ISSUE 04 // December 09
THE OPINION
3D TV – coming soon to a living room near you
Coming hot on the heels of its 3D user experience guide launched at IBC 2009 - the NAGRA Media GUIDE for 3D - ONLINE speaks to Howard Postley, CTO of 3ality Digital to discuss everything 3D.
Can you tell us about the NAGRA Media GUIDE for 3D and your involvement in it?
Our company, 3ality Digital, collaborated with Nagravision to develop its NAGRA Media GUIDE for 3D – we contributed our 3D content production expertise. Simply put, it’s a 3D interactive prototype that allows viewers to navigate the electronic programme guide from their pay-TV service to view and purchase 3D VOD content. It’s designed for operators who want to expand subscriber services and capitalise on the rapidly growing market for 3D content.
What will 3D mean for broadcasters?
3D has the opportunity to create a new, higher level of entertainment. Well-made 3D content can engage viewers in ways that 2D content can’t. It changes the process of deciding what content to experience and how to consume it. That’s a powerful offering for broadcasters, but they’ll need to apply it creatively to make it appeal to everyone.
Do you think broadcasters are excited and interested in 3D?
I think they are in general. But broadcasters have a lot of practical issues to deal with and 3D isn’t yet one of them. At the moment, 3D broadcasting doesn’t fit well with existing broadcast business models. But its time will come.
How did you first get involved in the 3D industry?
Just under 15 years ago, Steve Schklair [founder and CEO of 3ality Digital] and I started talking about the future of television, given the then-pending transition to digital. Both of us believed that HD didn’t really justify the transition and that something more was needed. Steve convinced me that 3D content, if made properly, had the potential to transform the media experience. He’s worked for the last decade to prove this. And I joined him to ease the transition from a project-based production business to a provider of 3D-enabling technologies.
What was the first 3D movie you remember seeing and where? Tell us about the experience...
Jaws 3D. It suffices to say that it didn’t do much to sell me on the value of a 3D experience!
What kind of content will be available in 3D within the next three years?
‘What should be done in 3D?’ is always an interesting question. The four obvious answers are sport, animated family movies, action movies and as a driver of new media technologies. Beyond those, however, it gets very interesting. At first glance it’s easy to believe that 3D doesn’t add much to things like dramatic content. However, we’ve seen that in the right creative hands it can add tremendously in quite subtle ways. Over three years the range of 3D content will expand dramatically, as directors explore and expand its boundaries.
Do you see a time when all movies will be made in 3D?
Yes, because when done properly, 3D takes nothing away and only adds to the experience. There are some technical hurdles right now, but these will be addressed in time.
Will 2D titles continue to be converted for 3D release or is this a passing fad?
The reason 2D content gets converted to 3D is that there’s not enough 3D content. The problem is that the process inherently dismisses the creative differences between 2D and 3D. They aren’t and generally shouldn’t be the same. I think that as more 3D content becomes available, the need to convert 2D to 3D will mostly disappear.
Could 3D gaming arrive in the home before movies and TV content?
I think it already has. The transition from 2.5D games to stereoscopic games is more straightforward than the transition of the more complex TV distribution chain. Also, since game views are mostly dynamic to begin with, the creative differences between 2D and 3D are easier to address. I think it’s safe to assume that the Ubisoft game based on Avatar will drive a surge of 3D displays sooner than the feature film will.
Tell us your thoughts on 3D user experiences and guides?
The whole 3D experience is an illusion. When done correctly, this illusion engages the mind and is far more immersive than 2D. However, anything that’s inconsistent with the 3D illusion either distracts from or destroys it. This is true of the content itself as well as the environment that surrounds it, such as a guide. In the home, it’s much more difficult to maintain the 3D illusion than in the cinema. In the worst case, if the 3D experience isn’t optimised for each display, it will eventually cause eye strain. Conversely, done properly, the results can be stunning.
How do you see 3D content being distributed in the home?
Basic distribution of 3D to the home is fairly easy – all the normal mechanisms can work fine. What’s really different is that we’re on the edge of a mass switch from John Malone’s ‘500-channel universe’ to a ‘one-channel universe’. Broadcast distribution as we know it, where you choose what to watch at or near the display, has become quite limiting as new content types and sources have expanded. That, in turn, has caused a lot of the new content to move to new types of distribution.
The other major factor for 3D TV is that it’s a less casual medium. You aren’t likely to have it on in the background. People will watch 3D content out of choice, and that choice will have a fundamentally higher value. In future, 3D won’t be thought of as separate from the rest of the industry but rather as the high-value tier within it. In the short term, 3D content will be focused on things that audiences are already willing to pay a premium for, such as live sport and concerts. Those types of events will act as ‘anchors’ and pave the way for a wider range of 3D content.
Is there a particular encoding and delivery solution that you see becoming the industry standard for 3D TV in the home?
This could be the dividing line between television standards of the past and of the future, and will essentially come down to which one has the best economics. The 3D distribution format doesn’t have much to do with which formats the display can handle. It’s also likely that 3D processing within the home will be done by a device other than the TV or display.
What are the next great obstacles for 3D TV in the home?
Right now, the issue is the poor availability and distribution of 3D displays and TVs. However, both of those issues are being addressed. The most common argument for why this isn’t happening faster is ‘we’re not sure whether people really want 3D’. The funny thing is that all you really have to do is show it to people. Most of the people who say that 3D is a fad have never seen modern 3D – they’re fixated on the very different 3D of the past. What we really need is more people saying ‘I want 3D!’.
What do you think about 2D to 3D conversions for the free TV, cable and pay-TV markets? Does this have merit and longevity for the industry?
This assumes that people won’t buy 3D TVs until there’s a lot of 3D content available – and that the answer is conversion. I disagree. Firstly, 3D TVs will be very good 2D TVs, unlike the early HDTVs that didn’t handle SD content well. Secondly, I don’t think that people want more 3D per se, but they want good 3D where the depth is adding something meaningful to the experience. It’s wrong to assume that adding depth to content created for 2D will make that result more desirable. The conversion will continue to happen but I think that, ultimately, it will become similar to colourisation.
What movie would you most like to see be remade in 3D?
That’s a tough one. The Matrix in 3D would be awesome. Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket? I think the point is that, when done well, 3D can engage the imagination more fully than 2D and so can transport the viewer more deeply into the experience.
What I really want to see is a lot more live sport in 3D. Football, golf, volleyball, skiing… I really don’t like being a spectator all that much so if I can’t play, I want to at least feel like I’m doing something more than just watching (even if that is all I am doing!). 3D offers a more engaging experience and it’ll be exciting to see just how it continues to develop.
For more information, please visit 3ality digital.
