During the Tech Retreat, HPA took time out from the conference to roast for Mark Schubin (pictured, left), who chaired the event program. This included song (lyrics below) from the “Schubin Choir” (right). Some familiar faces?

Mark’s been working on the Opera
Like a bearded elf
Mark’s been working on an Emmy
Just to fill his trophy shelf

Donʼt ya hear the alarm clock ringing
Rise up for roundtables soon
Don’t you hear Mark’s horn shrieking
Time to go into the room!

Speaker start your speech
Speaker start your speech
Speaker start your speech on ti yi yime
Speaker start your speech
Speaker start your speed
Speaker start your speech on time
Markʼs been working on the Quizzes
Digging up weird history
Markʼs been polishing up the quizzes
He’s so full of obscurity!

Canʼt you feel the answers coming?
And just when it hurt your head
Canʼt you just see Gary Demos?
Answer them all instead!

Speaker end your speech
Speaker end your speech
Speaker end your speech right now ow ow
Speaker end your speech
Speaker end your speech
Speaker end your speech RIGHT NOW!

There might be a pending spectrum war, warned Jim Burger of Washington law firm Dow Lohnes.
At the HPA Tech Retreat, he reported that the wireless industry has urged the FCC to identify 800MHz of spectrum for mobile broadcasting.
Where will it come from?, Burger asked, pointing out that terrestrial broadcasting just transitioned to DTV.
He reported that the Stimulus Bill requires the FCC to submit a “National Broadband Plan” to Congress in March.
Getting chuckles from the HPA audience, he added that an FCC spokesperson said spectrum reallocation would be “voluntary.”

Professor Marty Banks of University of California at Berkeley, raised concerns and questions, giving the HPA audience a lot to think about in terms of the perceptual issues of 3D viewing.
Banks described his research in 3D, through which he examined factors such as fatigue, neck discomfort and vision.
His points included:
–Viewing distance is a key issue. The shorter the distance, the more problematic.
–Perceptual distortion can be due to incorrect viewing position. For instance, turning one’s head to the side while watching can cause discomfort.
–Blur is always 1/12 the diameter of disparity, meaning that there is a correct depth of field for every viewing situation. … Too much blur makes things look small. Too little blur makes things look larger.
–Banks suggested that 3D TVs should have a menu to allow settings for variables such as viewing distance.
–He is next researching temporal sampling. Most of the data is collected.
–He suggested that possibly a health or science organization might be interested in sponsoring further research.

As part of the HPA’s focus on 3D, Panasonic brought its travelling 3D demo truck to Palm Springs. Parked outside the resort, the truck houses a traveling demo of 3D in the home for consumers. Specifically, it uses a Panasonic 3D Blu-Ray player, NVidia active glasses and Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma display. The demo included the “Avatar” trailer and clips from the Beijing Olympics and MacGillivray Freeman’s “Grand Canyon Adventure.”

–Miranda has its eye on 3D in the home.
At HPA, it previewed its Multiviewer, upgraded to view 3D content. The monitor displayed 3D images, along with the left eye/right eye material, for two different cameras, simultaneously. It is aimed at multicamera shooting for use at studios or in production trucks.
The company also previewed a branding/master control system for 3D, aimed at NAB availability. The technology, designed for TV stations, allows the user to set convergence for logos or other branding.
The company is working on a technology to automatically gauge depth and set a comfortable viewing position for graphics.

–On the production side, Fujinon previewed a lens system (pictured) that calibrates and synchronizes two lenses for stereo 3D production.

–Imartis and IFX demonstrated a 3D workflow. This included a SwissRig beam splitter rig and IFX’s On-set control system that includes a vectorscope, waveform, and color and convergence tools.

–Also on the 3D front, Henry Gu of GIC showed the 3DV stereoscopic QC and subtitling system. Features including disparity calculation. The system includes a realtime file server, full res stereo display and control interface.

A complete list and description of exhibits is posted on the HPA web site at http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=99082&orgId=hopa

A look at collaborative networking at the HPA Tech Retreat included updates from Smartjog and AboveNet. Also addressed:

–Peter Wilson introduced MUPPITS (Multiple User Post Production IT Services), an R&D project to develop an open and secure collaborative system based on a service-oriented architecture. Partners include Sohonet, Pinewood, BBC, Molinare and Smoke and Mirrors. The main aims of the projects is to offer remote rendering, as well as a tapeless workflow. To learn more: www.muppits.org.uk

–CineGrid Exchange Architecture is growing and by spring of this year, global capacity is expected to reach 256 TB connected via a 10 GigE cyberinfrastructure. Demonstrations have included 4K uncompressed interactive color grading between CinePost in Prague and UC San Diego.

Gary Demos is showing a technology demonstration of a realtime decode software, at the Image Essence exhibit at the HPA Tech Retreat,
Supporting a P3 color gamut, the software was running on single chip Intel hardware, and was used to display a range of material—720p and 1080i/24fps; StEM and CAS material; and CGI, film-based, Viper, Dalsa and other footage.
Demonstrating that the technology is adaptive to a variety of image types, Demos explained: “I’m trying to make a universal coding system that can handle all of the difference types of presentation materials.”
He suggested that this could be useful starting at principal photography.
Also shown was real-time 4K decode, using a two-chip Intel system.

Also in the demo room:

–Digital Vision showed its new grain tool and open EXR grading (pictured, upper image). The grain reducer has new algorithms with grain characteristics analysis for automated grain reduction, and a new motion estimation engine.

–Filmlight previewed the next version 4.2 of Baselight (pictured, lower image), which will ship around NAB. It includes a new dirt fix tool, as well as additional control for lift, gamma and gain.

–S.two showed a portable RAID device that accommodates 2-2 ½ hours of material, scheduled to ship in about six weeks.

At HPA, Panasonic previewed its two-lens 3D HD camcorder (top)—which was part of the company’s CES lineup– at the HPA Tech Retreat.
A company rep said convergence is adjustable and images are recorded to HD cards that fit into workflows with various post products such as Final Cut Pro and Pablo.
An NAB launch is planned, and it ships in September for $21,000.

Arri previewed a working prototype of its “Alexa” camera (bottom), which was first announced at IBC 2009.
There will be three models of the 35-mm format digital cameras, designed around a new CMOS sensor and offering file-based workflow options. The models include the basic EV (electronic viewfinder), shipping in June for around €50,000 (roughly $75,500); EV+, shipping in September for roughly €60,000 (roughly $93,000); and OV (optical viewfinder), shipping in December for €130,000 (roughly $195,000).
The EV and EV+ use a 16:9 sensor, and the OV uses a 4:3 sensor. Arri emphasized features including sensitivity, signal to noise ratio and high dynamic range.

ETC again made the HPA Tech Retreat program this afternoon, during a panel on Consumer Electronics.
CEA’s Shawn DuBravac announced that the latest ETC/CEA 3D Study would be released next week.
He reviewed some of the finding, which were also presented at CES.

Earlier, Mark Schubin’s Year in Review included a look at 3D, including:
–3D trucks are on the way from NEP and AMV
–Integrated cameras and camcorders are arriving from companies including 3D-One, Astro, DXG, Iknoskop, LMP, Panasonic and Sony.
–He raised a question: Will the industry see auto convergence from 3Ality?
–This year 10% of new TVs 37-inch and up will support 3D (Source: Panasonic)

Additional topics:
–Games: OnLive’s Tom Paquin related that the company is creating a game-on–demand service with HD video available over public networks, and commented on how it would handle latency issues. Essentially, OnLive would enable delivery of interactive content over public networks, a service that can be used for additional applications.
It is designed for use on any consumer device including a PC, Mac or handheld product.
–Packaged Media: Steven B. Cohen reported that last year 20% of all video rentals came from vending machines. Among the examples of businesses in the space is Redbox—with 22,000 kiosks in the US that offer $1/day rentals.

The broadcasters panel at the HPA Tech Retreat started with updates from representatives from various organizations, which discussed their use of the spectrum for multicasting, Mobile TV and other alternative delivery platforms.

But with no mention of the stereo format, an audience member finally asked the question: “What about 3D?”

Thomas Bause of NBC Uni said that he agreed with David Woods’ earlier presentation “Are You Guys Nuts?,” which suggested that there is still a lot to investigate. Bause added that NBC Uni has not yet determined its 3D strategy.

Fox exec Richard Friedel commented on production, saying that Fox will produce the All-Star Game in 3D this year.

CBS’ Bob Siedel suggested that delivery standards are an issue. He added that CBS is testing the waters, contributing 2D content that will be converted to 3D for DirecTV’s stereo offering.

Jerry Butler reported that PBS is “having some preliminary conversations about 3D. … We want to look into the side effects on viewers.”

Dolby is showing a technology preview of an encoding and real-time decoding system for frame compatible Full HD 3D. The Dolby system is being developed to use 7.5 Mbps, and is aimed at low bit rate applications such as cable, satellite and online.

Dolby is thinking about a migration path, noting that this would work with current H. 264 set top boxes at half res, then could be upgraded at a later date for Full HD.

The Dolby system uses AVC, and it was suggested that for terrestrial broadcasting, it could be put into an MPEG2 transport stream and then would need a suitable decoder.

The HPA demonstration showed 1920×1080 24fps content.