This Sunday I attended a great presentation at the IBC 2008 conference. The first transatlantic 3D live video transmission was shown. The CEO of Dreamworks (Shrek) was interviewed sitting in front of a nice office park in LA while the audience at IBC in Amsterdam watched it all on a big screen in 3D with polarized glasses on. (this company here claims to be THE source for 3D glasses)

They also showed 3D clips from the last (Kung Fu Panda) and their next upcoming animated movie (Monsters vs. Aliens) which were absolutely outstanding and highly impressive. Looks like that 3D will be the next really big wave in video viewing as Mr. Katzenberg said comparable to what happened when audio and color were made available quite some time ago now. We all see in 3D so it is only natural to also give that same 3D experience watching video was his explanation why soon everyone will make movies in 3D. And there are no technical hurdles any longer. Made sense to me and the live demo showed what new exciting movie theater times are ahead of us. Also Walt Disney and I suppose many other studios are working on 3D versions of their movies. While Dreamworks does not seem happy yet with the technical possibilities to transform existing 2D-made movies into 3D versions others seem to have less of a problem. Looks like Star Wars is being redone in 3D which makes of course a lot of sense for many of the outer space scenes and then Star Wars movies always tried to move the technical boundaries further.

The driver for the consumer markets will be gaming since in gaming you have ideal conditions sitting close to the screen Mr. Katzenberg said. Dreamworks also seems to work with Intel to help bring 3D experience to the mass markets. In the US 3D displays are already sold since about 2 years and by end of 2009 - just for the next Shrek movie - about 80% of all cinemas in the US will have 3D viewing capabilities already Mr. Katzenberg predicted. Or 80% of the audiences will be able to see it in 3D; I think that's what he probably said...