Freestyle Rig and Standard Rig Supplied for Live Broadcast of a 3D Concert of “Die Fantastischen Vier” to 91 Cinemas in Five European Countries

P+S TECHNIK, market leader in 3D beam splitter rigs, supplied its groundbreaking Freestyle Rig and its Standard Rig for the largest live coverage of a 3D concert event ever. The concert by "Die Fantastischen Vier", Germany’s leading hip-hop group, was broadcast live in 3D by satellite to 91 cinemas across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Die Fantastischen Vier

The pivotal modules in the whole recording-replay broadcast chain are the stereo 3D rigs used. The Freestyle Rig is especially designed to offer a maximum of creative choice for camera movement in 3D production and has been used on Steadycam systems on a couple of live transmissions in collaboration with SKY (Football Champions League, Ice Hockey World Cup etc.). In this case the Freestyle Rig with its integrated motors for stereo base and angulation adjustment has done a great job mounted on a Technocrane 30. It carried Sony HDC-P1s with 10mm Zeiss DigiPrime lenses.

Freestyle Rig on Technocrane

Freestyle Rig on Technocrane

The Standard Rig carried heavy Sony HDC-1550 broadcast cameras with 14mm Zeiss DigiPrime lenses.

Standard Rig with Sony HDC-1550

Standard Rig with Sony HDC-1550

Shooting and processing high-quality 3D content is a huge challenge for production teams. Perfect settings of stereo parameters and camera settings are absolutely critical for perfect stereo quality. As the orientation of the two cameras may vary from scene to scene depending on scene content, near and far objects, the convergence plane and the depth of focus a couple of precise adjusting mechanisms compatible to common lens control and automatic assistance systems are crucial. Both the Freestyle Rig and the Standard Rig are very well prepared for such demanding jobs. The rigs have been operated by the KUK-Film crew, which was supported by Carlos Alvarez from P+S TECHNIK. The operators and stereographers have also been supported by the Stereoscopic Analyzer Assistance System (STAN) developed by the Fraunhofer Heinrich Herz Institute that computed stereo parameters and camera settings.

Andreas Dasser, Managing Director of P+S TECHNIK stated: „ As innovation leaders we are very proud of playing an important role in the world’s first 3D broadcast of a live concert to 91 cinemas across Europe. Once again P+S TECHNIK advanced 3D stereography for broadcast and cinema together with other pioneers in the field. Thereby, we proved our rigs’ excellent performance during live events to broadcast.”