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On the level

In shooting 3D you naturally have two cameras and two lenses: albeit, there are some weird and wonderful single lens/single sensor contraptions out there. This usually means there are any number of ways each camera lens combination could be producing images with minor are major signal level differences. If these level differences are not dealt with...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

Thanks for the memory

If I need to impress on someone just how old I really am, I explain that my first computer had 32kB of Ram. Then we go through the “you mean 32 meg” “no, I mean 32 k” routine. It does seem implausible that, while I managed to write letters on my BBC Model B, today I need half a million times the memory to bash out columns for TV Bay. This is, of co...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

3D One year on

The month started with a trip to Sony to visit its very impressive 3D Customer Experience Centre where Paul Cameron (Training) gave a three-hour run down all about 3DTV production. This very compact version of Sony’s three-day course kept me on my toes. Early on he pointed out that 3D had been in favour, and then out, several times already, at abou...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2011

A little bit over the top

Vertical disparities in 3D stereoscopic images have several causes: principally they would be due to one camera being mounted such that its optical axis is higher than the other. Effectively, one eye could be seeing more over the top of objects than the other. The vertical registration is impaired and will cause headaches for any viewers as their e...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2011

Either meet your listeners halfway, or get them to come t...

In TV Bay’s IPTV & Online issue, I spoke about how streaming video online enabled content owners to share their work with the world a lot more effectively, so although the end result is the same, what technical procedures are different for streaming pure audio content?The pace of technical advancements have now established distinct requirements for...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 June 2011

Hands on an IPad 2

It’s been near on 1 year since the Apple iPad landed on planet earth. No one knew if it was going to be a success, sceptics were sure that the tablet format would be nothing more than a fad and that true portable computing still lay in the realms of the notebook pc's. However after 9 months and 12 million units sold, Apple of course, again, annoyin...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

My first direct experience of video post-production involved hauling a heavy Sony U-Matic tape machine up a flight of stairs before going back for an equally heavy playback deck, a bulky CRT monitor and a large box of interface giblets. That was in 1978. 33 years on, an Apple Mac does the whole editing job a great deal better, faster and more econo...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

3D Post at NAB, Wimbledon, and more

You may recall that last time 3D Diaries tackled the subject of post production in August 2010, it warned that the ‘fix it in post’ habit was definitely to be avoided. This means shoot it correctly in the first place, as trying to fix errors, especially the 3D ones, in post can get very tricky and, may be expensive. This remains the case even thoug...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

One Eyed 3D

The illusion of a single 3D image is created within the brain based on the spacial displacement of our two eyes. So how can you make a 3D production with one camera?The 3D stop frame animation feature film 'Coralline' was largely made with just one camera for each scene. The same DSLR camera was used to take left and right images successively. For...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

3D camera mirror rigs

3D camera mirror rigs will be around for a long time to come and contrary to popular belief, shooting in 3D is very easy with the right equipment. Entry level 3D mirror rigs made in the UK are now available, such as the manual Hurricane Rig developed by Alistair Chapman and the fully automated 'BINORIG' developed by us at Teletest Ltd. The key to a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Evaluating Video Monitors

Video monitors have always been a critical component in any broadcasting operation — but they have evolved significantly as the industry-wide migration from analog broadcast to digital SD and HD has placed new demands on the monitoring function. Current products include feature sets that mirror the complexity of today’s monitoring operations, with...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Not so Good Vibrations

When shooting with ordinary 2D, you can almost do what you like with camera dynamics. If you pan wildly from side to side or up and down, what you see through the viewfinder is what you will actually get. If there is going to be some camera shake or vibration, you can opt to switch in a stabiliser in the camera or the lens system. In 3D these are d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2010

TV Bay Questions

Who are you? (about yourself and Sequence)My name is Ben Foakes,29 years old and founder/ majority owner of Sequence. I work as an editor and post-supervisor as well as jointly running Sequence with my co-manager Kevin Chapman and our fantastic team of staff. The company was setup in June 2004, starting as a single home FCP suite and rapidly growin...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2010

The University of Sunderland

OverviewThe University of Sunderland School of Arts, Design and Media in Northeast England operates one of the country’s most vibrant and well-equipped media departments in the country. With a rating of excellence from the Quality Assurance Agency, the media and cultural studies department attracts a diverse group of students to its undergraduate a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2010

3D diaries -Fix it in post. Dont go there

The more I look into it the more scary 3D is. Researching for 3D Diaries shows there are so many pitfalls and traps that would be all too easy to fall into; enough to put people off the whole idea! The answer is simply to learn about the subject before seriously jumping in with both feet. Clearly it adds a whole new layer to all parts of the scene-...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2010