Press release from Well Above and JVC Professional
National park service, woods hole oceanographic institution uses jJVC GD-463D10E monitors for mobile 3d educational programmes
The National Park Service Submerged Resources Center (SRC) is using the JVC GD-463D10E 46-inch 3D LCD HD monitor to bring underwater 3D footage to students. The underwater footage is being produced through a partnership with the Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory (AIVL) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. JVC recently screened samples of the footage during the 2010 NAB show in Las Vegas.
The JVC GD-463D10E monitor has an integrated Xpol polarizing filter, so it uses inexpensive polarized (passive) glasses to produce flicker-free 3D HD images. A passive 3D system is very important for the SRC’s ongoing 3D plans. According to Brett Seymour, SRC AV Production Specialist, the centre will eventually design and distribute its own branded paper 3D glasses, which will provide students with a souvenir of the experience.
Students love 3D content because it engages them, Seymour said, and the use of special 3D glasses give them a feeling of active participation. “3D also provides a ‘wow’ factor, which is great,” he added, but the SRC avoids 3D gimmicks in its videos. “We are using 3D to bring a new dimension to the underwater world of the National Park Service.”
Two of the SRC’s GD-463D10E monitors are housed in JELCO RotoLift shipping and display cases, which easily raise the monitors for presentations and safely stores them for transport. Seymour said the combination of the JVC monitor and transport case has provided an easy, portable solution that has allowed the SRC to share its 3D video footage at conferences, diving trade shows, and classrooms.
Currently, the SRC is working with the AIVL at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on three projects. Shooting is complete on Alien Invaders, an educational look at invasive underwater species found in Lake Mead National Recreation Area and is currently in post. Another video, which provides underwater 3D HD footage of the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, will start post production this summer.
A third project offers a sample of the underwater wonders throughout the national parks. The main video will provide highlights from various locales, but the SRC will also produce park-specific 3D presentations for visitor centres. Shooting is scheduled to continue over the next seven months, and Seymour expects to post the project next spring for an Autumn 2011 release.
The AIVL at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution maintains a suite of 3D camera rigs for in-air and underwater use – and owns several GD-463D10E 3D monitors that are used for mobile presentations and internally for reviewing footage. Several playback systems require ingest of 3D material before it can be reviewed, but the JVC GD-463D10E allows the AIVL to review its footage in real time without going through a computer system.
“We wanted to have a large passive display for reviewing 3D imagery and also for 3D presentations on the road,” said William N. Lange, AIVL Research Specialist. “The monitor had the capability to work with existing 3D infrastructure that we had. It’s become an easy way for us to do field presentations as well.”
Lange said the AIVL tried 3D systems based around active (shutter) glasses, but found that passive 3D systems are better suited for their work. “You don’t have to worry about batteries or sync,” he explained. “We can’t really worry about that in the lab environment or the classroom environment – or during a live field recording event. A passive system lets us share our 3D experience with a much larger audience.”
The SRC already owns three GD-463D10E 3D monitors, and Seymour anticipates the agency will purchase will at least another three units in the next year. Some national parks might also invest in their own JVC monitors to display 3D content for visitors.
Seymour noted the GD-463D10Es are not exclusively used for 3D footage by the SRC. One monitor is kept in his edit bay for playback of 2D and 3D content, and the mobile units are often used to display PowerPoint and other 2D materials during presentations. “It’s been a solid monitor for us,” he said, “with great resolution and great color reproduction.”