ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

SFP (Société Française de Production), one of the major technical facilities and service providers in France, has successfully performed its first 3D live wireless production with the help of Axon’s Synapse HXH160-module.

 

The HXH160 is a HD, SD up/down/cross-converter/synchroniser with audio shuffler and side-curtain processor. The side-curtain processing is highly flexible and configurable, enabling some set-ups that are very useful for 3D production.SFP, part of the Euro Media Group and a specialist in the area of mobile wireless coverage of large outdoor sporting events, was the first company to cover a major French cycling race fully in HD in October 2006. This year, the same cycling event reportedly marked another achievement by SFP — a live 3D HD coverage from a motorbike.

For the event, a motorbike was equipped with a HD stereoscopic camera system provided by Binocle, a French company specialising in 3D shooting. Binocle had designed and manufactured especially for this event a rig to obtain a proper stereo-scopic view to capture the 3D images of the race. It also set the correct parameters for a comfortable and spectacular 3D shooting.

For the 3D transmission, the two signals (“left eye” and “right eye” sources) were combined into one HD-SDI video stream. This was done by squeezing both pictures to an anamorphic half-horizontal size and combining them to one (side-by-side) video signal. The signal is fully compatible with the standard HD MPEG transmission system and also can directly be fed to standard 3D consumer TV sets, which then will create the 3D effect.

The Axon HXH160, which was mounted onto the motorbike, performed this task for SFP. It furthermore did the required synchronisation of the two streams. The HXH160 is also available without the integrated audio shuffler (HXH150) and in a 3Gbps version (GXG150 and GXG160).

“Axon, like SFP, is at the forefront of innovation,” said Luc Geoffroy, CTO at Euro Media Group. “Axon presented the 3D solution at this year’s IBC and therefore we turned to them when we required technical assistance for our 3D project. Axon came up very quickly with a compact and portable solution suitable for use on the motorbike.” He continued: “The project was a great success resulting in some astounding 3D footage. This breakthrough allows us to seriously consider 3D for future live outdoor sporting events.”

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