NAB 2012: Assorted Snapshots

NAB is too big a show in too short a time to see more than a fraction of it. I’ve covered a few things in some depth (as have other PVC folks), but there’s plenty more that slips by without proper coverage. Here, I have a few photos of interesting things that I saw in passing, with pointers for more info should anything catch your fancy.

NAB Sunday: Panasonic and Sony Press Conferences

When big companies hold press conferences, they’re a mix of marketing / sales encomiums from happy customers, and some actual useful information about technologies and products. I’ll mostly focus on the tech stuff that Panasonic and Sony announced today (and adding my own snarky commentary in [square brackets]).

NAB 2012:  Sony Press Conference

The annual Sony NAB press conference was held at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel, with a setting that seemed to be a bit less grandiose than previous years.  Perhaps this is fitting considering that Sony recently announced as many as 10,000 layoffs coming in the near future.  But even without that hanging over the festivities, the announcements made by Senior Vice President for Broadcast & Production Systems Alec Shapiro were less than stellar, and at times even seemed pretty out of touch, at least to an old broadcast hand like me.

The overarching theme was “Believe Beyond HD,” and near the end of the presentation the spectre of 4K acquisition did rear it’s head.  However, the first three items presented were not 4K productions, but 3D.  Clips from the upcoming programs “Stormsurfers” and hip-hop competition “Battle Of The Year” were projected on a mid-sized screen, but oddly, even with the provided RealD glasses neither clip looked very 3D at all.  (And seeing one of the “Stormsurfers” surfers very obviously holding a GoPro camera on the end of a stick suggests, at least, that not *all* of the footage was shot on Sony cameras.)  Shapiro opined that 3D was growing by leaps and bounds, but at least in the home TV market, the just isn’t true, and might well be a big part of Sony’s current financial malaise.  The third 3D production mentioned was ESPN’s coverage of the X Games, but oddly, no clips were played - and I would REALLY have liked to seen those.

2D Footage with a Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects CS5.5

Adobe included a 1-step option to create a 3D Stereo Camera Rig in After Effects CS5.5, to everyone’s enthusiasm for a simpler workflow in 3D space. Great if you are working in 3D space in After Effects, but what about an easy option for 3D Stereo pairs captured by a 3D camera or twin cameras on a rig? In this tutorial I’ll show you how to quickly modify the Stereo 3D Rig in After Effects to quickly mux your L&R video files and adjust the convergence for anaglyph, interlaced or stereo pairs output.

Stereo 3D Video Production with GoPro

Whether you love it or hate it, 3D Stereography is here for awhile. And if you’re totally into it like I am, you quickly realize that there are few turnkey workflows out there to capture and process 3D Stereo video that’s easy to setup, shoot and edit Stereo pairs. Sure, there are a lot of high-end (expensive to rent) systems for two cameras to shoot, software to sync/mux the footage and rigs you can build to edit it, but GoPro has brought it together with a fun and easy-to-use system that anyone can use.

Eyeheight Announces CC-3D Stereoscopic Colour Corrector

Eyeheight announces the world’s first multi-rate stereoscopic 3D colour corrector. Designed for use in broadcast production, post-production and playout centres, the Eyeheight CC-3D allows both channels of a stereoscopic 3D pair to be corrected under common single control.

3D Compositing Fundamentals

When I tell people that Smoke has 3D compositing capabilities, I sometimes get a skeptical reaction – asking if I *really* mean 2 ½ D compositing.  So I end up explaining that in the case of Smoke, I really do mean TRUE 3D compositing.  Answering this question numerous times led to the development of my recent series of tutorials on 3D compositing using Action in Smoke.

Lytro is the new RAW?

If you aren’t familiar with Lytro, they are an innovative company that is very close to releasing a Light-Field Camera. This affordable consumer stills camera has the unique ability to calculate the angle of light hitting the sensor, and store that data along with the image data. Later, in post, you can refocus the image however you wish. It’s amazing technology, and there’s literally nothing like it in the consumer market. After watching an interview with Lytro’s CEO, it really got me thinking about the future possibilities of this technology as a creative tool for professionals…

JVC Unveils World’s First Handheld 4K Camcorder

JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced the GY-HMQ10, the world’s first handheld 4K camcorder, which captures, records, and plays video images at four times the resolution of high definition television. Powered by JVC’s Falconbrid large-scale integration (LSI) chip for high-speed signal processing and a 1/2-inch CMOS imager with 8.3 million active pixels, it delivers real-time 3840x2160 footage at 24p, 50p, or 60p.

JVC Introduces 24-Inch HD 3D Production Analysis Monitor

JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today introduced the DT-3D24G1U 24-inch HD 3D LCD production analysis LCD monitor. The latest addition to JVC’s Vérité G Series product line, the compact monitor supports virtually any 3D camera setting, with advanced measurement tools to confirm that left and right images have been properly aligned.

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