Several things occurred over the weekend, and the biggest laugh became the biggest headache – which has now spawned this post.

A newspaper article was brought to my attention regarding the presentation of a 3D Live Via Satellite football game at a competing theatre, and I laughed so hard that I cried. My theatre was not lucky enough to be one of the 81 theatres to present this football game in 3D, as we were committed to other satellite broadcasts later in the week, but I’m sure we would not have had the problems that this rival theatre had. Here’s an excerpt from the newspaper article:

…

Those in attendance saw the action in ways they have never seen it before. Fox, using a separate crew from its traditional national broadcast, featured play-by-play man Kenny Albert with analyst Tim Ryan and camera angles not typically seen.

As something new, there was an expectation of good and bad from the broadcast, and that expectation was met. Yet, from 7:34 p.m., when the audio of the live feed announced “Welcome to Miami in 3-D,” it was clear this was not a typical broadcast.

The negatives were obvious. No running game clock. Rare graphics with the down and distance. Missed action. For whatever reason — most likely something about the curve of the plastic — the 3-D glasses don’t work well unless worn upside down. Go figure.

…

My best advice for those working in 3-D is to seek out help from Disney. Those of us in Central Florida know what that entertainment company can do in three dimensions. Disney has figured it out, starting with glasses that work well right-side-up.

…

The first part is pretty straightforward, until you get to the third paragraph, and then to the final paragraph.

1. The negatives were obvious. No running game clock. Rare graphics with the down and distance. The technology and implementation of the technology still has bugs. These bugs can only be sorted out by trial and error. Obviously, these are complaints about features offered via television that are not offered for the 3D broadcast. Somewhere along the line, when the core of the 3D broadcast is in its final stages of betterment, these features will probably be added. For now, you just have to accept that you gave up these things to be able to see the game in 3D, which is something not widely available with television.
2. Missed action. As with any television broadcast, it doesn’t matter how many cameras you have. You are always going to miss something. With the new technology, there are going to be fewer angles and some bad shots. Of course, you have to give them a chance to work these things out. It’s not going to be perfect the first few times around.
3. For whatever reason — most likely something about the curve of the plastic — the 3-D glasses don’t work well unless worn upside down. Go figure. Now, I can’t stop laughing. First, I was laughing because I know what the problem was and how to fix it, and then I was laughing at the brilliant investigation conducted by the writer into the cause of the malfunction with the glasses. I’ll explain everything after this next bit.
4. My best advice for those working in 3-D is to seek out help from Disney. Those of us in Central Florida know what that entertainment company can do in three dimensions. Disney has figured it out, starting with glasses that work well right-side-up. This is where I cried. The magic of this paragraph is in the full lack of understanding the writer shows for his subject. A sports writer should not write about technology. I’ll explain this, along with the previous item, below.

I have to begin my explanation with item four. Disney may have a name in the Digital 3D market, but they are by no means the name for the technology. Disney Digital 3D is distributed as a method of 3D presentation in the digital market. The name implies that the movie is processed for 3D projection and projected with digital technologies, as opposed to the standard film presentations. Disney Digital 3D still requires third-party hardware to project the feature in the correct 3D format. Disney has not developed 3D glasses or projection technology, so they are not the people to talk to when it comes to getting things right for third-party presentations. The real name in digital 3D projection is currently RealD, and here is where things get interesting.

The hardware being used by the theatre in the article is the RealD system. The glasses being handed out, which were worn upside down, are specific to the RealD technology. I won’t go into the technicals right now, but the projection is based on polarization of each frame of the movie specific to the eye that is meant to view that frame. The Z-Screen at the projector “encodes” the image as it makes its way to the screen, and the lens that matches that polarization “decodes” the image so it is seen by that eye only. If the Z-Screen polarizes a frame for the right eye, but it is meant to be seen by the left eye, things look wrong, and flipping the glasses fixes the issue. Here’s the thing, though. RealD thought about this when they designed their system, and there is actually a switch on the back of the RealD processor that inverts the polarity! The projection manager or tech at the theatre in question should have noticed that the polarity was reversed and flipped the switch to correct the issue! It’s not about the curve of the glasses, it’s about the understanding of the technology by the projectionist who is presenting the show.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand that there are some things that not all projectionists know about the hardware they are working with, but the person in charge – the projection manager or lead technician – should have been the one calling the shots when it came to something as large as a live 3D presentation of a football game that is also being covered by the newspaper. This person should have been aware of a pretty significant piece of information regarding the hardware in use. Especially considering that this switch occasionally has to be flipped depending on the 3D feature being presented, which is why the switch exists!

Good times.

And then there was the issue that I had at my theatre with the satellite broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera. This is where my headache was spawned. Midway through the first act of La Rondine, the audio popped and I wasn’t sure of what caused it. I checked the soundrack and metered the outputs from the processor, but came up empty. Then, 50 minutes into the first act, the audio disappeared. I had zero output from the decoder and zero input from the feed. The audio wavered before finally returning… at 55% of nominal. Through the rest of the first act and the entire intermission, the audio dropped out only to return at no more than 55% of full. I spent nearly 45 minutes trying to find out if the problem was on my end, or if it was at the transmission site. As it turned out, the broadcast site had an issue and every theatre presenting La Rondine was experiencing the same issue and following the same troubleshooting steps. Ultimately, we offered all of the guests a gratis ticket to another Met Opera, and sweetened the pot with a raincheck to come back and see a movie on us, so there was no animosity towards the theatre. However, we also do encore presentations of each opera via DVR, so the issue remains. We’ve been informed that the encore presentation will not have the same problem, but that would mean they need to rebroadcast the opera to the DVRs and request a QC for proper presentation. I’m really not looking forward to that. La Rondine is one of my least favorite operas.