Back from NAB… in 3D!
Whew! As always, NAB was quick, productive, and overwhelming – only this time it was in 3D!
Everyone, everywhere, was talking about 3D: cameras, displays, production software, trucks, expertise, etc. The race for preparedness is on, and people will spend as pushy studios and producers want to be the first to do this or that with 3D. First sitcom, first sporting event, first documentary, first newscast, etc. The reality is that we are a ways off from wide-scale adoption, and showrooms and special screenings will be the place for 3D for the foreseeable future. We are in a similar catch-22 phase as a few years ago during the early days of HD production – 3D TVs are just coming onto the market and will drop down to reasonable consumer level prices within the next 2-3 yrs. Consumers are asking “do I buy a 3D TV when there is little to no programming?” while content creators are wondering “do I produce in 3D when there is little to no audience?”
Being an industry event though, it’s about more than bragging rights or audience – it’s about technical feasibility, practice, and logistics – all things which will change when 3D comes to our living room. DirecTV has announced that they will carry four 3D channels starting in June, including ESPN 3D and a dedicated 3D pay-per-view channel. And Cablevision dipped its toes into the 3D pool a few weeks ago with an MSG Network broadcast of a Rangers and Islanders hockey game live from Madison Square Garden.
After talking to a few industry experts who participated in the recent Masters in 3D, the challenges with 3D production are less technical than logistical: camera placement for example. While HD favors wide top-down shots for seeing all the action, 3D is most effective with close, ground-level cameras – imagine Phil Mickelson’s birdie putt as viewed from grass-level, just across the green, the ball rolling right toward you as he sinks it…
There were also lots of other things of interest: Falconstor’s HyperFS, CatDV asset management, Avid’s Java app for editing over the web, 3ality cameras, Adobe CS5, among many more. We were particularly excited by the potential of Active Storage’s Innerpool appliance for metadata. This PCI Express card contains on-board redundant solid-state drives, specifically engineered for storing metadata in an Xsan environment. This has the potential of being something of a game changer, allowing us to more efficiently configure the storage in our Xsan integrations, and giving our clients more bang for their buck when deploying new SAN solutions.
We had some great meetings with prospective clients, old and new friends, fellow consultants and vendors, and we’re excited about some emerging strategic opportunities. Our work in online video technology and web delivery combined with our broadcast infrastructure and workflow experience means we are ideally positioned to help organizations streamline and bring these workstreams closer together.
Time will only tell if 3D has staying power, or if it turns out to be a niche product or flavor of the month. Regardless, I’m curious how 3D affects storage requirements? Are we going to see data growth as people have to save in YAF (yet another format), or is 3D only a nominal data addition?
-c
Colin
19 Apr 10 at 5:49 pm
I wish I had been there Scott, seems like great stuff. I can see how 3D is such a hot topic, there are so many big industry forces at work. Sports is one, Gigaom has a great article on some of these points (http://gigaom.com/2010/04/16/sports-will-drive-3-d-adoption-and-broadband-upgrades/). Content owners/creators/distributors need another hurtle for counterfeiters, and it’s not a bad offering for consumers who will increasingly be getting 3D-ready sets. Gaming seems like a big one that probably didn’t get much play at NAB – the competition between Sony, MSFT (Natal) et al is as stiff as ever and 3D is a great differentiator, though challenges like 2 image processing seem abound (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-making-of-ps3-3d-article?page=1). I agree with Colin about staying power. That said, this is a really hot space for early movers, which is a great condition for those of us that love to consume fun tech! And, it’s a nice convergence on some of the integration and development work we’re doing with media systems and gesture recognition/AR technology.
Campbell
25 Apr 10 at 3:59 pm
stay tuned for a followup blog post regarding space requirements and 3D.
Colin, agreed on the niche aspect to it. its not an all-the-time type of technology.
and the coming convergence is great. its really hits our sweet spot for organizing and processing video, and the augmented reality and gesture based recognition interfaces. we have been working the 3D angle to benefit immersive, interactive environments, which i think will be more compelling than just watching talk shows in 3D. capturing information and customizing the experience, whether its game/internet/interactive/entertainment related will be where this all gets interesting.
Scott Anderson
26 Apr 10 at 12:11 pm
[...] Colin (who has written some excellent posts on our blog) brought up an interesting question in the comments of my NAB report regarding storage requirements for 3D workflows. I found my response growing to blog post [...]
Storage for 3D Video Workflows « Control Group Blog
29 Apr 10 at 1:53 pm