The third dimension

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This year’s conference programme is brimming with seminars focusing on the latest technological trends impacting the industry worldwide.

This month's instalment of Europe's leading annual broadcast industry event, IBC, will turn the spotlight on the emerging realm of 3D TV broadcasting. Digital Broadcast takes a look at this and other key initiatives planned for this year's show.

Having established a formidable reputation in recent years as the industry's leading forum promoting the development of high definition television, IBC is shifting focus this year to embrace the exciting new realm of 3D television broadcasting.

Even forgiving the hype surrounding HDTV in recent years, which has failed to translate into significant commercial gains for those broadcasters which have invested in the technology, 3D TV has been lauded as a groundbreaking television medium that could revolutionise the industry and finally deliver on HDTV's potential.

IBC organisers are planning a raft of initiatives promoting the technology at this year's event, both on the show floor and in the conference halls of Amsterdam's RAI Convention Centre.

Leading the way in this respect will be the first transatlantic HD stereoscopic 3D TV broadcast, using technology enabled by 3Ality Digital.

The broadcast will feature an interview with DreamWorks Animation SKG CEO and IBC IHA winner Jeffrey Katzenberg live from Los Angeles, which will be shot using multi-camera stereoscopic equipment and packaged for delivery by satellite service company Arqiva to Amsterdam.

3Ality CEO Steven Schklair says that while 3D movies have been taking the cinema world by storm and multiplying box office revenues in 3D equipped theatres, live transmissions have proven far more technically challenging.

"Stereo 3D is still in it's infancy in many ways," he says. "We have been making impressive 3D feature films but live transmissions bring their own unique challenges. Like every live show there's less time to make corrections and no room for error.

"One of the big challenges has also been how to keep the parallel signals in perfect synchronisation. That's a special challenge over satellite links where atmospheric conditions can be particularly problematic."

To achieve this, Schklair says 3Ality has developed a solution that effectively multiplexes the 3D signals into a single 2D signal for transmission. At the receiving end, the 2D signal is converted back into 3D for playout.

"We have done this before but not over such a long link," he explains. "We have also developed the twin camera systems that will be capturing the images. In this case, we will be using two camera rigs to demonstrate that 3D pictures can be cut and mixed live."

According to IBC director of Technology Phil White, the project marks a natural progression from last year's live HD interview with Hollywood director Robert Zemeckis.

"We are working with a group of technology partners who are at the cutting edge of 3D imaging and transmission," he says.

"This will be a challenging time for us. But setting the pace is what we do each year at IBC. The technology we are using is exciting enough but to have Jeffrey Katzenberg addressing our delegates will be a real treat and unique privilege."

The presentation will also include technology supplied by digital projector manufacturer Christie and 3D specialists RealD. Audience members will be directed to wear a pair of Real D's specially polarised over-glasses to view the stereoscopic image.

"We manage the separate images with a special adapter that fits over the projector which then transmits the left and right eye images through the glasses to the viewer," explains Real D president Joshua Greer.

IBC's D-Cinema initiative will also turn the spotlight on 3D technology, with a special screening of Warner Bros' Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which is the first live action, narrative motion picture to be shot in digital 3D.

While 3D TV is set to generate massive interest at this year's exhibition, emerging content delivery platforms including IPTV, mobile and next-generation broadband internet, will also feature prominently within the expanded IBC conference programme, which kicks off with a full day of activities on 11 September.

The first day of the conference programme will include a series of seminars focusing specifically on ‘content access via the web'.

The seminars will explore how consuming content across devices as varied as mobile phones, PCs, multimedia players and games consoles, is impacting the traditional broadcast value chain.

The following day's sessions will examine the options, opportunities and issues that arise when telecoms operators compete for spectrum released by the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial TV transmission.

Elsewhere in the programme, a series of technical paper sessions will showcase technical innovations in the area of ‘IPTV and the networked home'.

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