Live from NAB – Day Three Digest
A slightly truncated digest today, as we have a bit of a SVG Exclusive on our hands, which saw SVG associate editor, Jason Dachman, sit down with James Cameron and Vince Pace to discuss the state of 3D sports production amongst other things in a detailed, forty-minute conversation.
You can read the SVG Exclusive: One-on-One with James Cameron and Vince Pace here, but for the moment here’s a brief snippet:
SVG: What can we expect from the new Cameron-Pace Group? Will you have any product releases in the near future?
Pace: Some of our IP (intellectual property) has come through with some of the technology that we used for Avatar. I think you’re going to see a much more automated process for the camera systems to deliver a better result in stereo without direct participation of a crew. It is almost a given that the systems will go into a self-calibrating and self-aligning mode in the near future.
Cameron: We will have a suite of new software and hardware tools based on the IP that we’ve just successfully papered, which is based on those [automation] principals. It is essentially a smart camera that works out the stereo space for you without an excessive number of humans in the loop to do it.
Beyond the draw that the new CPG exerted, our team of scribes were kept busy throughout the day at the LVCC as the news continued to flow and the opinions kept on coming. Sony’s Alec Shapiro, Sony Professional Solutions of America senior vice president, for instance pointed to the company’s new reference-grade OLED monitors as the biggest game changer in Sony’s NAB portfolio. And for good reason: it’s the first flat-panel monitor that can truly lay claim to the CRT monitor crown for reference work. “We’re really pleased that, for the first time in a long time, a professional monitor is the hit of our show,” says Shapiro. “It’s only the first month of the fiscal year and we are already close to making budget for the year based on the number of OLED monitor order we have taken. It’s been a resounding success.”
Over at Panasonic, meanwhile, Steve Cooperman, Panasonic Solutions Company, project manager, was singing the praises of the new AG-3DP1 3D camcorder. “The 3DA1 is an awesome camera and came out at the right time because it took care of pretty complex controls and allowed the users to concentrate on things like adjusting convergence,” says Cooperman. “But the next step is the 3DP1 and it brings full resolution 1920×1080 to each eye which is a huge advantage. And with 10-bit recording all of the color, movement and action can be captured.”
And lastly for today, Harris Morris, president of Harris Broadcast, was highlighting the versatility of the company’s new Selenio Media Convergence Platform, which he refers to as a new product category, one designed to bring in baseband video signals into a 3RU box and then create IP-based signals that can serve new needs like 3D, 3G, mobile, and HD. “It allows for new revenue models to be tested to find out what is working without making an investment in new infrastructure,” he says.