Ready for kick off

Broadcast 

BT Sport has designed, outfitted and is now testing the infrastructure and procedures necessary to go live with its sports channels in August.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/ready-for-kick-off/5057378.article

MPEG-DASH: Making Tracks Toward Widespread Adoption

StreamingMedia

Despite all the hype, the move to embrace MPEG-DASH and the DASH264 spec has been slow-going. We look at the history of DASH and the roadblocks it faces moving forward.

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/MPEG-DASH-Making-Tracks-Toward-Widespread-Adoption-90776.aspx

The Future of 3D TV and Why ESPN Dropped Its Pioneering Channel (Analysis)

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/future-3d-tv-why-espn-568445

When ESPN officially announced on Wednesday that it would discontinue its pioneering 24/7 3D channel before the end of the year, it hardly came as a surprise.

It was a clear setback for stakeholders who want to bring 3D to the living room, but they are not ready to throw in the towel.The decision had been rumored, and ESPN acknowledged in a statement that there was “limited viewer adoption of 3D services to the home.”

“3D isn't dead but as we can see from this decision is in a precarious position,” admitted Duncan Humphreys, creative director at CAN Communicate, the London facility behind the first live-by-satellite 3D broadcast (England vs. Scotland rugby match for the BBC) in 2008 and technology partner to the production of the FIFA World Cup 3D in 2010. “It's obviously disappointing to hear the news that ESPN is pulling out of its 3D channel. Having said that, a total sports 3D channel in 3D’s infancy was a big ask. Taking those first infant steps with ESPN at the 2010 World Cup in 3D broadcasting was an honor.”

ESPN 3D highlights also included coverage of X Games with its close collaborator and supplier Cameron Pace Group, the 3D company founded by James Cameron and Vince Pace. Just last month, CPG and ESPN 3D won a Sports Emmy Award for coverage of the 2012 Winter X Games 16.

ESPN's withdrawal comes at a time when glasses-free consumer displays are about to hit the market. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Stream TV Networks, in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Hisense, will be rolling out glasses-free screens running its Ultra-D technology in time for Christmas 2013. (The sets will cost $7,500.)

Further, Stream TV Networks is reportedly preparing to fund a series of 3D sports events to promote the new service, taking up the reins laid down by Sony.

Sony appears to be backing out of funding the broadcast of 3D sports events, with no plans to sponsor matches at the FIFA World Cup in 2014 or at Wimbledon beyond 2013. (Sony didn't respond to requests for comment on Wednesday or Thursday following ESPN’s announcement.)

Instead, Sony is putting its R&D and marketing efforts behind the production of 4K content and technologies in an effort to shift sales of its flat-panel TVs.

Meanwhile the BBC is drawing to a close a two-year test run of 3D programming that has includes Wimbledon and the London Olympics as well as documentaries and dramas, the last of which will be the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode, premiering in the U.K. in November.

"3D does cause people to switch off in its present form,” admitted Andy Quested, BBC’s head of 3D and HD. “About 20 percent of people find sports matches in 3D simply too long. Twenty-five percent of people are apathetic toward 3D viewing no matter the content. Another 10 percent can’t see 3D because of visual impairments, but arguably up to half the audience for 3D content is put off by having to wear glasses."

Dolby is among the stakeholders arguing that glasses simply won’t work in the home.

With Philips, Dolby is developing a glasses-free “Dolby 3D” format to bring content to TVs, smartphones and tablets -- and the company believes this glasses-free technology could both address the issue of weak consumer demand and provide a practicable business model for broadcasters.

Dolby told THR that some of its customers are planning glasses-free prototypes for early 2014, and hope to have products on the market by early 2015 at the latest.

Supporting this initiative is Cameron Pace Group, which in April at NAB said it would integrate the Dolby 3D format into its CPG 3D production workflow. 
 Speaking to THR at NAB, Pace said, “[3D] is just going through a development cycle to the point when you can sit on a couch and watch without glasses. Autostereo [glasses-free 3D] is a model that works. … We waited for the Avatar experience to be realized, and we continue to move toward the day when the broadcast experience is realized, except that some of these technology barriers need to disappear."

Responding to the ESPN 3D news on Wednesday, Dolby 3D project leader Guido Voltolina restated Dolby’s belief that glasses are holding 3D back and added, “monetization of 3D content in the home has been an unresolved opportunity not only for sports events, but also for movies."

Still going in the U.S. is 3net, a 24/7 3D channel that is a joint venture from Discovery, Sony and Imax — though it's somewhat different from the ESPN venture in that it focuses on 4K 2D production in addition to original 3D production.

Asked about the ESPN 3D decision, a 3net spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter: “Although we don't comment on the activities of other companies, their decision has no impact on our business.”

BSkyB, which runs a 3D channel in the U.K. and continues to commission original 3D programs alongside 3D sports including cricket, darts and soccer, gives no indication of plans to pull the plug.

Since Sky 3D is given away free to all top-tier subscribers it was never intended to be a standalone profit center. Rather, it was launched conservatively as a loyalty product intended to halt churn while at the same time helping to brand Sky as a technological pioneer. Earlier this year it announced plans to grow the reach of the 3D channel.

Both 3net and Sky are additionally examining 4K Ultra HD, which generates four times the resolution of traditional HD displays.

ESPN is directing resources toward 4K as well. “We are committing our 3D resources to other products and services that will better serve fans and affiliates,” ESPN said on Wednesday. “We continue to experiment with things like Ultra HD TV production tools to produce our current ESPN family of HD channels.”

While Ultra HD itself has not yet proved that it can generate wide consumer demand, some are now putting their hopes in 4K in combination with 3D to entice consumers.

Said Chris Johns, chief engineer, broadcast strategy at BSkyB: "Ultra HD screens will give a much higher resolution for passive-glasses 3D viewing, effectively doubling the number of vertical lines to a full 1,000 lines per eye. Ultra HD may actually be a helping hand for stereoscopic 3D.

“The utopia is glasses-free 3D,” he added. "Ultra HD can lend itself to that because it’s increasing the number of fields of view that 4K screens can display.”

Predicted Humphreys: “New technology delivering high-quality glasses-free 3D on 4K screens will be with us this year, and I believe that's the future. 4K and 3D will be symbiotic technologies, high-quality stereoscopic productions will have their place, and hybrid 3D live productions will become the norm ... No 2D, no 3D, simply one production delivering exactly the same images."

Telegenic - copywriting

‪http://telegenic.co.uk/  - I wrote the copy for this website for outside broadcaster Telegenic.

Glasses-Free 3D Tech Makers Forge Ahead Despite Setbacks

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/glasses-free-3d-tech-makers-583895

3D TV has suffered two high-profile setbacks this past month. In mid-June, ESPN announced that it would discontinue its 3D channel by year’s end. And as the 3D coverage of Wimbledon drew to a close last weekend, the BBC said that after two years of testing, it would not pursue the format further at this time. Even before ESPN and BBC pulled back, there were a limited number of 3D broadcast stakeholders worldwide.

Two high-profile ones — BSkyB in the U.K. and 3net (a Discovery, Imax and Sony joint venture) in the U.S. — insist the recent blows won’t impact their 3D course. Others continuing to offer 3D include Al Jazeera, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia and China's CCTV.

Also holding firm are technology developers who believe that glasses-free 3D is needed to unlock the format’s potential in the home.

Even the BBC itself seems to view that as a factor. "3D does cause people to switch off in its present form. … Arguably up to half the audience for 3D content is put off by having to wear glasses,” said Andy Quested, BBC’s head of 3D and HD, last month in London.

Dolby and Philips are working to get their Dolby 3D glasses-free development into products in early 2014. Commenting on the BBC and ESPN news, Dolby 3D project leader Guido Voltolina told The Hollywood Reporter: “The halt of some 3D productions is only referring to content for home consumption like live sport, major events, etc. 3D movies are established and continuing at the same rate. This also means that as soon as the 3D without glasses is available, premium content and great movies will be available. Monetization of 3D content at home is on hold until 3D at home will not require glasses, that is why we are investing in it.”

Also investing — and poised to introduce glasses-free 3D this year — is Stream TV Networks, a Philadelphia-based outfit with manufacturing deals to introduce its glasses-free 3D TV technology in 4K flat panels from China's Hisense, Taiwan's Pegatron (which assembles Surface tablets for Microsoft, among others) and the U.K.'s Armour Group. “We are showing the first unit [Hisense-built] to the market in London [on Thursday] and a couple other places, and it's now in the process of being rolled out worldwide,” said CEOMathu Rajan.

The exec was tight-lipped on reports that his company has also signed up consumer electronics giant LG Electronics, but he said announcements of rollout were imminent.

The company also is rumored to be sponsoring a number of sports and other events to be recorded in 3D to promote its technology, announcements of which Rajan indicated were in the works.

At this year’s CES, 3D took a backseat to developments in 4K — roughly four times the resolution of today’s HD. And CES also hosted some demonstrations of bleeding-edge 8K technology, representing 16 times the resolution of HD.

Stream TV Networks claims that the technology inherent in its current 3D system for glasses-free TVs and tablets is capable of turning content into a resolution as high as 8K.

“Our technology is capable of taking in 1080p HD content and outputting it for display at 2160p [the same resolution as Ultra-HD 4K, where 2160 represents the number of lines vertically displayed], and if you have native 4K content it will produce 8K,” said Rajan.

The exec claims, “If we take in content with two million pixels, we will display content with eight million pixels (4K), and with eight-million pixel content we can output 16 million pixels. … Our proprietary algorithm measures the disparity between images, then releases all the pixel and occlusion information, which in turn causes the resolution to go up.”

Consumers soon will be able to test this for themselves when the first Stream TV Networks' powered products hit stores in a matter of weeks.

Stream TV Networks is positioning the technology — which it brands Ultra-D — as a means for consumers to watch glasses-free 3D, 2D 2K and 4K content.

“Our view [when launching the company] was that stereo 3D was a transitory technology,” Rajan said. “Aside from watching it in the cinema, we did not believe that stereo 3D was viable. 3D stereo needs left- and right-eye views, which diminishes the resolution, and there are clear issues with viewing with glasses. The much bigger issue — for 3D and for 4K — is the lack of content itself. What the consumer wants is for all their content to be available in formats from 2D to 3D and 4K."

Stream TV’S R&D subsidiary SeeCubic is headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, home of consumer electronics giant Philips, from which a part of Stream TV's IP is believed to be derived.

Philips shelved plans to develop its own autostereoscopic displays in April 2009. More recently, it partnered with Dolby on the Dolby 3D format.

SeeCubic founder and CTO Hans Zuidema is a former employee of Philips 3D Solutions, where his scope included 3D display design and manufacturing process development.

4K and vfx camera specialist The Lens Foundry launches

Televisual

Specialist kit rental com pay The Lens Foundry has launched, catering for 4K, vfx and aerial photography. The outfit has been 18-months in planning and represents a six-figure investment from its founders. 

http://www.televisual.com/news-detail/4K-and-vfx-camera-specialist-The-Lens-Factory-launches_nid-2891.html%C2%A0…

4K Gets Papal Blessing

AV Magazine

http://www.avinteractive.com/news/case-study-4k-gets-papal-blessing-05-06-2014/

In a major outside broadcast, the ceremony during which Pope Francis raised Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII to sainthood was transmitted live in 3D and in Ultra HD.

Centro Televisivo Vaticano (Vatican Television Centre; CTV) with facilities partner Sony produced the two-hour, 27 April broadcast from St Peter’s Square, Rome in 3D, HD and 4K in what Sony claimed to be a first-of-its-kind parallel production. It was certainly complex.

The HD production was captured by 15 HD cameras ringed around the Square and concentrated on a central outdoor platform. Coverage was carried by 100 broadcasters and viewed by an estimated audience of 200 million worldwide. The simultaneous 3D production was produced by Sky Italia and Telegenic, the regular outside broadcast partner to BSkyB for 3D events. This involved six native stereo pairs of HD cameras plus three additional HDcams converted from 2D into 3D.

While CTV recorded Pope Benedict in 3D in 2011, this event was the Vatican’s first live 3D transmission and was broadcast by Sky Italia, Sky Deutchland and BSkyB. The 3D production was screened live to 1,000 cinemas (mostly in Europe) in conjunction with Italian distributor Nexo Digital, with some North and South American theatres taking a delayed 3D recorded feed.

The event was also projected in 3D on a giant screen at a 500-seat basillica in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in the north of Italy – the birth place of Pope John XXIII.

The 4K piece of the production proved another test run for Sony equipment and workflow. Feeds from six F55 cameras and two HD radio cams upconverted to 4K, were encoded and distributed as four 3G HD-SDI signals by Globecast from CTV’s OB16 production truck to a Eutelsat satellite. There it was multiplexed into a single MPEG4 transport stream and beamed back to the Vatican’s Paolo VI suite for viewing on a 4K Bravia set.

The 4K signal was also planned for live projection via Sony’s 4K SRX- R515P projector at Czestochowa, Poland, a place synonymous with Pope John Paul II. While this did not pan out, discussions are on-going with CTV to organise a later event for the remote 4K projection of the ceremony.

Progressive technology
For a body working for the head of the Catholic church, CTV is surprisingly progressive in its use of advanced AV technology. The last General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI on 27 February 2013 was also captured in Ultra HD, as was the first mass of Pope Francis, celebrated on 19 March 2013, though neither was aired live in the format.

The company has made considerable investment in Sony technology. This includes the 24-camera OB16 with 3G infrastructure primed for 4K action; a fully tapeless control facility which rests on Sony’s Media Backbone asset management platform, and the digitisation of a 10,000 hour archive from tape on to Sony’s Optical Disc Archive (ODA) storage format.

Established by Pope John Paul II in 1983, CTV films the activities of the Holy Father and Holy See – the central government of the Roman Catholic Church – and produces its own programmes, provides footage for other broadcasters and keeps an extensive archive for future use.

The Vatican’s goal is to develop productions that “enhance the involvement of people” and  provide “wider archive fomats,” explained Stefano D’Agostini, CTV technical director. “Ultra HD gives incredible detail and a real emotive quality. It is probably more natural than 3D because there is no artificial tool in front of the eyes. We are looking at 4K as the highest quality to store material in future.”

Key in this regard was the mastering of the event at 4K resolution on to ODA. Footage was recorded at 422 10 bit and encoded in Sony’s production format XAVC. “Sony technology will make watching this historic event closer to reality for hundreds of millions of viewers,” commented David Bush, Sony Europe’s director of marketing.

This is one of a number of tests on live events Sony is organising to explore different aspects of 4K production. Chief among these is the 4K multicamera recording of the World Cup Final from Rio in July, but the manufacturer has widened the type of event away from sports. Last year Sony recorded Peter Gabriel and Muse in concert in Ultra HD, and in March it worked with the National Theatre to screen a production of War Horse live to cinemas in 4K.

“This particular event is important because of the integration of different formats which we believe to be unique,” explained Bush. “The three directors have access to feeds from each production. HD could be upconverted to 4K, and the 4K could be offered as a downconversion to HD. The 4K image could also be ‘cut out’ (zoomed into) and offered to the HD production (the feeling is that a 4K master image offers a better quality HD image). We’re not saying one way is right or wrong, it’s about exploring different scenarios to find out what is practical.”

Four Pontiffs present and past
The ceremony itself was also unique in that it represented the first time two Pontiffs had been canonised at once; also the first time two living Pontiffs had presided over a canonisation (Emeritus Benedict, who quit as Pope last year attended the mass). Up to a million pilgrims and 100 foreign delegations swelled Rome to try and get a glimpse of the event on 27April, with half a million crowded into St Peter’s Square. To help them giant screens were set up in nearby streets and elsewhere in the city in addition to the four permanent giant Panasonic LEDs flanking the Papal platform.

Relics of the two former Popes were held up as part of the ceremony. For John Paul II, a vial of his blood, and for John XXIII, a piece of skin taken from his body after it was exhumed for his beatification in 2000.

In a touch worthy of novelist Dan Brown, the funding partners to this event include the Knights of Columbus – founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 to respond to the spiritual needs of immigrants marginalised by 19th century society. According to its press statement, the organisation has helped finance CTV’s three OB trucks as well as the Vatican’s satellite uplink and downlink transmitters in order to spread the Gospel with advanced communication.