The three-dimensional (3D) content business is growing very quickly indeed, as more and more theaters announce support for 3D imagery. Some films in the US have grossed Yen30 billion. Standardization efforts have started up, primarily in the US, to accelerate this trend, and in 2010 audio-visual (AV) equipment such as televisions will also begin to provide full-scale support for 3D.
"A diverse range of businesses are getting involved in 3D imagery... Everything from content like movies and games to hardware, like TVs. It feels like it's turning into the same sort of thing as the automotive industry," says Mohammad R Ahmadi, president, Technologies & Corporate Development, XpanD Inc of the US, which is involved in upgrading movie theaters to support stereoscopic 3D. He is convinced that the 3D movie market, surging fast, will not fizzle out like it did the last time. Driven by 3D imagery, products across the board are gearing up for support, including TVs, personal video recorders (PVR), broadcast services, mobile phones, personal computers (PC), and game systems.
There is another difference from the last time: standardization efforts are under way at every place the stereoscopic 3D specification is handled, from video content creation to distribution, AV equipment, viewing glasses and more (Fig 1).
The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) of the US, which is spearheading standardization, is working on not only the Home Master Format specification for the basic 3D imagery format, but also moving the entire 3D imagery industry forward. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) of the US, meanwhile, has begun work on standardization of the home AV equipment interface, along with a few other things. The new High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) 1.4 specification for digital consumer electronics already has the 3D spec built-in.
Experimental 3D
broadcasting has already started in numerous places around the world,
via cable, satellite broadcasting, etc, and standardization is taking
these trials into consideration (Table 1).
The US is not the only nation involved. In Japan, the Association of Radio Industries & Businesses (ARIB) launched a study group for 3D TV in Sept 2008, which cooperates with organizations such as the SMPTE and CEA. Panasonic Corp and Sony Corp, both of Japan, and other firms are guiding standardization relating to Blu-ray Disc technology. The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) has already completed standards for 3D photographic data, for example.
Until now, individual manufacturers released equipment to their own specs, and there was essentially no way to distribute 3D video content. The various standardization efforts under way now, however, will have the impact of a superhighway on distribution; it will make it much easier for not only the majors to get into the 3D imagery business, but even small- and medium-scale enterprises, and will lay the groundwork for phenomenal market growth.
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