Silicon Imaging SI-3D creates Stereoscopic Buzz with Intel at CES 2010

CES2010, Las Vegas, Jan. 7, 2010 – Intel Corporation President and CEO Paul Otellini opened his keynote address with the most buzzed about topics at CES; 3-D stereoscopic content creation. He demonstrated how the Silicon Imaging SI-3D stereo camera system is being used by Hollywood to capture, display and instantly create digital cinema quality 3D, all on a single mobile Intel® Core™ i7 hardware platform.

“Creating 3-D content requires a ton of computing power” stated Intel CEO Paul Otellini. “Intels Powerful microprocessors will play a central role in the transition to 3-D content creation from Hollywood studios to living rooms. Stereo 3D is not only transforming how people watch movies, but is creating a fully immersive experience for their favorite concerts, sports events and video games.

“Silicon Imaging and Intel technology is streamlining the way Hollywood shoots and produces academy award winning content; now it will be in 3D” states Ari Presler, CEO Silicon Imaging. “Several pivotal announcements at CES 2010 this week including Avatar box office revenue exceeding $1-Billion, 3D-TV releases from the major CE manufacturers and the launch of several dedicated 3D broadcast channels are driving the rapid increase in demand for 3-D content. The combination of the small-form factor camera and Intel’s mobile processors enable shooting live action steadicam and hand-held stereo footage with incredible latitude and film like results”

The Silicon Imaging SI-3D system uses two hand-held size SI-2K Mini cameras; the same technology used on this years academy award-winning Best picture and Best Cinematography feature film, Slumdog Millionaire. The camera or “eye-balls” connect to a single Intel system via gigabit Ethernet, where they are synchronized, controlled and recorded to a single QuickTime 3D file; all through a simple touchscreen interface. On-set, each camera can be viewed individually or directly converted for display on modern 3D displays to visualize focus, lighting, Color and 3-D depth effects.

The SI-3D stereo camera system is now being used around globe to shoot feature films, 3D TV episodes, Concerts, Commercial and more. For more information visit the Silicon Imaging website at Silicon Imaging (http://www.si-2k.com)

More information about Otellini’s keynote and Intel’s other news at CES is also available at PRESS KIT - Intel at CES 2010 (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/ces2010).

Ari.


Steve Rice (SI2K owner-op) is obsessing about getting a portable single rig for an upcoming action project and a 3D rig up. There is some local interest in shooting 3D commercials apparently.

The Intel I7 computer solution, - can it be achieved by two inputs to the one I7 based computer or is there some other device to be staged through. I assume the sync box controller is still required.

Currently two recorder-unit bodies are being used here with P+S sync box for 3D, a bulky muchly immobile option but workable.

Can you recommend a particular I7 based mobile computer type model and brand which is proven to work.

Bob, Cinedeck recorder (http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/cineform-software-showcase/107885-cineform-hdmi-recorder-concept-posted-32.html#post1470095) is better solution than PC based on i7.

Serge.


Thank you for the info. I looked up the website and it is a bit too flash for my computer to handle or just plain glitchy - I don't know. There is a sort of firewalled email contact via the site which toezed up when I tried it. I could not find a "contact us" page anywhere for normal email enquiry.

So I'll post here in the hope that one of their own will be walking by and see this post or somebody here has an insider connection to the company which makes the cinedeck and can prompt me?

The specs describe inputs via dual HD-SDI, not the dual gigabit ethernet cables described on forum post, which leads me to think an internediate gigabit to HD-SDI magic box of some kind might need to be in there as well.


COPY OF ENQUIRY ATTEMPT APPEARS BELOW :-


Dear Sir.

The 2K unit is of great interest. Do you know what extra parts are required or special softwares to enable 3D recording to the single cinedeck recorder unit via two gigabit ethernet connectors as seems to have been done according to web posts on dvinfo.net and Rogue Films forums. Do you have a price on the 2K unit yet? Please cc your reply to darlingfilms@hotmail.com if it is not inconvenient for you.

Do you also do an Anton Bauer gold battery dock like SI2K recorder unit body?

Are the disk drives CRU Dataports like SI2K recorder unit?


Regards from Western Australia.

Bob Hart.


END OF ENQUIRY MESSAGE.

Bob,

The SI-3D system does not require a Core i7 to run. It is just being demo'd that way in Intel's booth at CES.

We are working on a customized SI-3D version of the Cinedeck with Dual GigE camera inputs which will replace the SDI hardware. We havnt finalized all the specs just yet, but look for an announcement within the next 30-days.

The current unit has the IDX plate. We can investigate if the Gold Mount can be made an option.

The 2.5" SSD drives are inserted directly into the unit. There is no CRU type cartridge (too large to fit).

We will contact you/steve offline to see if we can meet your production timelines.

Ari.


Thank you for your reply.

My enquiry regarding Anton Bauer was derived from my using the AB gold mount charger-power supply/battery stack on the SI2K recorder unit for agile and mains and an automotive jumpstarter for statics and limited agile in field.

This is not best usage of the automotive starter battery which is not designed for slow and sustained discharge to deep cycle but so far it has worked well enough.

I err on the side of caution with the AB charger/power supply and ALWAYS have a battery on back of the charger.

After observing a brighter bluelight on the monitor at switch-on, I obsess that there may be an initial higher inrush voltage on switch-on when the AB unit switches to the correct mains voltage. A battery on board should dampen any such sins on the part of the charger.

Steve Rice uses Sony V-mount batteries for agile, a big battery in a box for statics in field and an IDX two output power supply for mains.

If you are customising the cinedeck unit, it may be beneficial if HD-SDI remained available so it can dual purpose with cameras like the EX1. I accept though that space inside such a compact device will be at a premium.

Will the cinedeck also be configured to create cineform .avi files as well as cineform .mov files?

The cinedeck unit is compact enough that except for fine trimming alignments of the camera optical axes, a hardware bridging adaptor to receive the mini heads with syncbox circuit built-in, stacked between the cinedeck and camera heads could create a truly free and agile handheld 3D camera to go up against Sony and Panasonic's offerings. Having a minimum of wires and cables hanging off would be a real bonus.

This would likely require the dual gigabit sockets to be 90degree elbows and re-inforced against bending if they are also to dock from the cinedeck to matching ports in the bridge adaptor. Otherwise short leads fed through from the cameras via solid fixing in the bridge adaptor to conventional side entry ports on the cinedeck would suffice and would eliminate an extra plug junction where something could fail.

The V-mount/IDX/Anton Bauer battery receiver might have to go on the side or on top which might become a bit awkard to handle.

Maybe there would be enough mechanical compliance in the pins and sockets in the Lemo connectors that fine optical trims for a parallel 3D setup could be done with simple screwjacks and stiff leaf springs bearing against one of the mini heads in the bridging adaptor. The leaf springs would have to be stiff enough to cope with lens weights.

Three screwjack/spring sets would be required for the adjustable camera head, two for horizontal (pan)/skew (dutch) trim and one for vertical (tilt) trim. If simple feedthrough cables from the rear of camera head Lemo connectors are used, then enough pan adjustment could be incorporated to allow for coarser convergence adjustments as pin compliance in the Lemo connectors would not be required.

The published capability of the cinedeck in a dual-boot configuation to offer in-field editing is something I hypothesised about regarding the SI2K recorder unit body a while back. Now it is here, though maybe 3D in-field test edits might not yet be possible.

We do live in exciting times.

1.) Stereo-3D to the Cinedeck (Minideck-3D?) will be on 2x Lemo-12, which can also supply camera power (similar to the connection from the front of the SI-2K to Mini). The 12pin GigE input replaces the SDI hardware in the Cinedeck (sorry...not dual purpose unit).

2.) There is no Sync-box required; just a jumper Lemo 8pin to 8pin which carries the Master-Slave wire.

3.) Currently, we are only recording Cineform QuickTime 3D files...not AVI. The great news is that we now have a 12-bit log pipeline with support for 12-bit Uncompressed to Filmscan2 and Filmscan1! This insures our continued 1 to 1.5 stop dynamic range advantage over another raw model in the market. Use Neo3D with FCP and you have a complete 3D edit solution.

4.) We have added a nice auto file recovery system if any loss of power occurs during recording. The data is recorded as an.mob file. When recording is stopped the header structures are closed and the file is renamed to a standard .mov. Each project startup we scan the project folder for any .mob files, scan to last good data set and make it into .mov.

5.) The 3D rigs (mirror or parallel) have been left to others.

Ari.


The onboard file recovery function seems to be a real goodie. Will this one make it to the next revision of DVR for single camera systems? There is always somebody with a sixth toe or dewclaw to trip over a cable or maybe a kid eager decides to do a battery change when the camera is still digesting after button off.

One small thing which might stick its head up in the field is if the file recovery is mandatory on startup and re-opening an existing project. This can happen quite often between setups and battery changes.

If it is mandatory and there is no prompt offered of - "do you want to proceed with recovery of the file damaged in the previous session now?" - this might slow a production down if the damaged file was a very long one.

The existing command line file recovery tools seem to take a while to chew through long clips frame-by-frame, so giving the camera operator a choice of either repairing the clip on set or deferring the clip repair to the edit suite or later in the day might be appreciated.

Just a thought and thanks for your detailed off site emails. We will be meeting with the producer and director of the conventional action project tonight so hopefully we can persuade them to use us versus the other options out here.