Toolbox

Christie has donated high-performance projection technology and installation services to the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in San Diego. Installed by Christie’s professional services team, the Christie Solaria Series DCI-compliance based system will deliver digital cinema images via the Solaria One projector, as well as alternative content powered by the Christie SKA-3D cinema processor. The solution, which replaces a first-generation Christie digital cinema projector, will light up the 226-seat Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theatre at MOPA, a professional quality, nonprofit theatre venue in San Diego. MOPA is host to diverse film festivals and screenings reaching over 10,000 people annually.

Founded in 1983, MOPA has established an international reputation of excellence through its presentation of high quality exhibitions, lectures, publications and films. Its mission is to inspire, educate, and engage broad audiences through the presentation, collection, and preservation of photography, film, and video. MOPA is one of the only museum facilities in the United States dedicated exclusively to lens-based media, with holdings of over 8,000 photographs by 700 artists and a 20,000 volume research library, making it a one-of-a-kind destination for scholars, researchers, and photography and film enthusiasts of all ages.

Christie’s CEO Jack Kline was inspired by MOPA’s educational role in the community, especially its desire to expand visual literacy for people of all ages. Driven by Christie’s commitment to good corporate citizenship and support of worthy causes in the community, the company’s gift will benefit local film festivals, film directors and producers, and community groups, who partner with MOPA to bring important local and international independent films to San Diego’s audiences.

“Community giving has always been a high priority for Christie, especially when it comes to the advancement of education and the arts,” said Kline. “Our acclaimed projection technology will ensure that MOPA will not only continue to be a one-of-a-kind destination for photography, but also serve as a resource where future generations of students can enjoy and appreciate the cinematic arts as well.”

Deborah Klochko, executive director at MOPA, said, “When our theater opened in 2001, we selected the finest projection and sound equipment available, including a Christie projector system. After more than a decade of near-constant operation, the current system was still serving the museum, a testament to the outstanding quality of Christie products. When the time came to replace our projector to meet current industry standards, it was only natural that we turned to Christie once again for their remarkable technology and reliability.

“The digital projection capabilities provided by Christie, combined with our ability to project 16mm, 35mm and other specialized formats, make MOPA one of the premier nonprofit venues for cinema in Southern California,” added Klochko.

Christie’s donation was joined with a $20,000 grant from Las Patronas, a philanthropic organization that has donated over $17 million to San Diego organizations since 1946.

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) members will lead a variety of sessions during the IBC2014 exhibition in September. The Society will offer “Laser Projectors Part 1: Seeing is Believing” and “Laser Projectors Part 2: Is the Devil in the Details?” as part of the IBC Big Screen Experience. Produced and chaired by Peter Ludé, past president of SMPTE, the session will address the impact of laser projection technology on digital cinema and provide a look at breathtaking images shown on the Big Screen Experience’s 6-Primary laser projection system from Christie.

SMPTE will also co-produce “Go With UHD-1, or Wait for UHD-2?” as part of the IBC Technical Stream. In this session, Dr. Hans Hoffmann, past SMPTE standards vice president, and Howard Lukk, a SMPTE standards director, will lead a discussion with major players in this space to explore strategies and standards for content creation and delivery to the home.

Additional sessions featuring SMPTE members include “Trifocal Camera Systems” as part of the IBC Big Screen Experience; and “Movie-making in the Matrix,” presented by SMPTE Governor Richard Welsh, who will join fellow experts in examining virtualized movie production. SMPTE will also present “EDCF Global D-Cinema Update,” in which an impressive array of SMPTE panelists—including SMPTE Governor Angelo D’Alessio—will bring attendees up to speed on the latest business and technology developments in digital cinema.

As an IBC2014 partner, SMPTE is once again supporting the Rising Stars program, which offers exclusive conference sessions tailored to tackle the topics most important to young professionals. This popular program gives new entrants to the broadcast industry the opportunity to meet top industry experts across a series of specially staged sessions and events. Throughout the show, SMPTE members will volunteer their time and expertise to provide guided tours of the exhibition floor to Rising Stars participants. Through this program, SMPTE helps to foster the successful rise and advance of young creative, business, and technology professionals working within the industry.

Vicon, the motion capture technology specialists for the entertainment, life sciences and engineering industries, has announced a series of customer presentations that will take place at its SIGGRAPH booth (#733) on August 12-14 in Vancouver, Canada. Customers spanning media and entertainment, education and virtual product design will share their motion capture expertise and provide insight into their latest projects. Vicon will also unveil groundbreaking new products, and enhancements to its existing motion capture software.

    Framestore’s motion capture supervisor Ben Guthrie, and senior motion capture technical director Gary Marshall, will reveal how they used Vicon motion capture systems for the Academy Award-winning blockbuster, Gravity.

    Leading motion capture studio The Capture Lab will provide insight into how they are creating unique, automated motion capture pipeline tools using Vicon cameras and Blade 2 software.

    Autodesk 3D artist Lukas Faeth will present ‘3D Automotive Visualization with Autodesk VRED Professional’, demonstrating immersive virtual prototyping in action using Autodesk VRED 3D visualization software, a live Vicon system and Tracker software.

    Karl Abson, lecturer in creative technology at Bradford University, will present "An Introduction to Quadruped Motion Capture," using motion capture of a horse in this beginner’s guide to capturing four-legged creatures.

    James Brown, visualization designer at 3D visualization specialists Lumiscaphe, will demonstrate how the company uses Vicon Tracker software and the Apex tracking tool for virtual manufacturing and design.

    Alexis Vartanian, CTO at 3D visualization solutions provider TechViz, will give a presentation on displaying high-resolution 3D virtual prototypes in real time directly from desktop 3D applications in a fully-immersive 3D virtual environment, using TechViz XL software alongside Vicon Tracker and Apex.

Throughout the show, display systems specialist Pufferfish will showcase their latest multi-touch stereoscopic 3D display with Vicon Tracker and Bonita systems. The new display represents a major step forward in virtual reality, whereby volumetric data exits the CAVE virtual environment and enters the room.

Videos of the presentations will be available to view after SIGGRAPH on Vicon’s YouTube channel.

Comic-Con attendees will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to enter the mind of Professor X.

20th Century Fox has created an “X-Men”-themed virtual reality stunt especially for the pop-culture convention, which kicks off Thursday in San Diego. The interactive digital experience utilizes the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, which is not yet available to consumers, to simulate the fictional Cerebro technology used to track down mutants by the character portrayed by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy in the “X-Men” films.

The 360-degree, 90-second virtual adventure will take place on the Comic-Con show floor inside Fox’s booth, where attendees will sit in a replica of Professor X’s wheelchair and virtually hunt shape-shifting mutant Mystique in the San Diego Convention Center. Each experience will be recorded and made available for users to share on social media.

Fox is using the VR stunt to promote the Oct. 14 Blu-ray release of “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” At its booth on the Comic-Con show floor, the studio will sell limited-edition copies of a Blu-ray box set that includes all the “X-Men” films in a replica of the Cerebro helmet.

It won’t be the only use of an Oculus Rift headset at Comic-Con. Outside the convention center at an interactive zone at Petco Park, Fox is also employing the VR technology to transport users to the fictional town depicted in the TV series “Sleepy Hollow.” The second season of the supernatural series is set to debut on the network this fall.

Fox’s use of the technology at Comic-Con is the latest example of how Oculus is making in-roads with Hollywood. HBO similarly used the technology to promote “Game of Thrones” with a virtual rendition of the fantasy series’ icy 700-foot-tall wall during a recent exhibition.

During a demonstration of the “X-Men” experience to The Associated Press ahead of its Comic-Con debut, the short interactive film narrated by a Patrick Stewart sound-a-like mimicked what it might look like to roll into the iconic domed Cerebro chamber depicted in the “X-Men” films and harness Professor X’s telepathic powers to spot characters like Wolverine in a crowd.

Over the past two years, Oculus’ immersive VR technology, which covers users’ eyes and reacts to head movement, has received considerable attention from video game developers, but it hasn’t been released yet for consumers. Facebook purchased the company behind the technology earlier this year for $2 billion.

Several networks, studios and publishers use Comic-Con to hype their upcoming entertainment releases with premieres, panels, autograph sessions, one-time-only stunts and interactive attractions in downtown San Diego. This year’s promotional efforts include Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: Unity” obstacle course and Paramount and Pizza Hut’s full-size replica of the Pizza Thrower vehicle — complete with a working pizza-tossing cannon — from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”