@VinceCable trying out our minority report style glasses-free 3D advertising system

At the UKTI Techworld 2011 exhibition today we had the chance to showcase our unique interactive, gesture controlled,glasses-free stereoscopic 3D advertising/application system to Dr Vince Cable, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills. The system combines state-of-the-art display technology, gesture/body tracking and 3D rendering technology.

He had to leave and we only got one photo, hence the slightly dodgy look on Saifs face!

Unfortunately we didn't win the 2011 enabling creativity business innovation award - congratulations go to PhoneDevil.

However, we were runners up in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) competition and won a UKTI supported exhibition package for CES 2012.

It's the biggest technology show in the world and is held annually in Las Vegas. Saif Chaudhry, Creative Director said, "It will give us the opportunity to showcase our "Minority Report" style autostereoscopic advertising system to potential customers, investors and clients from around the world".

Now then, any volunteers to help carry the glasses-free 3D displays to Vegas?!

Stereografix Shortlisted For "Enabling Creativity" Business Innovation Award @UKTI Tech World 2012

We have maintained radio silence over the last few months working away on something very cool - a "Minority Report" style "glasses-free" stereoscopic 3D gesture controlled advertising system (try saying that without pausing!). We will be showcasing this and more as part of the Sunderland Software City delegation at the UKTI's Techworld 2012 exhibition next week at the ExCeL. The system allows people to control interactive adverts using gestures or their entire bodies! For instance a user can use their hand to pull and object out of the screen and spin it around by moving their hand left or right. What makes this more impressive is that this is all happening in "glasses-free" stereoscopic 3D - which means that the object will appear to be physically floating out of the screen in front of the person.

We thought it would be worth entering our prototype in to the expo's "Business Innovation Awards" under the "Enabling Creativity" category and are proud to announce we are one of the final three companies to be shortlisted. Here are the details from the Techworld Website - http://www.techworld.uk.com/businessinnovationawardsanddinner:

Business Innovation Awards

PA Consulting Group, the leading international management, systems and technology consultancy group, is supporting UK innovation by sponsoring TechWorld’s 2011 Business Innovation Awards.

Now in their 4th year, the awards showcase the very best of British innovation. After receiving a record number of entries, we can now announce the three shortlisted companies for each division:

Enabling Creativity

·         Avatar Games Recruitment Ltd

·         PhoneDevil Limited

·         Stereografix Limited

·        

Energy and Environment

·         Cyclone Technologies

·         NanoSight

·         Onzo Ltd

·        

Digital Connected World

·         Immersive Forensics Ltd

·         Radio Design

·         Ve Interactive Ltd

·        

What happens next?

The Business Innovation Awards will be presented at the opening plenary on the morning of Thursday 17 November.

One of this year’s judges, Colm Reilly from PA Consulting said, “This year's entries were of a particularly high quality, underlining the growing strength of these awards. Choosing a winner from such an excellent shortlist is going to be very tough. I am really looking forward to meeting the finalists at the award ceremony and sharing, at first hand, their enthusiasm, creativity and commitment to innovation."

2010 winners of the Business Innovation Awards

Intrinsiq Materials Ltd (Category: Emerging & Nano Technology)
The Farnborough-based company has created a copper ink formula which is lower-cost, more productive and reduces the use of toxic chemicals.

PhotonStar LED Ltd (Category: Energy & Environment)
The Romsey-based company has created ultra-efficient Smart LED light fittings. They provide 70 per cent additional savings by maximising daylight and minimising artificial light.

AEP Networks (Category: Digital Connected World)
The Ascot-based company has created Auto Sky Roaming: an online roaming device enabling ships, trains and aeroplanes to have reliable, easy access without any service loss.

We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope to add this award to our "Shell-Livewire - Grand Ideas" award earlier in the year. If you would like to find out more about the system, or try one of the demo applications, please visit us next week November 16th & 17th at the Techworld 2012 Exhibition - http://www.techworld.uk.com/conference.

Announcing our new collaboration with Teesside University - "An Introduction to Directing 3D TV" #stereoscopic #necreatives #3dtv

An Introduction to Directing 3D TV

Friday 27 May 2011

9.30am – 4.30pm

Sound Stage, Teesside University

Price: £475 – Skillset TV Skills Fund training subsidies may be available for eligible participants

Since Sky TV launched the first European 3D TV channel in April 2010, many other global broadcasters have announced or launched 3D services of their own. As demand for 3D home entertainment continues to increase, directors and content developers will embrace the medium to enhance the viewing experience of their work and meet the expectations of the industry.

Led by Sunderland-based 3D specialists Stereografix, this one-day workshop will provide you with an overview of the technology behind the three main 3D formats, before demonstrating how to produce material for them. You will learn about the principles of stereoscopic camera systems and the hardware and software involved – in short everything you will need to consider when successfully developing 3D content for television.

Training subsidies for those working in the TV industry:
While the full cost of the workshop is £475, you may be eligible for a Skillset Craft & Technical Bursary from the TV Skills Fund which could fund up to 80% of your fees (for freelancers) or up to 50% of your fees (for employees). This would mean that this training could cost you just £95 or £238 respectively.
For information on how to apply for a Skillset Craft & Technical Bursary please click here

To book your place on this course or find out more information, please email saif.chaudhry@stereografix.co.uk. Please note places are very limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

Yours sincerely

Saif Chaudhry

Creative Director - Stereografix

About Stereografix:

Stereografix is one of the world’s first integrated stereoscopic 3D content and technology consultancies. Their expertise covers all medias where 3D content development is emerging, including TV and film, photography and games technologies.

"Spottee's" Cave 3D Projection System - A Quick Overview

The brief was simple (for us anyway); design and install a 3D projection system that allows a range of interactive entertainment and experiences to take place. The location = one heck of a challenge; a cave formed in a limestone-magnesium ravine along the seafront of Sunderland. Local legend says the cave was home to (and named after) a French sailor locals called "Spottee", who's ship wrecked on the rocks along the Roker coast. He couldn't afford to rebuild his ship and made the cave his home, doing odd jobs in Sunderland to try and scrape a living. Rumour has it that he eventually died in the cave and his ghost has been spotted on stormy nights warning ships to stay away from the rocks!

Back to the tech! We looked at several different 3D projection systems but right from the offset the LG CF3D stood out as the most user-friendly and practical solution. We already use passive LG monitors in our production/post pipeline, so had no doubts about the quality of LG's 3D solutions. Their attitude as the only big 4 manufacturer to provide affordable active and passive solutions in the first series of 3DTV sets stood out and we hope they continue to follow this path in the future.

On to the sound, we needed to use a surround sound system that was compact and could be placed in custom-made weatherproof housing and once again LG provided us with the answer; The excellent HB405SU 5.1 surround sound system. The compact satellite speakers were the perfect shape and size for our housing and easily sat in crevices around the cave. This gives the illusion that sound is coming from the cave walls as the speakers are hidden from view and provides exceptional sound quality given the cost and size of the components.

We built a custom playback computer to allow the playback of both 2D and 3D media. This was made possible by Nvidia's 3DTV Play drivers that allow graphics cards with a 1.4 capable HDMI to drive a 3DTV/Projector.

At the heart of the system is a Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), the first choice for any 3D gaming and blu ray playback system. We used Call Of Duty : Black Ops to test 3D and calibrate the projector and the experience is intense. The size of the screen takes up a large percentage of a viewers peripheral vision which greatly increases the stereoscopic 3D depth perception effect.

Uniquely this system will be used for community events, school trips and may be available to hire for private use. Keep an eye on the Sunderland City Council website for more details of when you can get in to have a look.

@3DF33D Our comments on your comments about our Stereoscopic 3D Website! #3DTV #Stereoscopic

I appreciate the fact that you took the time to put some comments about our "3D Website" and the info you put up about the history of 3D steaming on the web is interesting. On the first page of the site it clearly states "The Stereoscopic 3D Web is probably the world first Stereoscopic 3D website designed for viewing exclusively on the new generation of 3D HD TV sets."

From Wikipedia - "A website (also spelled Web site[1][2]) is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

Based on that definition we think it probably is the first complete website where everything is stereoscopic and designed for viewing exclusively on a new generation 1920x1080 3DTV set. There have been plenty of websites with 3D video streaming apps, such as the fantastic work you are doing, but nothing that is made up entirely of stereo pair images, text, buttons etc, that will generate a perception of depth when viewed through a 3D TV. I would not describe the ability to stream 3D video as a website, rather as a feature of a website - in all the things you have listed the images, text, buttons etc used to create the collection of assets surrounding the 3D streaming feature were not created in a stereoscopic 3D format. Therefore these cannot reasonably by described as a "3D Website", rather as a website with the ability to stream 3D video data.

Check our our latest press release #3DTV #3D #Stereoscopic #Webdesign #Innovation #webdevelopment http://bit.ly/hvYVcy

Sunderland business launches a 3D world first

A young entrepreneur is making sure his business stands out with the launch of the world’s first 3D website.

Saif Chaudhry brought a new dimension to Sunderland’s business portfolio when he set up one of the world’s first integrated stereoscopic 3D content and technology consultancies in the city earlier this year.

The company has now launched the world’s first stereoscopic 3D website www.stereoscopic-3d.co.uk allowing users to surf the internet in 3D using the latest generation of 3D capable HD TV sets.

Saif, who has a background in 3D, launched Stereografix in March. The studio and consultancy offers a range of services to organisations looking to tap into the latest 3D technology.

Supported by Sunderland City Council and Sunderland Software City, Saif chose to locate his business in Sunderland and is already working on a number of projects for local, national and international clients.

Stereografix has also developed a programme of 3D training courses designed to enable existing businesses and freelancers to learn the skills needed to create stereoscopic 3D CGI, games, film and photography.

He said: “In addition to offering a revolutionary content production and consultancy service, we are keen to make sure the UK is a world leader in 3D. Therefore we have developed a range of 3D training courses and 3D development workstations to enable others to work with the technology. Candidates on the training courses may also be eligible for up to £800 of funding through Skillset.

“Many businesses still have the misconception that they require a Hollywood budget to produce high quality 3D. However, thanks, in part to the fantastic support of Sunderland City Council, Stereografix has opened up this technology to the education, gaming and new media sectors.”

A University of Sunderland graduate and originally from Manchester, Saif says that Sunderland stood out as the ideal place to develop his business.

He added: “For a cutting edge media business, we needed a cutting edge city and Sunderland has it all. It combines an excellent IT infrastructure with several purpose-built sites each specialised for different sectors with great road, rail, air and sea links.”

Stereografix has already worked with Sunderland City Council to create a short 3D promotional film to support the city’s recently-launched Economic Masterplan. The company is also partnering with Durham University on a range of research and content production projects.

Councillor Bryan Charlton, Sunderland City Council’s portfolio holder for Prosperous City, said: “Stereografix is a business right on the cusp of a new wave of technology that will no doubt spread rapidly throughout the world.

“We are delighted that Mr Chaudhry has chosen Sunderland as the base for his business. It is extremely exciting for the city to be part of the development of a business that has such magnificent potential and it will be exciting to see Stereografix grow as the world of 3D hits our TV screens.”

Saif hopes that Stereografix will attract customers who want to produce 3D media at a realistic cost.

He added: “In Hollywood, just the cost of hiring the equipment to make 3D films would likely be around $75,000 per day. We have used our expert understanding of the science and technology behind 3D to develop our own tools and pipeline that enables us to deliver the same service at a lower cost.”

Stereografix has also engineered a range of 3D workstations which are designed specifically for 3D post-production and which will create an affordable finishing system for would-be 3D creators.

“Our workstations have been designed from concept specifically for 3D post production. In order to make them accessible to studios with varying budgets there are 3 different base models available; “Entry”, “Professional” and “Extreme”. The entire range is completely modular which enables clients to upgrade from “Entry” to “Extreme” over time and we have a huge range of customisable components to make sure each workstation is tailored precisely to each clients individual needs.”

He added: “We have been able to design the range thanks to our world leading 3D expertise, but without a combination of the latest Nvidia® technology and Adobe® software it would have been a lot harder.”

Stereografix aims to grow and establish Sunderland as a 3D production hotspot and has ambitious long term plans to develop world leading 3D production and post production facilities throughout the city.

Issued on behalf of Sunderland City Council by MHW PR. For further information contact Jo Baron on 0191 233 1300.

To contact Saif direct email saif.chaudhry@stereografix.co.uk 

Just met Councillor Charlton from #Sunderland CC for a photo shoot

Big thanks to Jo Baron from Mitchell Halton Watson and Vicky Happer from Sunderland CC for organising and waiting for me! This is for another press release for the Economic Master Plan launch which is less than two weeks away!

Check out this article on the FT with a quote from us! http://tiny.cc/lockv

I haven't checked if the story has been printed too but it's nice to make the national press - even if they do spell your name wrong. The full quote was:

Saif Chaudhry, Creative Director of Sunderland-based business Stereografix, one of the world's first integrated stereoscopic 3D content and hardware consultancies, said:

“After conducting extensive research throughout the country into the UK’s entrepreneurial hot spots, we decided on Sunderland as the best location to set up Stereografix in March 2010. It has a world class IT infrastructure, great transport links, excellent EU support and a Council Investment team that offers fantastic support packages to start up and growing businesses. This combined with competitively-priced office space and land means businesses can both start and grow successfully even in the current economic climate. We have also been selected to help launch Sunderland City Councils "Economic Master Plan" which will allow us to showcase our products and services to MPs, national body representatives and Blue Chip company executives. As Stereografix expands, we will make use of the emerging software, technology and new media graduates from the regions universities and are talking to several about developing stereoscopic 3D course modules and/or collaborating on stereoscopic research and development projects. Many businesses still have the misconception that they require a Hollywood budget to join the stereoscopic 3D revolution, however thanks in part to the fantastic support of Sunderland City Council, Stereografix has opened up this technology to the education, gaming and new media sectors through our studio, consultancy and training courses”

Here are some more articles on the story:

http://bit.ly/cwPunw

http://www.ne-bic.co.uk/news-article.aspx?id=50

#Sunderland City Council have commissioned us to create a #Stereoscopic #3DTV video showcasing various locations around Sunderland

As part of the economic master plan launch we have been commissioned to create a stereoscopic 3D video showing various locations around the city. This will be showcased as part of our stand to a select group of MP's, national body representatives and Blue Chip company executives. We will make some of the clips and photography available after the event, if you have a 3D TV and want a copy please check back in a few weeks for the download links.

We are proud to announce we have been chosen to represent Sunderland at the Economic Master Plan Launch

The event is taking place on October 19th and is being held in Westminster Hall, London. We will be showcasing a range of Stereoscopic 3D technology to a select to guests including MP’s for the Science and Technology Committee/Scientific Committee, Business select committee, Computer and Video Games Industry APPG, Parliamentary and Scientific APPG, Digital Economy APPG and national press including science, technology and digital & media editors.