LONDON, UK: SGO's Mistika was used by Framestore for all the stereoscopic alignments, depth grading and visual effects compositing for the LG “Rare Butterflies” cinema commercial for LG's integrated 3D cinema and digital campaign. Directed by Richard Ayoade for Framestore’s digital team, and lead by Executive Producer, Simon Whalley, Framestore conceived, filmed and post produced the high profile campaign for agency Mindshare, to demystify stereoscopic 3D, using humour and interactive elements on the online version.
Framestore used its extensive stereoscopic 3D knowledge gained from working on Avatar and subsequent stereoscopic productions such as the PHILIPS' Parallel Lines' The Foundling to create the spot and chose SGO's Mistika to complete the cinema commercial. Filmed with a pair of SI-2K cameras, the project was a “one shot” commercial and therefore, initially, the best take was selected to work from.
At the start of the film, Mistika was used to mimic the tone of an old “anaglyph 1950's B-style movie”, using internal colour grading and grain generating features. Framestore's Executive Producer, Simon Whalley states: "Mistika was the perfect tool for this project. It was essentially the main hub for the commercial, and we were able to plug our CG pipeline directly into it. Also, as this was a commercial for cinema, the ability to export a DCP from the Mistika to our network and be viewing the film back in our cinema, in stereo 3D, within fifteen minutes, was fantastic.”
David Cox, Visual Effects Artist & Colourist, worked on the entire stereo 3D post effects at Framestore, using Mistika, where he explains the stereo 3D post process: “The next main section of the commercial shows a footballer kicking the ball directly at the audience for a classic, 3D surprise “duck” moment. In fact, the ball was actually kicked directly upwards and out of the frame.
At the point of the kick, Mistika's stereoscopic painting and compositing tools were used to remove the original ball and replace it with one created in stereo 3D, which could then be carefully animated to create the desired effect.” David continues: “A similar process was used to remove a puppet of a parrot that flew through the frame, and replace it with an alternative version that hit its cue mark a little better.”
Mistika was also used to augment an eye-catching sequence that included hundreds of blossoms falling from a tree. Around fifty additional blossoms that exactly matched the original ones, were created and animated in Mistika, in order to enhance the stereoscopic 3D experience. The final scene includes hundreds of flying butterflies that fill the 3D space around the main characters.
These were animated in Maya and passed to Mistika as EXR files for compositing along with shadows, reflections and so forth. David concludes: “The commercial ends with a classic product shot, which had all the usual “beautification” processes applied to it, but this time in stereo 3D by Mistika.”
Friday, March 18, 2011
Ericsson makes industry’s first HD voice call on CDMA
SWEDEN: Ericsson has successfully completed a CDMA wideband High Definition (HD) voice call using the Enhanced Variable Rate Codec Narrowband-Wideband (EVRC-NW) codec, demonstrating a technical first for the CDMA industry.
CDMA HD voice delivers speech in a wider spectral range of 50Hz to 7000Hz, which increases voice quality, intelligibility and decreases listening fatigue, even in environments with high background noise.
Ericsson leads the industry in introducing new technologies with superior voice quality. Ericsson consumer research shows that voice quality provides a key differentiator between operator networks by improving subscriber retention and increasing mobile usage.
"We have demonstrated the first high-definition CDMA voice call in the world over an Ericsson network utilizing the new EVRC-NW 3GPP2 standard codec and ensuring interoperability with existing functionality while easing the rollout of future wideband services," says Surya Bommakanti, VP, Product Area Core, BU CDMA Mobile Systems, Ericsson. "This is the starting point of a voice quality revolution that will significantly enhance CDMA networks as we know them today."
The Ericsson CDMA development team in collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated has reached this important milestone by successfully completing HD voice calls in a lab environment on a CDMA voice network.
Ericsson is continuously enhancing its CDMA product portfolio to bring superior voice capabilities to market for the benefit of CDMA subscribers and operators.
CDMA HD voice delivers speech in a wider spectral range of 50Hz to 7000Hz, which increases voice quality, intelligibility and decreases listening fatigue, even in environments with high background noise.
Ericsson leads the industry in introducing new technologies with superior voice quality. Ericsson consumer research shows that voice quality provides a key differentiator between operator networks by improving subscriber retention and increasing mobile usage.
"We have demonstrated the first high-definition CDMA voice call in the world over an Ericsson network utilizing the new EVRC-NW 3GPP2 standard codec and ensuring interoperability with existing functionality while easing the rollout of future wideband services," says Surya Bommakanti, VP, Product Area Core, BU CDMA Mobile Systems, Ericsson. "This is the starting point of a voice quality revolution that will significantly enhance CDMA networks as we know them today."
The Ericsson CDMA development team in collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated has reached this important milestone by successfully completing HD voice calls in a lab environment on a CDMA voice network.
Ericsson is continuously enhancing its CDMA product portfolio to bring superior voice capabilities to market for the benefit of CDMA subscribers and operators.
2011 NAB show goes high octane and blue collar with Testosterone TV
WASHINGTON DC, USA: Top independent television producer and CEO of Original Productions, a FremantleMedia company, Thom Beers will appear with members of his prolific production team at the 2011 NAB Show in a session titled "Testosterone TV: Behind the Scenes with Original Productions."
Broadcasting & Cable executive editor Melissa Grego will moderate the Super Session panel discussion, which will take place Monday, April 11 at 1:00 pm. The 2011 NAB Show takes place April 9-14 in Las Vegas.
Original Productions currently has 14 series in production on eight domestic television networks, including critically acclaimed shows like the Emmy Award-winning hit "Deadliest Catch" on Discovery, and popular favorites "Ax Men" and the Emmy-nominated "Ice Road Truckers" - two of the highest rated shows ever to air on HISTORY. "Coal," their highly anticipated new series revealing the lives of West Virginia coal miners, will premiere on Spike TV, March 30, 2011.
Beers will be joined on the panel by Philip Segal, president and executive producer of Original Productions; Jeff Conroy, vice president of programming and executive producer; and series co-executive producers, Sarah Whalen and Gayle Gilman.
"Testosterone TV: Behind the Scenes with Original Productions" will pull back the curtain on how to create high-risk, high-reward TV. Thom Beers and his team will describe how they capture the stories of blue-collar heroes navigating the volatile waves of the Bering Sea, dangling from giant trees, traversing mountain roads and toiling deep below the earth's surface.
Video clips and personal accounts will articulate and exemplify how these filmmakers shoot under extraordinary conditions, develop new tools and techniques to solve production challenges, and balance risk and safety while developing trust with their respective casts to ultimately shape a compelling story arc throughout the broadcast season.
Broadcasting & Cable executive editor Melissa Grego will moderate the Super Session panel discussion, which will take place Monday, April 11 at 1:00 pm. The 2011 NAB Show takes place April 9-14 in Las Vegas.
Original Productions currently has 14 series in production on eight domestic television networks, including critically acclaimed shows like the Emmy Award-winning hit "Deadliest Catch" on Discovery, and popular favorites "Ax Men" and the Emmy-nominated "Ice Road Truckers" - two of the highest rated shows ever to air on HISTORY. "Coal," their highly anticipated new series revealing the lives of West Virginia coal miners, will premiere on Spike TV, March 30, 2011.
Beers will be joined on the panel by Philip Segal, president and executive producer of Original Productions; Jeff Conroy, vice president of programming and executive producer; and series co-executive producers, Sarah Whalen and Gayle Gilman.
"Testosterone TV: Behind the Scenes with Original Productions" will pull back the curtain on how to create high-risk, high-reward TV. Thom Beers and his team will describe how they capture the stories of blue-collar heroes navigating the volatile waves of the Bering Sea, dangling from giant trees, traversing mountain roads and toiling deep below the earth's surface.
Video clips and personal accounts will articulate and exemplify how these filmmakers shoot under extraordinary conditions, develop new tools and techniques to solve production challenges, and balance risk and safety while developing trust with their respective casts to ultimately shape a compelling story arc throughout the broadcast season.
Wireless Ronin, Sprint form strategic partnership to provide Sprint 4G-powered digital signage solution
MINNEAPOLIS, USA: Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:RNIN), a Minneapolis-based digital signage provider, announced that it has entered into a teaming and co-marketing agreement with Sprint to offer customers a comprehensive, fully-hosted digital signage and content management solution. The partnership pairs Sprint wireless technologies with Wireless Ronin's end-to-end corporate digital signage network.
"Our relationship with Wireless Ronin exemplifies the type of digital signage breakthroughs achievable through Sprint's 4G network," said Wayne Ward, vice president of Sprint's Emerging Solutions Group. "Sprint's head start in 4G has helped partners like Wireless Ronin in rapidly implementing 4G functionality while further exploring 4G's vast potential."
The Wireless Ronin and Sprint solution will leverage WRT's extensive digital signage market presence with its proprietary RoninCast software platform, dynamic content engineering and network support through its 24/7/365 network operations center (NOC) along with Sprint's 4G data connectivity system. This combination offers a very robust, flexible, and economical solution.
By incorporating the Sprint 4G network into RoninCast software, the customer can run its system parallel with its business network thereby limiting IT integration requirements. The combined expertise of WRT and Sprint will offer the customer an easily implemented solution to drive measurable business results. The fully hosted solution allows the customer to focus on core business operations leaving the rest to WRT.
"Wireless Ronin benefits tremendously from the reach of a partner like Sprint," said Scott Koller, president and chief executive officer of Wireless Ronin Technologies. "This offers us the chance to leverage the business relationship that Sprint has created with a wide variety of customers while extending the breadth of our digital signage solutions using the Sprint 4G network. We are proud to affiliate with a trusted and innovative company like Sprint."
"Our relationship with Wireless Ronin exemplifies the type of digital signage breakthroughs achievable through Sprint's 4G network," said Wayne Ward, vice president of Sprint's Emerging Solutions Group. "Sprint's head start in 4G has helped partners like Wireless Ronin in rapidly implementing 4G functionality while further exploring 4G's vast potential."
The Wireless Ronin and Sprint solution will leverage WRT's extensive digital signage market presence with its proprietary RoninCast software platform, dynamic content engineering and network support through its 24/7/365 network operations center (NOC) along with Sprint's 4G data connectivity system. This combination offers a very robust, flexible, and economical solution.
By incorporating the Sprint 4G network into RoninCast software, the customer can run its system parallel with its business network thereby limiting IT integration requirements. The combined expertise of WRT and Sprint will offer the customer an easily implemented solution to drive measurable business results. The fully hosted solution allows the customer to focus on core business operations leaving the rest to WRT.
"Wireless Ronin benefits tremendously from the reach of a partner like Sprint," said Scott Koller, president and chief executive officer of Wireless Ronin Technologies. "This offers us the chance to leverage the business relationship that Sprint has created with a wide variety of customers while extending the breadth of our digital signage solutions using the Sprint 4G network. We are proud to affiliate with a trusted and innovative company like Sprint."
Thursday, March 17, 2011
UK mobile applications download revenue reached £280m in 2010
BERLIN, GERMANY: Smartphone users in the UK downloaded over 860 million applications in 2010 with 105 million downloads counting for paid apps. Revenue reached £280 million for the UK’s total paid application download.
There is still a lot of room to grow. The majority of phone users are still feature phone owners who are using mobile applications not as actively as smartphone users. In the years to come this potential will be explored and will drive up market growth. These results are part of our new study “UK Smartphone App Market Overview” by research2guidance.
Source: research2guidance, Germany.
Most of the devices shipped in the UK run Symbian OS, which is in line with the rest of Europe. Owners of these devices are rather passive in using mobile applications, compared to the activity level of other OS users. The most active community of app downloads and ad impressions are iOS holders.
Another interesting finding of our “UK Smartphone App Market Overview” research report is that young females show the highest dynamics of device adoption in 2010. With the current growth rate female smartphone adopters will catch up with their male counterpart within a year. Even though UK smartphone user base still is slightly dominated by men, women are adapting/taking on new smartphones models very quickly.
There is still a lot of room to grow. The majority of phone users are still feature phone owners who are using mobile applications not as actively as smartphone users. In the years to come this potential will be explored and will drive up market growth. These results are part of our new study “UK Smartphone App Market Overview” by research2guidance.
Source: research2guidance, Germany.Most of the devices shipped in the UK run Symbian OS, which is in line with the rest of Europe. Owners of these devices are rather passive in using mobile applications, compared to the activity level of other OS users. The most active community of app downloads and ad impressions are iOS holders.
Another interesting finding of our “UK Smartphone App Market Overview” research report is that young females show the highest dynamics of device adoption in 2010. With the current growth rate female smartphone adopters will catch up with their male counterpart within a year. Even though UK smartphone user base still is slightly dominated by men, women are adapting/taking on new smartphones models very quickly.
Ericsson and Vantrix partner for video optimization
MONTREAL, CANADA: Vantrix, the global leader of mobile video optimization and delivery solutions, has been selected by Ericsson, the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators, to be their partner in video optimization. Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will be bundling Vantrix Bandwidth Optimizer with its Multiservice Proxy mobile broadband traffic optimization solution.
“We predict that the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions will double during 2011, to 1 billion, and that video traffic will represent significant portion of the overall mobile data traffic,” said Sanjay Kaul, VP, Consumer and Business Applications at Ericsson. “The partnership will address our customers’ need to efficiently manage, optimize video content delivery over mobile networks, where the quality of experience becomes key.”
Vantrix Bandwidth Optimizer optimizes video and delivers it in real time while maintaining best-in-class Quality of Experience. Vantrix Bandwidth Optimizer provides up to 70 percent savings on network CAPEX and OPEX (RAN, backhaul and core) by dynamically monitoring network congestion and substantially reducing the size of videos.
“Mobile video has become an integral part of daily life and it has transformed how consumers use their mobile phones. Over the last two years, as video has become more dominant in mobile networks, mobile subscribers have endured outages and reductions in speed, resulting in an unsatisfactory video experience,” said Allan Benchetrit, president and CEO of Vantrix.
“We are very proud to partner with Ericsson to provide the market with the most advanced and efficient mobile video technology. Our solution is the most advanced to control, optimize and manage the delivery of video in mobile networks, while actually improving the current viewing experience.”
“We predict that the number of global mobile broadband subscriptions will double during 2011, to 1 billion, and that video traffic will represent significant portion of the overall mobile data traffic,” said Sanjay Kaul, VP, Consumer and Business Applications at Ericsson. “The partnership will address our customers’ need to efficiently manage, optimize video content delivery over mobile networks, where the quality of experience becomes key.”
Vantrix Bandwidth Optimizer optimizes video and delivers it in real time while maintaining best-in-class Quality of Experience. Vantrix Bandwidth Optimizer provides up to 70 percent savings on network CAPEX and OPEX (RAN, backhaul and core) by dynamically monitoring network congestion and substantially reducing the size of videos.
“Mobile video has become an integral part of daily life and it has transformed how consumers use their mobile phones. Over the last two years, as video has become more dominant in mobile networks, mobile subscribers have endured outages and reductions in speed, resulting in an unsatisfactory video experience,” said Allan Benchetrit, president and CEO of Vantrix.
“We are very proud to partner with Ericsson to provide the market with the most advanced and efficient mobile video technology. Our solution is the most advanced to control, optimize and manage the delivery of video in mobile networks, while actually improving the current viewing experience.”
Aerius cell phone production commences in China
LAS VEGAS, USA: Aerius International Inc. announced that Shenzhen HuaXin ShiDai Technology of China has been formally engaged and has commenced final design and manufacture of Aerius smart phones. "We have an aggressive timeline for delivery of phones, and we expect that the phones will be available for customers in the US and other nations this summer," said Bill Luxon, Aerius CEO.
Frost & Sullivan gave Aerius a 2009 Green Technology in Wireless Technologies Award because Aerius phones have proven to increase battery life two to four hours, reduce dropped calls over 60 percent, and virtually eliminate handset power loss into users compared to other phones sold worldwide.
"Carrier, FCC, and CTIA Authorized lab tests on the performance of Aerius equipped phones, together with the Aerius Frost & Sullivan Award are posted on the Aerius website at www.goaerius.com," said Luxon.
Luxon and cell phone designer Russ Winstead and Aerius Chinese engineer Rani Wu recently met with executives and engineers with HuaXin in Shenzhen. "Our discussions were productive and Rani Wu will be working with HuaXin throughout the Aerius phone design and manufacturing process," said Luxon.
HuaXin has more than 3,000 workers and 150 engineers in Shenzhen currently producing millions of phones for Motorola and others. Also, HuaXin is the first successful designer and manufacturer of Chinese made smart phones sold throughout China.
Frost & Sullivan gave Aerius a 2009 Green Technology in Wireless Technologies Award because Aerius phones have proven to increase battery life two to four hours, reduce dropped calls over 60 percent, and virtually eliminate handset power loss into users compared to other phones sold worldwide.
"Carrier, FCC, and CTIA Authorized lab tests on the performance of Aerius equipped phones, together with the Aerius Frost & Sullivan Award are posted on the Aerius website at www.goaerius.com," said Luxon.
Luxon and cell phone designer Russ Winstead and Aerius Chinese engineer Rani Wu recently met with executives and engineers with HuaXin in Shenzhen. "Our discussions were productive and Rani Wu will be working with HuaXin throughout the Aerius phone design and manufacturing process," said Luxon.
HuaXin has more than 3,000 workers and 150 engineers in Shenzhen currently producing millions of phones for Motorola and others. Also, HuaXin is the first successful designer and manufacturer of Chinese made smart phones sold throughout China.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
