A portrait of the Telegenic 3D OB Truck

Telegenic is a leading provider of outside broadcast vehicles and production crews specialising in the coverage of sports, music, business and general live-entertainment events within the UK, as well as Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Why choose Telegenic and Sony?

Whilst Telegenic is not a newcomer to 3D, Sky’s announcement this year that it was to launch a 3D channel in 2010 proved the watershed for mainstream interest and excitement in 3D broadcasting. This in turn has presented Telegenic with the unique opportunity to build an OB truck for Sky, capable of delivering new production methods and immersive live content in 3D.

The Sky OB truck provided the ideal opportunity for Telegenic to pair its in-depth expertise at delivering best of breed live production services with the professional services knowledge within Sony Professional. Telegenic was able not just to scope out the OB design and build but to take a fundamentally look at how to use technology to forge a tangible 3D workflow for Sky. All three parties undertook to revolutionise the live production process and the resulting OB truck houses a sophisticated environment which ensures each device within the production workflow supports the features required by the overall 3D process.

The technical details

The OB vehicle leverages the breadth of knowledge within Sony’s Professional Services and R&D divisions to deliver new products to manage the complicated issues at play in delivering live 3D. Telegenic opted to work with Sony Professional as its technology covered the entire 3D workflow, including 3D vision mixers, cameras, and the new MPE 200 processor box.

The partnership with Sony meant Telegenic was able to design a truck capable of true live 3D. The unit houses Sony’s HDC-1500R camera with a unique T-block option used on 3D camera rigs from 3ality to capture content. Driving the solution is the MVS-8000G Vision Mixer which handles Dual Stream stereo signals as if they were a single source, to deliver operational control similar to 2D productions to deliver a reliable production workflow.

Telegenic worked alongside Sky and Sony Professional during trials conducted over the past 18 months, to identify and deliver the right solution that removes the issues linked to capturing live content in 3D. Part of this process has included the creation of the MPE 200 processor box, designed to reduce the complexity of monitoring and correcting live signals in the truck.

One key difference in the new 3D live production environment is the arrival of new personnel on board the OB truck. A stereographer is required to monitor the left eye and right eye images to ensure that the image stays within acceptable parameters. It is the stereographer’s job to react to a changing situation immediately, correcting the image to ensure the viewer’s overall experience isn’t adversely affected. In that respect, the stereographer plays a similar role to colour matching teams, which are also required to monitor broadcast footage in real time, making tiny adjustments as they go to maintain depth and image quality.

Future of 3D

Telegenic believes this innovative outside broadcast solution will set the standard in 3D live production. New OB trucks like this will help support the delivery of live 3D content into homes. It is this point which Telegenic believes is in the interest of the entire industry. Fuelled by consumer adoption, a wave of interest in demand for live 3D broadcasts will commence. This in turn will drive considerable market demand for 3D OB trucks.