Camera Corps and 3D technology specialist Inition helped Nineteen Fifteen, a UK-based television production company, to shoot the world’s first live 3-D online performance (of the rock band Keane) in the 1080/50i HD format.
Eight HD cameras (six Hitachi DK-32 and two Toshiba IK-HD cameras), each with a dedicated Camera Corps CCU for remote control, were used for the performance, which was televised from Abbey Road studios in London on Thursday April 2. The multicamera shoot was also viewable in 3-D on the Keane Web site, where fans could order the red and cyan anaglyphic glasses necessary to view the effects. (The glasses were distributed with the band’s latest 7in single “Better than This.”)
All of the cameras were set up in pairs to capture the event in full 3-D. The Toshibas were coupled on a Steadicam. Two of the Hitachi cameras were mounted on a 20ft Technocrane, and the other four were positioned in different locations around the studio. The Camera Corps CCUs were employed to ensure that all the cameras were uniformly aligned.
Inition’s SB-1 processor was used to allow the producers to monitor and manipulate 3-D on a wide range of 3-D and non-3-D monitors and TVs.
The performance itself was held on the anniversary of a Beatles live satellite broadcast. As well as feeding live to the Web, the production was captured to HD videotape, fed to live to Cinema (Vue West End) and tested live on Sky TV's 3-D TV platform via a Sky set-top box.
