HD TELECINE

VIRTUAL SETS
             - Create Reality

Next-Generation technology bridges the trade-off between creativity and cost.

   The major leap has now come about with the usage of 3-Dimensional sets, where the illusion of the live anchor walk-ing “around” certain objects comes into play. The concept is fairly easy to compr-ehend. A 3-Dimen-sional set is created on  a  computer, liv-ecamera inputs are mapped within the 3-D set and a chrom-akeyer is used to me-rge the two – and Presto!    You    have

ally be determined only by a few key factors:
l How easy it is to create and modify sets
l How expensive it is to purchase, deploy and maintain
l How simple is the implementation l How “clean” is the final imagery

Tracking vs. Trackless
   One of the important aspects of the virtual set technology is Camera Con-trol. There are many schools of thou-ght on this. There is the traditional tracking system, where the camera is electronically or mechanically, “track-ed” by extracting and calculating the camera position parameters. General usage   of   such   tracking  systems  is

t is the dream of each creative television production team to create the most beautiful and fascinating sets and that very dream becomes every producer’s and fina-ncier’s nightmare !!
   Television networks and production houses constantly battle the trade-off between creative expression, high-qua-lity and controlling expenses. The con-tinuous cycle of erecting sets, tearing them down, warehousing them, again reengineering them for reuse and rebu-ilding them yet again – is a huge over-head; in terms of time, effort and cost.

Fraction of the cost
   New technologies have made it po-ssible for the production houses to create “virtual” sets (on a computer) and combine this with “live” camera inputs – for some stunning effects, all at a fraction of the cost. With this, the long raging tussle between creative, production and finance teams may actually be put to rest.
   virtual set technology is not new. In fact, many 2-Dimensional chroma-keyers have been managing to create some   kind   of  virtual  solutions  and these have been around for quite some time, with television broadcast as the main  target industry.

more complicated (and hence presu-med  to  be  more  accurate). Also,  at the beginning of each different pro-gram, when a new 3D set is loaded, these cameras need to be readjusted in order to produce the desired resu-lts. There are special tracking cables and systems that are affixed onto each camera, through which the com-puter controls the physical camera movement.
   The newer, easier to use system is the “trackless” camera system. In this version, the input signal of the cameras (of the live anchor/presen-ter) is captured and mapped into the 3D set. Thereafter, the physical cam-era is not moved at all. In fact, the camera can actually be left unatten-ded! The entire motion of the camera, is controlled within, and by, the com-puter system. Such systems are easier to implement as they do need need repeated adjustment of the cameras – and they do away with the expensive camera tracking units/cables.

Chroma-keying
   The other major aspect of the virt-ual set technology is the chromakey-ing. This is considered to be the most critical as this is the one that actually merges     the    "real" with the