Quantel powers 3D TV broadcasts at Guangzhou Asian Games

World's first complete broadcast production workflow proves a winner

Quantel's Enterprise sQ Stereo3D broadcast production technology, first shown at NAB this year, made its in-service debut at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games in November, successfully providing daily Stereo3D TV programming to China's first 3D TV audience. This highly successful experiment and technology demonstration, hailed as 'an important national pilot' under the auspices of SARFT (State Administration of Radio, film and Television) and the Ministry of Science and Technology, is the result of a strategic partnership between Quantel and Jetsen, which supplied the technical infrastructure, media asset management and monitoring. SARFT Deputy Director of Science and Technology, Sun Suchuan, reflected the success of the experiment by declaring that as a result of the Asian Games experience, "3D broadcast has taken a solid step forward. By 2015 we will undoubtedly have a number of 3DTV channels on air."  The first 3DTV channel is scheduled to be trialled in China in 2011.

The Enterprise sQ system deployed at the Guangzhou Asian Games ingested the dual-stream HD video in realtime, giving complete flexibility to manipulate S3D after it is shot. Shot selection and editing then began immediately (within 250 milliseconds of media beginning to ingest), followed by craft editing as required. The resulting S3D programming and highlights packages were then played out direct to air. The system covered every aspect of Stereo3D production from stereo editing, vergence adjustment, repair and color correction to realtime playout of finished Stereo3D programming, which was watched by an audience in Guangzhou of more than 300,000 people.

The Quantel-Jetsen solution was chosen after an exhaustive one year research and analysis process undertaken by the Chinese national government, the Guangzhou government and the National AVS TV Lab. Installation, testing and training were completed in just six weeks, leaving plenty of time for rehearsals and final preparations.

Quantel Sales & Marketing Director, Martin Mulligan, said, "We are delighted that this challenging test for our new Stereo3D broadcast workflow technology has been such a success and so well received. With countries such as China enthusiastically embracing the potential of Stereo3D, its adoption as a mainstream broadcasting option moves ever closer. The fact that any Enterprise sQ system can be easily upgraded to handle S3D alongside HD can only help speed the adoption of S3D in television."