A knee prosthesis in Annency, France, was recently shown in full HD 3D to a viewing audience at a Johnson & Johnson medical conference 2 km away from the surgical site. It was the first time a transmission of a live operation was shown in HD 3D.

Streambox, Inc, Seattle, supplied the software and hardware products for video compression, transmission, management, and playout. Artcast Medical video crews used motorized multicameras equipped with Streambox 3D technology.

This positioning allowed doctors to focus the video on the meticulous placement of surgical tools during the procedure in order to emphasize certain aspects of the operation to the 150 trainees viewing live with 3D glasses at the orthopedic congress. The 1080i video was sent for a total of four hours over a private wireless IP network, at the transfer rate of 20 Megabytes per second (20 Mbps), with only a one-second latency. Participants noted that the live 3D viewing brought a significant improvement to the training.