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3D Carmen Coming To A Cinema Near You

3D Production at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House (ROH) in London continued to break new ground as a leader in digital distribution of the arts: It was the first opera house to film and distribute full length productions in 3D for a mass audience.

In a partnership with global 3D cinema technology provider, RealD, the ROH will bring operas and ballets exclusively to RealD equipped cinema screens around the world offering a stunningly realistic entertainment experience using digital 3D technology. The first opera to be filmed and shown in RealD 3D will be Bizet’s Carmen, the world’s most popular opera and a firm favourite with Covent Garden audiences. Carmen was filmed in June for autumn 2010 release in theatres.

The very successful production of Carmen by director Francesca Zambello will be specially filmed using 3D cameras over two sessions during which the complete opera will be performed with the cast including Christine Rice, Bryan Hymel and Aris Argiris.

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Broadcast RF uses LINK technology to bring opera to life in 3D

Broadcast RF were commissioned by Carmen 3D Ltd to provide a 3D camera system for their project at the ROH in Covent Garden and they have been busy adapting LINK’s HD transmitters to build their own 3D HD wireless camera rig.

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To ensure both cameras (left & right eye) were perfectly synchronous the two signals were transmitted over a single 7GHz video link. The use of LMS-T modulation and 20MHz RF bandwidth offered pristine High Definition picture quality. In addition to the video link, Broadcast RF also provided wireless telemetry for the Sony HDC P1 cameras, including iris, black level, paint and cue light control.

Using 3D technology and filming in a cinematic way will enhance the experience for the audiences in cinemas and builds on the portfolio of ROH productions already available in high definition 2D in cinemas across the world.

The ROH cinema presentations including the progression into 3D operas and ballets, is part of a broader digital media strategy which ensures that the ROH has the capability to showcase its work across a wide range of media. This includes television and radio broadcasts, cinemas, Summer Big Screens, DVDs by ROH’s classical music distribution company Opus Arte, online and via mobile technology, therefore enabling people across the globe access to ROH performances. The Royal Opera House recently became the first arts organisation in Europe and the third in the world to launch its own iTunes U site.

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