Performance Video Recording

Yesterday was Kathryn's Spring dance performance, and as usual I bought a video recording of the show. These video recordings fall well short of seeing the performance in person, not because they are poorly done, but because of the format and resolution of a video recording.

Videos are designed to be displayed on a television screen which is nearly square. Performances on a stage are several times wider than they are tall. Dance team performances are done on a basketball court, which are even larger than a stage, though the aspect ratio is about the same. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width to the height of the image that is being recorded, or displayed.

Video recording is now being done digitally, and there are software programs available to "stitch" together images from adjacent cameras. The remote control for a typical DVD player has surfeit of buttons for manipulating the image on the screen. It would really be nice if you could somehow combine all this so you could:

• record the entire width of the show
• zoom in on your area of interest during playback

OK, so dance recitals are a relatively small market, but what about sports? Well, most people want to watch sports live, not much of a market for recordings of last weeks basketball games, except maybe for people who make their living from sports performances, professional athletes, coaches, etc.

Ever watch a game and have someone suddenly come into your field of view and change the outcome of a play? And then wonder: where the devil did they come from? If you were recording the whole field, you could look back and find out.

Playing back a very wide image of a sports or artistic performance on a TV would be a bit of trick. If you zoom out so you can see the whole field, the image on the screen will only be a few inches tall, maybe a fourth or less of the width of the image. If you zoom in to watch someone in particular, you are going to be panning back and forth more or less constantly in order to follow them around the field. That is another advantage of televised sporting events. They do that bit for you, and they have people who are really good at it.

Coming up with a set of controls that would enable you to easily view what you want would be a bit of a trick. Of course, if you had a really high resolution, really wide display, you could just follow the action with your eyes. But I don't think such a display is even available these days. You could use three or four wide angle displays placed adjacent to each other, but you would have these vertical bars interrupting the image, and according to Murphy's law, that is where the critical action will be taking place.

Still and all, I think performance video recording with a very wide aspect ratio could find a very receptive market.