3DTV production costs must be reduced
June 21, 2011
By Chris Forrester
The backbone of 3DTV’s future is in sport, says 3ality Digital’s CEO Steve Schklair, but production costs need to fall. Speaking at the TVB-Europe 3D Summit in London, Schklair said the current 2D/3D side-by-side production methods need to move on, and quickly. He explained where the – currently – important role of ‘convergence puller’, and needed for every camera position, needs to be automated, and thus saving up to $600 per day, per person employed.
“At the moment everyone is shooting 3D sport with one convergence puller per camera, so if you’re shooting with 8 to 12 cameras, you’re employing an extra 8 to 12 people, which is costly,” he told delegates. “Software to do that is in a beta state at the moment; we’re continuing to refine it and it’ll be releasable in the next couple of quarters.”
Schklair says that his firm’s software produces pictures that are not only as good as those produced by humans, but better. “It’s steadier,” he claimed. “For a human operator to follow a camera operator who is flying all over the place looking for his next shot…well, software is faster than humans in terms of being smooth and following it.”