Concept
The conventional way of doing things forces you to buy multiple devices and make them work together. d3 offers a new method for integration.
What is d3?
d3 is the world’s first fully integrated production system for video production professionals, a unified, easy to use complete show solution, d3 supports your production throughout the show creation process to delivery, saving you time and money every step of the way.
It’s a real-time 3D stage visualiser, timeline based sequencer, video playback engine, and content mapper, all integrated into a single piece of software that runs on your own laptop or dedicated hardware.
The tool you use to design and visualise your show is the same tool you use to deliver it live – just transfer the show onto one of the powerful d3 rack-mount servers and press play. Now there’s a single tool and a cohesive workflow you can use during all stages of your project, with no work wasted.
Once you’ve experienced the power of integration, there’s no going back.
Revolutionary features for your show
Realtime 3d simulation
Navigate in 3d in realtime, simulate screens, lights, and projectors, including their lenses, pick camera angles and render fly-through movies to present to client and win that pitch.
Advanced content mapping
Use the industry’s most advanced content mapping features to easily map content onto multiple led, projection and DMX-based screens of any shape and form, whether static or moving.
Timeline editing
Use d3’s intuitive timeline and layer tools, including powerful 3d content mapping, for easy control of unlimited layers of media. Easily beat-map audio, sequence to the beat or to the frame, and control the timeline using a range of MIDI protocols, Artnet or OSC.
Playback
Using both standard and proprietary video codecs plus advanced pre-fetch technology, a maximum of 6 HD can be composited in real-time across multiple machines. All major image formats are supported, while 3D mesh objects include texture maps for effective venue and prop simulation.
Output
d3’s unique feed scene editor allows for real-time control of any output, including those of virtual displays from within an master/slave network. Move, scale, rotate, mirror, crop, duplicate and mask out an unlimited amount of content rectangles across all outputs.
Show integration
From d3’s advanced device manager, achieve real-time control of virtually any device directly from the timeline. Capture live HD video at 1080p, send and receive ArtNet, MIDI, OSC while plugging into your media layers using expressions. Control matrixes and switchers from the timeline, analyse audio and trigger effects, live.
Network
d3 scales across an unlimited number of machines, with frame accurate control. Together with sequencing and editing updates of slaves and slave machine status check – all in real-time. The automatic understudy take-over feature means that you only need one back-up for even the most complex of set-ups.
Show-file management
The top-level control of d3state lets you make new projects, set output movie and screen grab size and formats, set up master/slave network and other programme controls. Intuitive libraries, editors and managers are the tools for maintaining control over all objects and resources including devices, video, images and 3D meshes giving full user control.
Auto-backups
d3’s advanced back up and safety toolkits are embedded within the system. Roll back, history, auto-save, checkpoint, archive are all integral components to every project, while notifications and console files instantly assist in system profiling.
Why use d3?
Communication
For complex productions, 3D visualisation isn’t a luxury, it’s a must. From rental house to stage designers, performers to engineers, content creators to camera directors, clients to funders, everyone needs to get a clear idea of what they are creating and why. The trouble with conventional visualisation is that it takes time. If your client wants to know how something looks from a different angle, or how some last-minute content will look, you’ve got to spend another couple of hours waiting for a render.
With d3, your visualiser is real time. So you can look at your stage and your content from any angle, instantly. You can move fixtures around, try different resolutions, change venues and props, all while you’re presenting.
No more “I’ll get back to you on that”: get it decided in the meeting.
Content
With conventional media servers, the first time you really see your expensive video content is in rehearsals. By that time, it’s too late: you’ve already spent most of your content budget, and you’ve run out of time.
With d3, you can drop test video content onto the stage visualiser and understand instantly how it will look and feel, from any angle. If your content is the wrong resolution, moves too fast or too slow, or doesn’t read, you’ll catch it immediately, long before you ever build your stage. d3’s unmatched mapping abilities let you apply content effortlessly across LED, lights and projectors, letting you create compelling effects that would be impossible with conventional media servers.
The result: a better show for your money.
Confidence
With d3, you can make your show visible to your client as you develop it in the studio, long before you get near a stage.
Now your client understands, well in advance, how everything is going to look and feel. So they can tell you when something isn’t working for them, and you have time to change it. Now you can arrive on site with the show almost finished, knowing you won’t get a nasty surprise when your client walks on set for the first time and says “I didn’t realise it was going to look like that”!
And that wins you something money can’t buy: peace of mind.
Who uses d3?
Originally produced to pre-vis the content for the U2 ‘Vertigo’ tour in 2006, it was quickly recognised as a powerful tool, not just for pre-vis, but for playback as well.
Used either as a pre-vis tool for content verification, a sequencing tool for content creation, or for everything including show playback, d3 has been used on many live tours (U2 ‘360’, Jay-Z ‘Blueprint’, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘I Believe In You’); theater productions (Fela!, Carrie, American Idiot, Broadcast Events such as: MTV Asia and European shows, Pan-American Games, BAMBI Awards); commercial events such as car launches, building projections and many more.
