Grass Valley HD Switchers Captivate Live 3D

A leading broadcasting products and services company has produced one of the most popular technologies of choice for live sports broadcasts.
With a rich history serving the broadcast and professional video industries, the recently launched Grass Valley high-end Kalypso HD and the new Kayenne video production centre switchers now both include features that make them ideally suited to the unique demands of live production of 3D telecasts.
To date, at least three major live sports productions were produced using Kalypso HD switchers and more are planned for this year.
The Kalypso HD and Kayenne switchers both include such features as DoubleTake. This split M/E mode allows operators to partition primary and secondary M/E channels to synchronise images producing true stereoscopic 3D effects and buss linking.
By using these tools, live 3D production is as straightforward as 2D production.
"The goal for most live 3D productions is to keep the production tools as easy to use as they are for a traditional live broadcast, without adding unnecessary extra posts," said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley.
"Both the Kalypso and Kayenne switchers are very capable of producing complex 3D shows with minimal training today and have already been used to produce some of the finest 3D effects we've seen.
"With newer features yet to come, we will make this process even easier as more projects are produced in 3D," he said.
The Kalypso switcher features four keyers per M/E, so for true 3D production, the two additional background busses (Utility 1 and Utility 2) are used in addition to the A and B busses normally used for an M/E effect.
This process is made even better on the new Kayenne switcher, that provides an additional half M/E and six keyers on each M/E buss. In this case more M/Es and more keyers mean more resources available for a mix effect and as much layering capability as a typical 2D production.
The Buss Linking feature when used in tandem with DoubleTake allows you to track or shadow the primary feed and keep all of the 3D elements in perfect synchronisation.
With M/Es split and linked busses, left-eye and right-eye content is automatically switched in parallel with all resources available.
Depending upon the 3D processing system in use, some of the 3D productions being done don't need the DoubleTake feature and can be handled as a standard single feed, four M/E production.
This was the case in December of 2008, when a live 3D telecast of a National Football League (NFL) game from San Diego was broadcast to theatres in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York using the Kalypso HD switcher on board a Cross Creek Television production truck (HDV8). The telecast was designed and captured by 3Ality Digital, a 3D specialist in Burbank, California.
(BMcN/BMcc)