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3D Cameras and 3D Players

Manufactured by: Shanghai Toposun Industries Co., Ltd.

Compact 3D Digital Camera SDC-821	3D Portable Media Player Without Glasses (TPS-SDP-960)	3D Multi-Media Player (TPS-SDP-818B)	3D Multi-Media Player (TPS-SDP-818B

World’s Smallest 3D Full HD Display

Short history of 3D market development in recent years

2008:

• As of 2008, 3D programming is broadcast on Japanese cable channel BS 11 approximately four times per day.
• Cablevision launched a 3D version of its MSG channel on March 24, 2010, available only to Cablevision subscribers on channel 1300.  The channel is dedicated primarily to sports broadcasts, including MSG’s 3D broadcast of a New York Rangers-New York Islanders game, limited coverage of the 2010 Masters Tournament, and (in cooperation with YES Network) a game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners.

2010:

• The first Australian program broadcast in high-definition 3D was Fox Sports coverage of the soccer game Australia-New Zealand on 24 May 2010.
• Also in Australia, the Nine Network and Special Broadcasting Service will be bringing the State of Origin (matches on 26 May, 16 June and 7 July 2010) (Nine) and FIFA World Cup (SBS) in 3D on Channel 40 respectively.
• Earlier this year (2010) Discovery Communications, Imax and Sony announced plans to launch a 3D TV channel in the US with a planned launch in early 2011. At the same time, a Russian company Platform HD and its partners – General Satellite and Samsung Electronics – announced about their 3D television project, which would be the first similar project in Russia.
• In Brazil Rede TV! became the first Terrestrial television to transmit 3D signal freely for all 3D enabled audience on 21 May. But despite their technology, its programming is still in poor quality.
• Starting on June 11, 2010, ESPN launched a new channel, ESPN 3D, dedicated to 3D sports with up to 85 live events a year in 3D.
• On 1 January 2010, the world’s first 3D channel, SKY 3D, started broadcasting nationwide in South Korea by Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting. The channel’s slogan is “World No.1 3D Channel”. This 24/7 channel uses the Side by Side technology at a resolution of 1920x1080i. 3D contents include education, animation, sport, documentary and performances.
• A full 24 hour broadcast channel was announced at the 2010 Consumer Electronics show as a joint venture from IMAX, Sony, and the Discovery channel. The intent is to launch the channel in the United States by year end 2010.

DirecTV and Panasonic plan to launch 2 broadcast channels and 1 Video on demand channel with 3D content in June 2010. DirecTV previewed a live demo of their 3D feed at the Consumer Electronics Show held January 7–10, 2010.

Europe:

• British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) launched a limited 3D TV broadcast service on April 3, 2010.
• Transmitting from the Astra 2A satellite at 28.2° east, Sky 3D broadcast a selection of live UK Premier League football matches to over 1000 British pubs and clubs equipped with a Sky+HD Digibox and 3D Ready TVs, and preview programmes provided for free to top-tier Sky HD subscribers with 3D TV equipment.
• This was later expanded to include a selection of films, sports, and entertainment programming launched to Sky subscribers on 1 October 2010.
• On September 28, 2010, Virgin Media launched a 3D TV on Demand service.
• Several other European pay-TV networks are also planning 3D TV channels and some have started test transmissions on other Astra satellites, including French pay-TV operator Canal+ which has announced its first 3D channel is to be launched in December 2010.
• Also the Spanish Canal+ has started the first broadcastings on May 18, 2010 and included 2010 FIFA World Cup matches in the new Canal+ 3D channel. Satellite operator SES Astra started a free-to-air 3D demonstration channel on the Astra satellite at 23.5° east on May 4, 2010 for the opening of the 2010 ANGA Cable international trade fair using 3D programming supplied by 3D Ready TV manufacturer Samsung under an agreement between Astra and Samsung to co-promote 3D TV.

Satellite 3D: As of November 2010, there were eight 3D channels broadcasting to Europe from three Astra satellite positions, including demonstrations provided by Astra, pay-TV from BSkyB, Canal+ and others, and the Dutch Brava3D cultural channel, which provides a mix of classical music, opera and ballet free-to-air across Europe from Astra 23.5°E.

2011: In April 2011, HIGH TV, a 3D family entertainment Channel launched.

List of 3D Channels

(by wikipadia.org)

What is National 3D Demo Days?
National 3D Demo Days is a nationwide campaign powered by CEA and ESPN 3D to help educate consumers about 3D technology and how they can bring that experience into their home. National 3D Demo Days will take place the weekend of September 10-12, 2010, at participating CEA member retailers across the country.

CEA retail members who join the campaign will have special access to a variety of marketing and communication resources to help highlight their participation in National 3D Demo Days. During National 3D Demo Days, ESPN 3D will provide continuous 3D programming to retail outlets across the country from 10 a.m. – 11p.m. ET.

Check out our list of participants.

How can retailers get involved?
CEA retail members have the opportunity to join National 3D Demo Days by agreeing to hold 3D demos at their locations during the weekend of September 10-12, 2010. 3D Demo Days will offer retailers the opportunity to give their customers an experience they can’t get anywhere else. Even if a customer isn’t ready to purchase a 3DTV, retailers can take the opportunity to demonstrate audio and other products that will enhance a customer’s current entertainment experience at home.

How will CEA promote participating retailers?
All participating retailers will be listed on CEA’s DigitalTips.org website as participants of National 3D Demo Days, where consumers can locate retailers in their area who are giving 3D demos. CEA will also be conducting other national promotions for the event.

How can manufacturers get involved?
CEA manufacturer members have the opportunity to support National 3D Demo Days by agreeing to help promote the event through their existing promotional channels.

What resources will CEA provide participants?
Participating members will have access to a special members-only section of CEA’s website where they will find a toolkit and other resources to help retailers and manufacturers promote 3D Demo Days. Items included in the tool kit will include:

• Frequently asked questions and answers your sales team should know
• Relevant research studies about consumers’ knowledge of and expectations about 3DTV
• Sample press releases
• Sample radio ad script
• Direct mail postcards and e-mail postcards
• In-store fliers and signage
• Web banner ads
• Promotion checklist with suggested tweets and Facebook messages

How can my company get involved?
CEA members should visit the members-only campaign website for more information, get access to the tool kit and other resources, and complete the form to sign up your business to participate. Contact Kerry Moyer at kmoyer@CE.org with any questions.

Non-members who are interested in joining CEA can contact Victor Furnells at vfurnells@CE.org or 703-907-7562.

DirecTV shows 3D coverage of US Open Tennis:

September 1, 2010
For the first time, tennis fans will be able to watch the world’s top players battle it out for the prestigious 2010 US Open title in 3D, only on DIRECTV. DIRECTV and Panasonic will deliver live 3D coverage, exclusively on n3D™ powered by Panasonic (Ch. 103).

Throughout Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-6, n3D will air CBS Sports’ center court coverage of both the men’s and women’s third and fourth rounds from 11am to 6pm ET each day. DIRECTV will also broadcast coverage of the semifinal and final rounds on:

• Sept. 10 from 12:30pm to 6pm ET
• Sept. 11 from 12:00pm to 6pm ET and 8pm to 11pm ET
• Sept. 12 from 4pm to 7pm ET

Immediately following the East Coast broadcast, DIRECTV will re-air matches played throughout the day.

“Watching the US Open in 3D gives DIRECTV tennis fans a court-side view of the tournament’s most highly anticipated matches,” said Derek Chang, executive vice president of Content Strategy and Development for DIRECTV. “Our 3D broadcast will bring every serve, volley and passing shot to life in viewers’ living rooms, giving them a completely different perspective on the game. Coming off of our successful 3D broadcast of the 2010 MLB All-Star Game earlier this summer, we are excited to offer the first 3D tennis event exclusively on DIRECTV and look forward to providing our DIRECTV Serves Up Exclusive 3D Tennis Experience customers with even more compelling 3D content that they can’t get anywhere else.”

Panasonic and DIRECTV will also provide the US Open semifinal and final matches live in 3D to hundreds of TV retail outlets nationwide, including Best Buy stores, as part of the Sept. 10-12 “National 3D Demo Days” organized by the Consumer Electronics Association.

In addition to the 3D broadcast, DirecTV will continue to deliver the DirecTV 2010 US Open Experience, a free, interactive service that will offer more than 550 hours of live tennis action, more than doubling the 250 hours available on ESPN2, Tennis Channel, and CBS, the event’s broadcast partners. DirecTV’s exclusive television coverage (on Channels 701-708) delivers up to 140 extra matches that cannot be seen anywhere else, with five extra court channels – all in HD – in addition to the main network feed on DirecTV’s innovative six-on-one-screen Mix Channel. Each live court channel will feature natural sound and commentary from tennis experts and former touring pros. More DirecTV US Open programming information is available by visiting DirecTV.

n3D™ powered by Panasonic is now available at no additional cost to millions of DirecTV HD customers. In addition to 3D events such as the 2010 MLB All-Star Game, the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 race and ESPN’s 3D coverage of the Summer X Games 16, n3D customers will also have access to exclusive, original 3D programming such as Guitar Center Sessions with Peter Gabriel and Jane’s Addiction.

DIRECTV HD customers received a free software upgrade that enables them to have access to the 3D channels on DirecCTV. DirecTV HD customers will need a 3D television set and 3D glasses to view 3D programming on DirecTV.

Korea’s largest theatre chain has chosen Burbank-based 3D technology company MasterImage 3D, LLC to converted 58 additional screens to 3D.

MasterImage 3D announced today that CJ CGV is converting all the rest of its 160 3D theaters to its digital 3D cinema systems and that MasterImage 3D has also installed four systems in Korea’s Lotte Cinema in Suncheon.

• These installations, combined with existing systems at Primus Cinema, Ya Woo Ri Cinemas and more theatres across Korea, bring MasterImage’s total to 175 of the country’s estimated 250 digital 3D screens, more than 70% of Korea’s total 3D exhibition market share.
• CGV Manager Sung woo Kang said, “MasterImage 3D’s system offers an outstanding value compared to other products on the market, and it is simple to install.”

CJ CGV recently opened a 3D screen in L.A. for advancing into the U.S. market.

MasterImage 3D, which also recently entered the New Zealand exhibition market with the sale of its first digital 3D cinema system to the nation’s largest multiplex franchise, Palmerston North-based Downtown Cinemas, says it has nearly doubled its worldwide installation in the past eighteen months and has installed more than 1,800 systems in 40 countries worldwide — approximately 400 in the US, 770 in Europe and 700 in Asia and the rest of the world.

“Exhibitors are recognizing that our ownership-based model and passive-glasses approach offers them a different, and often more attractive business proposition than competitive systems,” said Younghoon Lee, founder, chairman and CEO of MasterImage 3D. “From our US headquarters and offices in Asia and Europe we are aggressively converting theatre markets all over the world.”

CJ CGV was established as a joint venture of CJ Group of Korea, Golden Harvest of Hong Kong and Village Roadshow of Australia, and is now independently managed by CJ Group.

By Scott Hettrick

3D NEXT SUMMIT TAKING PLACE JUNE 14TH

Future of 3D for Films, TV, Video. Games. MObile, and the Internet

LOS ANGELES – On Monday, June 14, top executives from companies such as DirecTV, Fox Sports, Panasonic, Sony and Imax will headline the first annual 3DNext Summit. The event (www.3d-next.com) will take place at the Radisson Westside in LA, and will serve as a window into 3D’s future, looking at how 3D is transforming the business and creative process across a variety of entertainment disciplines. (6/11/2010)

Attendees will be able to view 3D demos featuring the latest 3D television screens, camera rigs, content, workflow solutions, and conversion products. The one-day event will feature a fireside chat with DirecTV senior VP Steven Roberts and Fox Sports president Eric Shanks. Keynotes include Eisuke Tsuzaki, CTO of Panasonic of America; Buzz Hays, senior VP and GM at the Sony 3D Technology Center; and Lenny Lipton, CEO of Oculus3D.

More than a dozen additional 3D experts from throughout the industry will also be speaking, and attendees will have the opportunity to network with speakers during lunch and a cocktail reception at the end of the day.

Whether you were one of 300 executives who attended 3D Next or missed it, now you can view the entire conference program! View video streaming right from your own computer, complete with MP3 Downloads and PowerPoint Slides.

Hey, 3D enthusiasts, filmmakers and professionals: Not so fast.

That was one of the main messages that emerged from the 3DNext Summit in Culver City on Monday. Although the all-day gathering of content providers, tech suppliers and the merely curious might be expected to be a non-stop celebration of the possibilities of the medium, in fact much of the conference called for a more measured response.

• “Avatar,” for instance, was frequently celebrated as the film that showed what 3D can do – but coming in a close second in mentions was the format’s main cautionary tale, “Clash of the Titans,” which came up again and again as an example of the kind of slipshod 3D that could lead to a backlash and damage the growth of the technology.

• “’Clash of the Titans’ is important here,” said Brian Rogers, the producer of an upcoming 3D version of “Godzilla,” “because it made the industry realize that you cannot do substandard 3D and charge full pricing.”

On the other hand, pointed out his fellow panelist Bob Johnston from Paradise Effects, “Clash” made enough money – close to $500 million worldwide – that it’ll be getting a sequel, albeit one that’s being shot in 3D rather than converted quickly.

“Avatar,” insisted IMAX Filmed Entertainment chairman and president Greg Foster, should not be used as an example of what the industry should do with 3D.

• “It has that secret sauce that only one movie in a generation has,” Foster said.
• “For most of us in the 3D space, using ‘Avatar’ as any kind of benchmark is really a mistake.
• It’s such an outlier on so many levels.
• ”The world of 3D, added Foster, does resemble the wild west, a frequent metaphor – “but to me, it’s more like bedlam.”

Foster was part of a panel entitled “Next Steps for 3D Film,” during which most of the panelists advised some caution in taking those next steps. While “stereographer” Keith Collea (“The Mortician”) was the sole panelist to insist that all movies could easily work in the new format, Ben Urquhart, the VP of post-production for Focus Features, said that he couldn’t think of a single title in his studio’s upcoming slate of productions that would be suited to the format.

• And Foster advised particular caution in converting movies shot in 2D, which his company had done sparingly for 3D IMAX versions of Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” and the last two ”Harry Potter” movies.
• “You have to be very, very careful of how you do it,” he said. “And 2D-to-3D conversion is really, really, really expensive, especially to do it the right way.”

In a later panel, Rob Hummel, the president of Prime Focus, revealed just how expensive that is – and just how reluctant studios are to spend the money to convert their catalog product for upcoming 3D television broadcasts.

• “Conversion on a feature film is generally running $55,000 to $100,000 a minute,” he said.

Become a 3D Ninja:  Stand Out From the Crowd with Top Skills 3D Art Studios Want

By Steve Pond
Published: June 15, 2010

Ordinarily, the opinion of a one-hit songwriter might not matter much in the world of entertainment technology – but in this case, the songwriter who penned the lyrics to Peter, Paul and Mary’s classic at the age of 19 also happens to be the so-called father of 3D cinema, and the closest thing to a rock star that the field has to offer.

Lenny Lipton, the songwriter and 3D guru in question, gave the closing keynote address at Monday’s 3DNext Summit in Culver City, where his status as a 30-year stereoscopic-cinema veteran responsible for a variety of innovations made him the biggest celebrity on the program.

And in contrast to many of those who’d preceded him preaching caution, Lipton was adamant that the future is 3D, and the future is now.

The reason: money.

• “People won’t admit it, but it’s all over for 2D cinema,” said Lipton, who holds more than 40 patents in the field of stereoscopic cinema and wrote the book “Foundations of Stereoscopic Cinema” in 1982. “And it’s not for creative reasons. It’s for business reasons.”
• Bussinessmen in the entertainment industry, Lipton said, have always embraced “new modalities” that allow them to increase prices. “There are remarkable parallels between the introduction of the sound cinema and the stereoscopic cinema,” he said, displaying a chart that also included the innovations of motion, sound, color, widescreen and stereoscopic
• “In every case, exhibitors are able to charge more money. And that’s why 3D cinema isn’t going away.
• “You can’t turn off color, you can’t turn off sound, you can’t turn off 3D, and you can turn off the up-charge.”
• After stints at the StereoGraphics Corporation, which he founded in 1980, and later at RealD, Lipton has now founded a new company, Oculus3D, which has created a 3D theatrical format that can use 35 mm projectors rather than requiring the more expensive digital projection equipment.
• His stats: outfitting 100 screens with digital 3D costs $1.5 million, while 100 screens using the Oculus 3D 35 mm technology runs $230,000.
• “If I’m right, and stereoscopic cinema becomes ubiquitous, does that mean all the smaller theaters go out of business?” he asked. “They need a solution, and they can’t afford digital.”

Among the other topics Lipton touched on in his half-hour talk:

• Cinema, along with photography and other visual arts, has always been three-dimensional.
• In the past, he pointed out, we got our cues about depth from the placement of objects, from vanishing points and perspective, from relative sizes.
• “The addition of the stereoscopic depth cue is an evolution rather than an innovation.”

Stereoscopic 3D is not new. Lipton showed a drawing of a 1923 movie theater using the “Teleview” system (left) to create a stereo image when viewed through special lenses – “the exact same idea,” he said, that was applied by Lipton and his colleagues in the early 1980s, and is currently used by systems like RealD.

By Steve Pond
Published: July 21, 2010

3D may be the bright shining future of the movie business, but at the moment it just isn’t bright enough. That’s not a metaphor. It’s the plain truth.

• 3D movies — whether they’re made using the process or converted in post-production — are simply screened at significantly lower light levels than 2D films.
• More and more often, it’s enough to hamper audience enjoyment, make filmmakers wary, and perhaps even slow down the acceptance of a format that is one of the movie industry’s great hopes for the future.
• When Roger Ebert blasted 3D in an article in Newsweek, for instance, one of the reasons he listed for disliking the format was “its image is noticeably darker than standard 2D.”

Even a movie like “Avatar,” which was shot in 3D using techniques that boosted the amount of light and compensated for the darkening process to come, was screened at light levels about half of a run-of-the-mill 2D film.
And the problems are exacerbated when a movie — like the disastrous “Clash of the Titans” — is made with no thought of 3D and hastily converted after-the-fact. “Titans”appeared so muddy that it prompted walkouts and no doubt scared some theatergoers away from the 3D experience entirely.

(Fewer and fewer moviegoers are making the 3D choice when they plunk down their money at the box office; see sidebar: “The Rise and Fall of 3D.”)

At the Hero Complex Film Festival in downtown Los Angeles in June, “Inception” director Christopher Nolan joined the 3D naysayers, saying that he refused to make his new film in the format largely because of the darkness problem.

• “On a technical level, it’s fascinating,” Nolan said of 3D, “but on an experiential level, I find the dimness of the image extremely alienating.”
• The 3D process, Nolan said, makes “a massive difference” in the brightness of the image. “You’re not aware of it because once you’re in that world, your eye compensates – but having struggled for years to get theaters get up to the proper brightness, we’re not sticking polarized filters in everything.”
• Nolan also got into the numbers, using “foot-lamberts” – the unit of luminance by which screen brightness is measured – to explain the difference between regular and 3D projection. But when he said that traditional 2D cinema is projected at 16 foot-lamberts, but 3D automatically loses three foot-lamberts, he was grievously underestimating the 3D effect.

In fact, a typical 3D system can lose as much as 80 percent or more of the light from a 2D system on the same screen, and result in an image projected at only two or three foot-lamberts.

“I think it’s a major problem for the audience appreciation of 3D,” says Lenny Lipton, a pioneer in the field since the early 1980s. “The principal complaint that audience members and industry people make is that it’s too dark.”

By Adam Frucci

Earlier today I reported on the unlikelihood that the next Batman movie will be in 3D. But is that a fluke or part of a trend? If box office numbers are any indication, it’s definitely the latter.

• Since the high-water mark of Avatar, where 71% of the revenue came from 3D screenings, numbers for big-budget 3D movies have plummeted to less than 50%.
• Obviously Avatar was a unique case in that it was basically sold as a 3D “experience,” so if you saw it in 2D you were missing out. But then three months later the animated How to Train Your Dragon pulled in 68% of its revenue from 3D screens, hardly a significant drop-off.
• Fast forward a mere four months and you have Despicable Me, another 3D animated kids movie, pulling in 45% of its revenue from 3D screens. As you can see by The Wrap’s chart below, it’s a pretty clear trend.

What’s this mean?

• It means that now that people have had a chance to experience 3D in theaters, they’re opting to spend $10 on a 2D screening rather than $15 on a 3D screening when given the option.
• It’s not great news for Hollywood studios that have sunk boatloads of money into 3D cameras and tech, but it’s much, much worse news for consumer electronics companies such as Sony and Panasonic who are betting the farm on people wanting to upgrade two-year-old HDTVs to 3D HDTVs.
• But if Hollywood finds that making 3D movies isn’t as profitable as they thought, they’ll stop doing it. And without that content, no one will have any reason to buy a 3D TV.

Sucks for them, but it’s good news for consumers who are voting with their wallets. No more inflated ticket prices and no need to buy a new TV for a feature no one ever really wanted? Sounds good to me. [The Wrap via Ebert]