know, they might do a hawkeye thing which wraps a texture map of the player's body taken from the footage around a generic human model and then manipulates it based upon a mocap of the players movements........can't imagine what sort of processing power would be required to make that work!