London 2012 set for 3D makeover

It would have been a shock if the organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games had not included stereo 3D in their plans so it was no great surprise when the official announcement of its inclusion came.

Back in 2008, around the time of the Beijing Games, live 3D broadcasting was an experiment. In March of that year when the BBC trialled the world’s first live 3D HD transmission to select cinemas of a Calcutta Cup rugby match, the mission was considered a success that the feed reached the cinema at all. 

By 2010 with the multi-camera, 25-match production of the FIFA World Cup, a technical workflow had been established and this year, at the US Open and Wimbledon, it had developed into a fully integrated outside broadcast. The technology is proven, and while there will continue to be technological developments, the focus has turned to refining production values.

However, while the IOC and its broadcasting subdivision the Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) could be confident of delivering a technically proficient and polished 3D product for 2012 they still need to ensure that the time and effort was worthwhile.

That it intends to produce 300 hours of 3D (from a total of 5000 hours total games coverage) is perhaps the main surprise. At that volume 3D can no longer be considered an experiment or just for archive as seemed the most likely scenario even six months back. The IOC has clearly received strong messages from its major rights holders including NBC, the BBC and ESPN in support of a sizeable commitment to 3D production.

“The only reason we have decided to produce in 3D is to satisfy the demands of our rights holders,” Manolo Romero (pictured), chief executive of Olympic Broadcast Services (OBS) tells TVBEurope. “We would not be producing in 3D were it not for them.”

Although he declined to name which broadcasters have requested 3D, Romero said that there were currently 15 on board, a figure he expected to grow considerably, including some “very major ones”.

Events at 14 venues (of the 32) will be used for coverage, enough for OBS to create a 10-hour daily mix of 3D live and highlights. This will be produced separately from the main 2D broadcast by three outside broadcast crews. It will also be distributed with English commentary. 

Each mobile unit will carry 12-14 rigs for around 40 camera positions. Fifteen to 20 ENG crews sporting Panasonic integrated 3D camcorders (including its new prosumer model HDC-Z10000 and the AG-3DP1) will also contribute as well as being used “to get near to the athletes in some sports,” Romero says.

“We will cover the opening and closing ceremonies, and major Olympic areas of gymnastics, track and field, swimming and the Olympic park,” he adds. “We will also experiment with other sports dependent on the demand for them from rights holders. Some of the sports have not been captured in 3D before.”

These include swimming and canoeing. The potential of canoeing with oars and boats slaloming round posts in splashing water is obvious though swimming could be trickier given that much of the athlete’s action happens underwater. Presumably OBS would have to position the 3D cameras as close to the water level as possible, or optimise the underwater tracking camera system.

“One of the challenges is to locate 3D camera positions in places where there are currently optimum seating positions,” says Romero. “We will find a way. We need to try to do our best to make it look good, but it will not be easy. We will follow our philosophy as with other technology which is to push the technology, to try our best and when we reach a limit which we cannot overcome we hope that for the next games we will do better.”

Winning the prize

Rights holders will be able to receive the live feed or ENG-ingested footage at the IBC to compile their own 3D broadcasts, but OBS will also create a live and highlights package of one hour, daily. “This is for those broadcasters who do not have a 24-hour dedicated 3D channel, but who can perhaps segment short 3D broadcasts on their existing channels,” says Romero. This would include the BBC, which aired its first live 3D coverage earlier this year on BBC HD of the Wimbledon tennis finals.

OBS will be contracting a 3D production specialist, but this has yet to be awarded and will be arguably the most prestigious and certainly largest 3D live event project to date.

There aren’t too many production teams with the appropriate expertise to choose from. Sony was the driving force behind the FIFA World Cup 2010 3D and Wimbledon in 3D, partnering with CAN Communicate and using Element Technica rigs on both occasions – though CAN would consider themselves technology-agnostic.

3ality Technica, which now owns Element Technica, has huge experience as a technology partner to Sky Sports in tandem with OB crews from Telegenic and others and can’t be dismissed. 

The Cameron-Pace Group (CPG) has conducted 140 live events, mostly sports, including the recent X Games for ESPN. Its business model requires the client to sign up to CPG technology and production services. Another option would be to task the Belgian firm Alfacam, which is supplying a third of the 60+ OB facilities for London 2012, to organise specialist teams.

Since Alfacam is also majority equipped with Grass Valley gear, the recent CPG Grass Valley technology alliance lends weight to the idea that Cameron and Pace are front-runners.

Vince Pace, co-chairman of CPG, revealed to TVBEurope that he is in discussions about a 40-45 3D camera event which would be about the size of the Olympics job. Pace says: “We shot with 14 cameras on the US Open and we shot 19 cameras for the X Games. We are talking about a production today that will carry 40-45 cameras.

“The chief question is, what does it cost to do World Cup soccer or the Olympics in 3D and we are probably the leading company providing a cost model that can compete with 2D.”

Cameron adds: “It would be fantastic to do the Olympics. I don’t think there is anybody around who could do it better in terms of integrating 3D cameras into robocams and unique POV situations.”

In fact, the Olympic 3D contract is in the gift of sponsor Panasonic, which is between a rock and hard place deciding whether to grant the oxygen of Olympics publicity to two of its chief rivals whose kit will surely be heavily involved (Sony or GV).

As for Romero, he is equally, if not more, excited by the innovation of multi-channel distribution for next year which he says will help create the biggest ever audience for an Olympics yet.

“We did this for the first time for Vancouver but this is on an entirely different scale,” says Romero. “We are providing 12 channels by satellite of Olympics coverage in English, Arabic and Spanish language commentary as well as a complementary data feed which will enable any broadcaster which may not have the resources to come to London to organise a substantial Olympics operation. 

“In some cases broadcasters do not have the bandwidth to be able to bring all the signals back to their domestic audience on their own. They can use it as a main source or as secondary source or simply as a source for additional shots. I believe this is going to be a revolution on its own.”

Broadcasters in New Zealand, Asia, Korea and the US, among others, will benefit, which will help boost the already massive global audience for the event. “I have no doubt this will bring the biggest Olympic Games audience ever. Hands down. That is one of our goals,” says Romero.

Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 8.1

Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve 8.1, an exciting new software update with powerful features, is now available. This update is available to all DaVinci Resolve customers free of charge and can be downloaded from the Blackmagic Design web site.

The new Resolve 8.1 software update includes support for Apple Final Cut Pro X XML round trip, new layer node composite effects, ACES colorspace support, compatibility with Avid AAF for round trip with Avid Media Composer™, Final Cut Pro 7 clip size and position support, new copy commands for grades, upgraded EDL features, support for UltraStudio 3D for Thunderbolt™ and compatibility with the 2011 MacBook Pro 15” computer.

With this new update, DaVinci Resolve can now import and export Final Cut Pro X timelines using the new Final Cut Pro rich XML file format. When working in Final Cut Pro X, customers will get full timeline round trip where projects can be moved between Final Cut Pro X and DaVinci Resolve,retaining the multi track timeline with frame accurate cuts, dissolves and even speed changes. DaVinci Resolve will also use rich XML from Final Cut Pro X to link to original camera footage. DaVinci Resolve supports full media management for Final Cut Pro X projects including additional source clip folders and alternate image source when conforming edits in Resolve.

Because DaVinci Resolve supports grading of high resolution and bit depth files, edits can be exported out of Final Cut Pro for finishing in the highest quality. An alternative workflow is to use DaVinci Resolve 8.1 to
manage extremely high resolution raw image formats such as RED, ARRI, CinemaDNG and DNxHD and then to grade and render to ProRes or uncompressed media for Final Cut Pro X.

DaVinci Resolve 8.1 now includes new layer node composite effects which offer colorists even greater creative grading with add, subtract, difference, multiply, screen, overlay, darker and lighten effects. Colorists will be able to use these new composite effects to create extremely complex and intricate grades with limitless power.

Keeping pace with DaVinci’s heritage in the high end feature film industry, DaVinci Resolve 8.1 now includes ACES colorspace support. ACES and IIF is a new colorspace and file format promoted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences technology committee to provide a universal and open image interchange and processing format. The ACES IIF file format is fully supported, and includes a variety of IDTs and ODTs as well as support for 3D shaper LUTs. DaVinci Resolve 8.1 allows colorists to work in this format seamlessly, and even the free of charge DaVinci Resolve Lite includes ACES colorspace, so upcoming videographers will have access to the latest Hollywood technology.

To improve compatibility with customers using Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve 8.1 now includes improved support for Avid AAF import/export for roundtrip editing to Resolve and back to Avid Media Composer. This new AAF support includes effects such as dip to color, edge and center wipe with border, clock and venetian blind wipe and also cross, oval and diamond iris wipe, overlay composite and more. Also includes support for Avid sizing with (PTZR) pan, tilt, zoom and rotate.

Additional support is included for Final Cut Pro 7 round trip with clip byclip selectable import of image sizing data now possible. Import sizing andposition data for all or selected clips is available to allow renders usingthe extremely high quality DaVinci Resolve image resizing engine.

New cut, copy and paste operations for editing and node metadata includingdynamics have been added to DaVinci Resolve 8.1, allowing much easier anddramatically faster editing of clips in the timeline and copying gradesbetween nodes. DaVinci Resolve 8.1 also includes new conform featuresincluding the abilities to export missing clips EDL and import new EDL to atrack. This simplifies finding and replacing missing clips in long formprojects, and is great for changing VFX shots. This DaVinci Resolve updateis now even faster to use with an exciting new ‘hover over node’ gradingstatus display to reveal lists of changed grades within the node.

DaVinci Resolve 8.1 increases support for hardware, including fullcompatibility with the Apple Early 2011 MacBook Pro 15” with 1680x1050display, as well as the new UltraStudio 3D for Thunderbolt technology basedcomputers. Support for UltraStudio 3D allows video monitoring and deck I/Ofrom the latest iMac and MacBook Pro computers that support Thunderbolt™technology.

Other new features included in DaVinci Resolve 8.1 includes support forclip by clip scaled or unscaled data range color space conversions, supportfor clip by clip colorspace selection in case a source clip has beenincorrectly encoded, renders now support video or data levels and supportfor HDR source icons in the timeline thumbnail for RED HDRx clips.

Availability and PriceDaVinci Resolve 8.1 is available now as a free download for all currentDaVinci Resolve customers.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve 8.1, and all other Blackmagic Designproducts, are available at www.blackmagic-design.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic DesignBlackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editingproducts, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers,live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and filmrestoration software for the feature film, post production and televisionbroadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched arevolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s DaVinci Emmy™award winning color correction products have dominated the television andfilm industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breakinginnovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by worldleading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design hasoffices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check

www.blackmagic-design.com

A Review of Blackmagic Design’s New Hyperdeck Shuttle

Current small devices that can be camera-mounted are practical only because non-mechanical storage, to wit flash, has become much more available in the last 10 years or so. There are now a lot of these things, as we saw at IBC, and the differentiation is largely in the degree and type of data compression applied and the tools and user interface that the device offers. Some have monitors, some don’t; some have test and measurement displays, some are optimized for minimum possible space and weight, and so on.

Blackmagic‘s Hyperdeck Shuttle is unashamedly targeted at a specific point on that continuum of size, weight and codec – it’s tiny and simple, and it records anything up to 10-bit 1080p30 YUV with no compression at all. The lack of compression means that it’s going to chew through storage at the really startling rate of around 120MB/sec for the highest end signals, give or take the audio. This provokes two further issues: sheer space, and speed, because something like the compactflash card you’d put in a Nanoflash can’t handle data at that rate regardless of how much actual storage space there is. Happily, the computer industry has provided us with an off-the-shelf solution in the form of the 2.5-inch solid state disk. This is a device both physically and electrically compatible with the 2.5-inch hard disks traditionally used in laptop computers, but flash-based so that the power consumption, weight and physical robustness are all much improved. The industry seems to have realized that these things are likely to be used as big, fast portable storage devices and usually supplies them fully-enclosed in a metal case, as opposed to hard disks which usually have exposed circuitry.

People will immediately worry about the sheer amount of information that this recorder is going to produce, and question whether it’s really practical at anything but the high end. I think it is, although it will require a properly thought-out postproduction and archiving workflow – not that you don’t need that with a Canon 5D, too, albeit for far less data. What’s really important is that all of these things will get a lot easier in time, as flash devices, hard disks and data tapes get bigger and cheaper. From a pure postproduction point of view, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that any form of compression is bad news – not only does it sap picture quality, but many compression codecs are tied to particular manufacturers or pieces of software. Whether this is done deliberately to create vendor lock-in or not, uncompressed pictures are both more flexible and maximally future-proof, and will only get easier to handle in time.

There’s also the issue of purpose. The kinds of cameras on which this recorder is likely to be used may already use a flash recording system such as P2 or SD card, and there may be little practical purpose in replacing one heavily compressed recording option with another. Given the option to go uncompressed, though, any camera with a worthwhile HDMI or SDI output can be improved with this device.

Anyway, given their experience at building SDI and HDMI devices, the availability of suitable flash storage and the explosion in interest in this sort of thing, Blackmagic were clearly in a pretty good position to do this. The device itself is an almost minimalistic design, and it’s nice to realize that it really has been milled out of a solid block of metal. This is slightly surprising for a company that’s been known entirely for postproduction tools before, and it’s good to see they’ve immediately grasped the level of robustness required of a piece of camera equipment. There’s even a cheese plate accessory for it now with a variety of ¼-inch and 3/8-inch holes in it, for mounting to appropriate surfaces.

Of the six faces of the cuboid, three are entirely plain. One end is cut away to house the SSD, and the two long edges hold, respectively, the connectors and a rubberized control panel and indicator lights. Other than the two miniature coaxial connectors that provide video in and out, nothing protrudes, and it’s extremely difficult to hurt the thing. This creditable dedication to robustness doesn’t quite extend as far as the power connector, which is one of those miniature coaxial DC power connectors used on everything under the sun. There is no mechanical retention for the power cable, so it’s probably a good thing that the device has its own built in battery, good – according to the manufacturer – for about an hour’s work.

There are a couple of other design choices I’d argue with, but nothing terribly serious. The use of the little push-pull coax connectors for the SDI in and out is slightly questionable as you’d have thought there ought to be room for full-size ones, but then they do take up a lot of space behind the panel. Blackmagic supply two adapter cables, but astute users will procure spares, both to cover failures and because the supplied pair include one each of male and female BNCs which might not be quite what’s required. The only other gotcha is that it is, with extreme violence, possible to just shake the SSD out of the end of the recorder. The only retaining mechanism, as far as I can see, is the SATA connector, and that wasn’t really designed as a mechanical latch. It wouldn’t be an issue in normal use, but anyone subjecting one of these to a lot of vibration might want to wrap a piece of tape over the end to preclude this issue.

In use, the thing is incredibly simple – just plug the camera in, it will recognize the input format, and switch its output to the appropriate format for display. If you press “record,” it starts recording. If you press “stop,” it stops. But it does lack a few refinements that are on the studio version of the recorder – there’s no pause and frame forward or back, for instance, and I’ve raised that as a feature request because it’s often useful to frame through takes to examine things like reflections. Other than that it is so beautifully simple – which is a kind way of saying it actually has very few features – that it’s hard to get wrong. There is no way to delete takes from the card, which is a very good idea in a world of capricious directors who think they’re a lot more objective on set than they are. There is no remote start, unfortunately, and although various features are available over USB via control software that probably isn’t a solution for the studio floor.

The only major problem I have with this device is that it insists on using disks formatted in the HFS+ filesystem to record. Without going into intricate detail, a filesystem is a standard according to which data is arranged on a storage medium such as a flash card or hard disk, and they’re often associated with particular operating systems – Windows PCs generally use NTFS, whereas Macs use HFS+. There is an older standard, FAT32, that’s used on compactflash cards in digital stills cameras because there are no software licensing issues with it and it is compatible with more or less any computer currently working. The problem with FAT32 is that the maximum filesize is limited to around four gigabytes, which you’d reach in something like thirty seconds at 1080p24 10-bit YUV. Therefore, Blackmagic had to choose one of the more modern filesystems for the Shuttle recorder. Personally, I’d have much preferred to see NTFS used, as it can be read by practically all modern PCs, Macs and Linux machines. Presumably there are software licensing issues with NTFS, but this does mean that all Windows people who want to use this device will need to pay another $40 per computer for the MacDrive software to access the disks. Blackmagic are coy about why this decision was made, which is odd. Apple have licensed things like the ProRes codec to other recorder manufacturers and one might cautiously assume that Apple’s interest in vendor lock-in may lurk behind the decision. An unfortunate inconvenience. If the recorder offered DPX sequence recording, FAT32 could have been used since no one file would be more than a few megabytes, but that would also limit the maximum overall disk size to 2TB (which is presumably an imminent possibility given the pace of SSD development). As it is only Quicktime movies in the uncompressed V210 codec are available.

There may be interesting things in the future for the Hyperdeck Shuttle. There’s a button (marked “Disp”) on the side which is currently unassigned, and intended for future updates. Also, the very best SSDs are actually now fast enough to store 4:4:4 RGB video at rates over 50fps and this is only likely to improve with time. The SDI hardware in the Shuttle recorder is capable of 3Gbps operation and therefore could theoretically support 4:4:4 RGB modes and increased frame rates in 4:2:2 and 720p modes. Eventually the SATA link, which uses only the older 300Mbps specification, will become the limiting factor here, but it could in theory record almost anything that would fit down a single link of 3 Gig SDI.

At the end of the day, the big deal on this is that the Hyperdeck Shuttle only costs about $300. That’s very, very keen pricing, for something that could be used on all but the pickiest high-end productions, and it would be possible to put a kit together of three 128GB SSDs (17 minutes or so each at 1080p24 10-bit 4:2:2) and the recorder, plus cables, for considerably less than $1,000, including a very nice flight case. The old issue of what you then do with the data springs to the fore, which would imply an LTO4 drive and a suitable host system, and of course a person to run all this stuff. But by doubling up on SSDs and assuming you’d back up in the hotel overnight, it’s possible to put together a working, insurable, high-end data recording solution for… well, less than I suspect Sony are going to charge for one SR Memory card.

Thanks go to Johnny Johnson at the Gear Factory (http://www.gearfactory.co.uk/gf ) for supplying the Panasonic AF-101 for this review.

Source: http://www.btlnews.com