Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting the House of Blues in Dallas, TX. While this may normally be an entertaining adventure, this time I was "entertaining" by giving an educational course on 3D as part of the Stampede "Big book of AV Tour 2010" event. The course was tailored to the Pro AV needs and covered the basics of Stereoscopic 3D, presented various examples of 3D images and discussed the opportunities for 3D in the ProAV space.

As you can imagine, the locality doesn’t include normal meeting rooms, so the presentation took place out in the open taking a strain on my vocal cords. The setup was based on a small 3D capable projector and a 3D laptop computer. Using active glasses from XpanD (thanks for lending us the glasses) via DLP link, the audience was able to follow the presentation in 3D.

All this sounds simple enough, as I am describing the same scenario that almost every road warrior faces every day in their business meeting. In this case 3D literally adds a new dimension to the complexity required to make this work. Besides using compatible components, one has to carry the glasses and make sure they all come back safely. The next step is to find software that allows you to wow your audience with 3D images that are not only entertaining but explain all the new important aspects of 3D. There is no place on the Internet to download the pictures you need, so in most cases, they have to be created one by one. Currently, Microsoft doesn’t offer a PowerPoint version that is capable of displaying stereoscopic images. As the presentation software of choice, this is a big hurdle in creating 3D presentations. Thankfully we found some custom software (Instant Effects-thank you for your help) that achieves exactly this task.

This brings me to my key takeaways from this meeting.

1. The ProAV community is getting aware of the 3D movement that is currently penetrating the consumer markets with 3D capable TVs, Blu-Ray players, active glasses and 3D broadcasts via satellite and cable. While they see there is something happening, they just don’t know where and how this 3D trend could fit in their business field.
2. As 3D displays (glasses-based and glasses-free) are just penetrating the ProAV market, there is currently a lack of understanding of the basics of 3D and where to find suitable content sources. More information will surely be provided in the future by the manufacturers, but meanwhile, the ProAV group is struggling to get up to speed.
3. Without the right content, particularly 3D curriculums for the education market, ProAV will have a difficult time seeing the potential for stereoscopic 3D displays.

There is certainly a high potential for 3D in many areas and unlocking this potential requires a lot of footwork and imagination from the designers, installers and integrators in the AV world. But 3D is not just a hardware install. It requires dedicated content and an understanding of the factor that create a successful 3D experience. There are 3D opportunities out there in ProAV, but it will take effort, education and partnering to be successful.

In case you are interested in this field, you have another chance to learn more about this during the December 8th event in Los Angeles, CA. Just follow this link www.stampedeglobal.com and sign up for the event. I am looking forward seeing you there.

In case you want to learn more about 3D courses from Insight Media as an independent information source, visit us at www.insightmedia.info.