LOOKING AHEAD

Nagravision sets its sights on 3D TV

Frank Dreyer, global team lead for consumer electronics, creative at Nagravision outlines its journey into 3D TV.

As part of our global user experience and GUI (graphical user interface) product development programme, we’ve set up a creative team to develop GUI-enabled products for TVs, PCs and mobile devices. One project we’ve been researching since the beginning of the year is how to incorporate the 3D stereoscopic video experience in the home. While there’s a lot of hype in the industry around 3D, we actually consider 3D TV to be the next logical step for HD.

The 3D market is still emerging and it’s a good time for us to explore and decide on the best solutions to bring 3D to the home, while also making it commercially available to operators.

So far we’ve developed a prototype user experience to determine the optimal user experience for 3D TV. Our next steps are to select partners to help us integrate 3D into our existing and future products.

Our prototype was shown at IBC and at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles in September. The response was overwhelmingly positive and there’s now a real head of steam for deploying 3D TV in the home.

For this first prototype we converted our new NAGRA Media GUIDE v2 user interface to include a 3D TV component. During this process we learned that what works in 2D doesn’t directly translate to 3D. So we partnered with a leading 3D technology company called 3ality Digital – based in Burbank, CA – to help us decide how the guide will project in 3D and interact with live content, using broadcast channels and video on-demand (VOD). To read the full interview with Howard Postley, CTO of 3ality Digital, please click here.

We’re currently expanding the user experience prototype to include more features, which will show operators what a ‘true’ 3D TV experience in the home can achieve. We’re continuing to evaluate, test and determine the best 3D technology solutions for operators.

An enhanced version of our 3D Guide will be on show at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and we hope to see you there to give you a taste of a 3D experience as we’ve developed it so far.

Additional web links

Sneak Leek: 3-D TV menu surprisingly complicated
Eliot Van Buskirk // 6 October 2009
© Wired

Getting 3D at home, without the glasses
Sarah McBride // 16 September 2009
© Wall Street Journal