Philips Patents new Method for Stereoscopic Rendering
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Eindhoven, NL) has been issued patent number US8422801.This patent was filed on December 17, 2008 and was published online on April 16, 2013. In the claims, Philips describes a new method for encoding stereoscopic images in a standard TV feed (on satellite, cable, or Blu-ray discs).
Imcube 'Future-Proof' 3D Conversion Option
Imcube Labs (Berlin, Germany) is expanding its 2Dto 3D conversion services to comply with H265/3D-HEVC standard for 3D images transmission. With that option, 3D broadcast streams become future-proof as they include the depth maps required by autostereoscopic no-glasses screens to generate their multiple views. This will become more and more important now that 4K LCD panels are paving the way to decent glasses-free stereoscopic screens.
China Beijing TV's New 3D OB-Van
China Beijing Television is ramping up its 3D production and distribution infrastructure. In this scope, SONY Professional Solutions developed a full HD 3D TV outside broadcast (OB) van -the first in China apparently- architectured around a unified 2D plus stereoscopic 3D workflow. SONY provides aslo shoulder stereoscopic cameras, mixers and various equipment.
EVS Broadcast Equipment (Liège, Belgium) has equipped their new new 3D OB van with XT3 servers as well as IPDirector and XFile software.
A truckload of 3D Equipment
The new truck is designed as a general purpose unit but will primarily be used for sports production, enabling the network to cost effectively capture and broadcast sporting events in both 2D and stereoscopic 3D. The state-of-the-art OB truck is equipped with 10 HD cameras, including two Sony 3D cameras and two super slow motion cameras. Six of the cameras can be combined to create three 3D cameras.
EVS’ flexible XT3 servers can be configured to support both HD production, and simultaneous 2D and 3D production. For simultaneous 2D and 3D production with five stereoscopic 3D camera rigs and four 2D cameras, the XT3 servers are used in a six-channel 3D configuration. One switcher produces the 2D signal while the other operates in 3D mode. The Sony switcher’s DVE board combines the 2D camera signals to create 3D signals.
3DZ Tile Broadcast Format Solves Lot of Issues
We announced in December 2010 the 3D TILE stereoscopic 3D broadcast format launched by SISVEL (Italy). Now SISVEL is making the headlines again with a new variant of their clever way to squeeze a stereoscopic 3D 720p stream in a single 1080p channel. The new transmission scheme is dubbed "3DZ Tile Format" because it includes now a quarter-resolution depth map making display on any glasses-free 3DTV possible. Details and sample here under.
One of the magic of the 3DZ Tile format is that it has an MPEG4 parameter called "cropping rectangle" set to 720p size. This means that any good old decoder sees only the top left rectangle of the 1080p 3DZ frame and displays that as a 2D 720p picture; Everything looks like a standard 2D video. However, on a decoder including the 3DZ codec, the right image is reconstructed from its parts stacked on the bottom and on the right of the left image so it is able to display a proper stereoscopic 3D video.
A New HD 3D Format and Technology
Dolby (USA) and Philips (The Netherlands) have jointly created a stereoscopic 3D format and content delivery technology, dubbed Dolby 3D. The new format enables stereoscopic HD 3D content on any 3D device display - including autostereoscopic glasses-free displays. The technology automatically optimizes video for different screen sizes and even ups the resolution of "half-resolution" passive 3D to full resolution.
The two leading companies have undertaken the joint project to improve the 3D viewing experience on displays of all sizes, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, and televisions. Dolby 3D is a complete system designed to work throughout the chain to deliver clear glasses-free 3D content that operates over existing distribution systems. 
