Grass Valley Simplify 3D Control

With Grass Valley cameras being the leading choice for studios and outside broadcast trucks worldwide, NAB2010 sees two major new innovations to further increase their flexibility. First, a unique fiber transmission system carries 1080p 3 Gb/s signals from the camera to the base station and into the production network; and second, a new 3D software enhancement of the standard camera control panel enables two cameras to be controlled simultaneously so that stereographic shaders can control 3D pairs of cameras from a single control panel.
The Grass Valley LDK Series family of cameras has always used a dockable concept, with the optics and digital signal processing in the front part of the camera and the transmission unit as a plug-on device. This has meant that cameras can be quickly switched from triax to fiber or wireless transmission without the need for separate camera systems and affecting the balance and handling of the camera.
The latest version of the fiber transmission system offers the capability for 1080p50 and 59.94 bandwidth, so with a single fiber adaptor the user of the LDK 8000 Elite WorldCam camera line can switch between 720p50/60, 1080i50/60, and now 1080p50/60. 1080p has been added without compromising any other functionality of the fiber interconnection, including an HD return video path and the ability to run up to 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) on SMPTE-standard hybrid fiber.
With the rapid rise in interest in stereoscopic 3D television acquisition, many producers are using conventional 2D trucks with conventional HD cameras such as the Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite. To help engineers maintain precise colour matching between stereo pairs of cameras, Grass Valley has developed a new software release for its OCP 400 camera control unit.
This allows the two cameras to be matched together, and then both cameras can be operated from a single control panel, behaving like a single camera with two outputs. For productions such as outdoor sporting events where the light level changes throughout the game, the ability to change iris and color temperature without creating a disparity between the two cameras in a stereo pair greatly simplifies the task of the video engineer.
"At Grass Valley our goal has always been to listen to our customers and deliver the products they need, at the time they need them," said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley. "1080p and stereoscopic 3D productions are where the minds of many of our customers are focused right now, and we have tools, deliverable today, which makes their lives easier, without massive re-equipping costs."
Industry experts believe that 3D-capable viewing technologies will be included with every consumer HDTV sold within three years.
The LDK 8000 Elite WorldCam with new fiber transmission system is already available and the 3D OCP software will be available in April as standard.
(BMcN)