More than 1000 delegates will witness a historic transatlantic interview conducted in HD stereoscopic 3-D during IBC2008.
Elizabeth Daley, professor and dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, will speak with DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg Sunday, Sept. 14. Los Angeles-based 3Ality Digital will be shoot the interview with multicamera stereoscopic equipment and package it for delivery by satellite service company Arqiva to Amsterdam.
Three-dimensional movies have grown in popularity at cinemas, multiplying box office revenues in 3-D-equipped theaters, but live transmission has remained a challenge.
According to 3Ality CEO Steven Schklair, a particularly difficult requirement of transmitting a live event in stereoscopic 3-D is keeping the parallel signals needed to create the 3-D illusion in perfect synchronization. “That’s a special challenge over satellite links where atmospheric conditions can be problematic,” he said.
To overcome the challenges, 3Ality has developed a solution in which the 3-D signals are multiplexed into a single 2-D signal for transmission, he explained. At the receiving end, the 2-D signal is unwrapped into a 3-D picture. According to Schklair, his company has used this technique in the past, but never over a long, international link.
The interview will be shot with two 3Ality-developed 3-D stereoscopic camera rigs. 3Ality has chosen to shoot the interview with two camera rigs to demonstrate that 3-D images can be cut and mixed live, he said.
Inside the RAI Auditorium where the 3-D interview will be screened, the 3Ality decoder will pass the left and right eye signals to Christie Digital Cinema projectors.
Those attending the presentation will be asked to wear a pair of specially polarized over-glasses from Real D to view the stereoscopic image. Real D manages the separate images with a special adapter that fits on the projector, which then transmits the left and right eye images through the glasses to the viewer, said Joshua Greer, company president.
For more information, visit www.ibc.org.
