ACS debuts 3D flown railcam

Sky Sports’ coverage of the Super League Grand Final from Old Trafford had a new rig last weekend in the form of a 3D flown railcam system. In previous years, ACS has successfully provided a 100m flown system for Sky Sports’ 2D coverage of the Grand Final using a HD Cineflex V14 stabilised camera mount, but this year Sky Sports upped the ante by requesting that ACS provide the same view but in 3D.

After further development and testing, ACS supplied a specially configured 3D gyro mount, comprising of a STAB-C Compact stabilised head mounted with an ET Pulsar rig in a side by side configuration and fitted with two Sony HDCP1 cameras and Canon HJ22 lenses. An ACS Telecast Copperhead fibre transmission system fitted to the railcam camera buggy allowed all signals and control data to be routed back to the OB via a single SMPTE cable.

The railcam operator and stabilised mount operator were positioned within the stand with a clear view of the pitch and the railcam itself, whilst full control from the convergence position in ACS’ dedicated 3D OB unit was carried out using a Sony MPE 200 3D processor to aid mechanical and optical alignment. Capable of moving at speeds up to 8m/second, not only did the track and mount play a significant part in Sky Sport’s 3D coverage of the game, it also featured heavily in the simultaneous 2D coverage of the event with a HD feed taken from the ‘left eye’ of the rig.