You’ve followed the BRAVIA-drome ad from concept to post-production. You’ve even enjoyed a sneak preview of the final cut.

Now the wait’s over as the commercial hits TV screens and the new Motionflow site goes live. Click here to view the new site and see great behind-the-scenes videos, more of Kaká and Motionflow demos.

While standard TVs have a 50Hz frame refresh rate, meaning that high-speed action can look blurred and appear to flicker, Motionflow 200Hz quadruples the frame rate to produce a clear picture that’s judder-free. The end result is an intense, enhanced experience and action sequences that look as if they are happening right in front of you.

Casino Royale

Bond movies are pretty much all one amazing action sequence full of breathtaking stunts and explosions. The first Bond film with Daniel Craig is no exception.

The 6th Day

Arnold Schwarzenegger does what he does best in this movie about a sinister human cloning operation that is sweeping America. When Schwarzenegger finds he has been cloned, it’s a fight for survival to escape the assassins who will stop at nothing to kill him and single-handedly stop the cloning of humans.

Hancock

Will Smith plays Hancock, a superhero with a bad attitude, a bad reputation and a bad drink problem who costs the state a fortune in damage to public property. This is action adventure with a comedic angle is packed with explosions and awesome special effects.

Watch the Hancock trailer

Surf’s Up

A computer animated mockumentary, this movie follows Cody Maverick, a penguin who wants to become a famous surfer like his idol Big Z and win the annual Big Z Memorial Surf Contest. Full of lovable characters and brilliant surfing scenes this is a fantastic film for all the family.

Watch the action-packed clip

Men in Black

In this hit from 1997 Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones star as agents from a top secret agency that monitors alien activity on Earth. Men in Black is a classic science fiction adventure flick with a comedy twist and one big Bug - which the heroes must find and exterminate in order to save the galaxy.

Watch the Men in Black trailer

With the BRAVIA-drome ad due to premiere in April, Jonathan Davies of the Motion Picture Company takes us through the production process.

MPC were involved early on with this project, is that unusual?
We do sometimes get involved with pre-production but this project was different because we were going to build something. Ben Scott took care of the BRAVIA-drome’s aesthetic, Artem did the engineering and we provided the technical information to make sure that it was built to the right size.

At the beginning everyone thought we could just spin the zoetrope and do any kind of animation. But you’re constrained by the physics, how big the image will be, the number of frames you need, how fast you have to spin it. There was about two months’ work upfront.

How did you work out what was needed for the moving image?
We used a 3D package called Maya to visualise the spin. There were certain considerations to take into account, like the size of the square in Venaria, the need to produce around three seconds of animation and to get the image of Kaká as large as possible. We ended up with 64 images, which is around 2.5 seconds of animation.

Then you filmed Kaka doing a series of football tricks?
Once the BRAVIA-drome was built we knew exactly the size and number of images we needed of Kaká. The problem was how to get them to the right dimensions, because film resolution only goes up to a certain size. So we took a technical approach, and turned the camera on its side. That way, we got the most information possible on to the 35mm negative. Joining the loop was tricky. The sequence had to be shot in a particular way so that when Kaká kicks the ball out of frame it can come back in at the same height.

Did you have any problems capturing the BRAVIA-drome on film?
There were issues when it was spinning. If you have people standing in front of the BRAVIA-drome making fast movements you’ll see a series of jagged lines, a bit like an optical illusion. We had to make sure people didn’t move too quickly.

How much footage did you shoot?
We shot about 13 hours’ worth of footage on Sony HD cameras, and the ad itself will be 60 seconds long. That’s a lot more footage than normal, but the editor was on set to deal with the camera rushes. Next step is to do an edit that everyone’s happy with, grade the selected shots, colourise them, then clean up the piece. Sound recording and mixing take place at the same time. The final part of the process is when sound and picture are put together.

Does the post-production team follow a script?
They’re following a storyboard and something called a previz, which we do before the shoot. It’s a basic 3D animation of what’s going to happen in the ad. We take every shot from the storyboard and from the brief and build them into an edit. It gives everyone a chance to see what the finished piece will look like.

What did you think when you saw the BRAVIA-drome in action?
It looked amazing and quite surreal because the image is so clear. Although I knew how it was made, with printed images, it really does look like one single moving image – a bit like a huge circular TV screen.

Sight is so immediate and familiar that it’s easy to overlook just what a staggering process it is. While we all associate the sense with our eyes, that’s just the beginning of a breathtaking cascade of computation going on inside our heads.

Research suggests that our brains have separate systems for perceiving colour, objects, faces and motion, which is what we’ll look at here.

Fired up by motion
Scientists have used a number of different techniques to explore motion perception. One approach has involved electrophysiology, which measures the electrical activity of a neuron, or brain cell, while the brain is doing something. In this way scientists have found that a large number of neurons fire up at the back of an animal brain only when the eye records motion. More specifically, certain neurons seem to be associated with movement in particular directions.

You can see this for yourself. Just like muscles, neurons tire if you use them too much. So if you stare for 30 seconds at an image moving in one direction, then look at a static object, like your hand, it will appear to be moving in the opposite direction. This happens because the neurons which have not been tired out upset the overall balance leading to the illusion of motion. Try it out here.

What happens when it goes wrong
Another way of delving into motion perception is to analyse what happens when it goes wrong. In 1983 a report described the experiences of a woman with damage to the area of the brain already identified by electrophysiology. Instead of seeing moving images, her vision of the world was as a series of static snapshots, like living with a stroboscope in your head.

Distinguishing between types of motion
Another decade would pass before neuroimaging (fMRI) arrived, allowing scientists to peer deeper into the fizz of neural activity that accompanies motion perception. Intriguingly, this technique revealed that our brains seem to separate the movement of humans and objects. So the sight of Kaká speeding across the pitch is processed in a different area to the vision of a ball flying through the air.

How Motionflow 200Hz helps
How does Motionflow 200Hz fit in to all this science? By quadrupling the frame rate, our brains no longer have to guess what’s happening between frames because all the information for perceiving crisp, smooth motion is provided by the TV.

Get the inside scoop on building the BRAVIA-drome from supervisor/designer Simon Tayler at Artem, the SFX company behind its construction.

What was your brief?
We’ve had extensive experience of large mechanical projects at Artem, but in our 20-year history there’s been nothing quite like the BRAVIA-drome. Our brief was to build an enormous, beautiful, sculptural piece that would look more like a work of art than a traditional Victorian zoetrope. It also had to display a large, bright, clear, smooth image to emphasise the qualities of Sony’s new Motionflow 200Hz technology.

How did you balance beautiful design with precision engineering?
I was lucky enough to be able to assemble a superb team of technicians to develop the construction. We collaborated closely with Art Director Ben Scott who in turn was liaising with the Creative team at the advertising agency, Fallon. This process proved to be really efficient, because it meant my team and I could concentrate on mechanical, construction and logistical issues.

How does the BRAVIA-drome differ from traditional zoetropes?
In a traditional zoetrope, the image is viewed through a sequence of vertical slits in the side of a rotating cylinder with the images positioned on the inside opposite face of the cylinder. This means that the images tend to look quite small. One of the prerequisites of the brief was for the image to be as big as possible. I had the idea that we could move the image plane much nearer to the slit plane thus reducing the size of the image and also making the central space of the cylinder available for the mechanics necessary to rotate such a large object as such high speed. This seemed fine in theory but we weren’t entirely sure it would work so we built a 1:10 scale model to see.

Did the BRAVIA-drome work first time?
The first time we ran the BRAVIA-drome the image, although animating perfectly, looked blurred. When the zoetrope spins the viewer sees each image through a slit. Both the image and the slit are moving and it’s a quality of the way the eye and brain work that forms a continuous moving image. This is called persistence of vision, and it’s the basis of all moving image reproduction.

Our problem stemmed from the fact that the image is moving all the time and doesn’t stop like movie film in a projector, so as you view each image through a slit the image will move a little as the slit passes your eye. The wider the slit, the larger the movement, and the more noticeable the blur.

So how did you fix it?
The size of the slits had been calculated to provide enough light for the film cameras to get an exposure, but it was causing excessive blurring. We solved the problem by narrowing the slits and increasing the light level inside the zoetrope. It’s a bit like altering the light level and aperture in a camera.

Was it tricky, balancing speed and image size?
The rotational speed was a function of the desired quality of animation. It was established that we needed to animate at 25 frames per second (the same as film) and that the image needed to be as big as possible, and that the animation should be as long as possible. After looking at many combinations and a careful consideration of the maximum size, we thought we settled on a measurement of 10 metres in diameter and 64 images. And that meant the zoetrope would be spinning at 23.4rpm, which equates to a velocity of just over 44kph.

What’s the BRAVIA-drome made of?
The main structure is constructed from laser cut steel and aluminium. It designed in CAD and drawings were sent to a number of subcontractors. Laser cutting is a very accurate technique so when we got the parts back they fitted perfectly, and could be welded together like a giant kit.

Given its speed, how did you prevent the BRAVIA-drome from breaking up?
The structure is inherently immensely strong and the design integrates two sectional steel rings. These are made up from separate arcs which when bolted together form what is known in engineering as a torsion hoop. This is like the steel ring on a wooden barrel, a design which will withstand enormous expansive force.

And how did you get it to spin?
The entire central assembly is mounted on a device called a slewing ring. This is like a giant ball race with a geared ring around the perimeter. The geared part is driven with a large electric motor. The whole thing is not unlike a sort of fairground ride in scale, only much more precisely engineered.

Do you have any favourite inventions that combine striking design with cutting-edge engineering?
I particularly like Thomas Heatherwick’s rolling bridge at Paddington. It’s beautiful, very simple but effective. You can look at it and see what it does.

I have never lost my childhood love of aeroplanes. Every time I fly I am in awe of the modern jet plane. They are a beautiful example of form following function. I can’t look at a plane without thinking of Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine. There can’t be many inventions that have had a greater impact on the way we live.

What’s it like, inventing a new technology? Get the inside story on Motionflow 200Hz from its developers, Sony engineers Kyoichiro Oda and Wataru Mamiya.

Identifying the task in hand
Oda: “I began wondering what the key features would be for next generation LCD TVs and felt the focus had to be on the quality of fast-moving images. We did a careful evaluation of existing image-improvement technologies and found that each involved a tradeoff between the components of LCD display performance. For example, the picture might be improved but luminance is reduced.”

Coming up with an idea
Oda: “So what technological approach would we take towards achieving the perfect picture? Initially we thought about making the pixel response time faster. Then an idea surfaced: we could double the refresh rate from 100Hz to 200Hz. We didn’t expect to see a big difference. Surprisingly, the result was remarkably crisp and natural motion.

“We also discovered that there were no apparent differences in motion sharpness between 100Hz and 150Hz. Nor could the human eye discern between 200Hz, 300Hz or even 400Hz. That settled it. We decided to aim for a target frame rate of 200Hz.”

Getting practical
Mamiya: “Television signals are broadcast at 50Hz, which means that an image is refreshed 50 times a second. How could we quadruple that rate to hit 200Hz? By inserting additional frames into the picture.“

Oda: “Using technologies we already had, together with our capability to adapt an IC frame-rate converter, we were able to create the world’s fastest frame rate display.”

Team work
Oda: “Our test screening for colleagues was a huge success. We got the go ahead to develop 200Hz and what had started as a two-person project became a huge team effort. Everyone worked together to maximise the benefits of 200Hz frame rate technology so that users could enjoy the absolute best in picture quality and technical innovation.”

The future
Mamiya: “Motionflow 200Hz is a world first, but it isn’t the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a new chapter in our pursuit of groundbreaking innovations in display engineering.”

BRAVIA Z4500 hit the shops last year, complete with Motionflow 200Hz. The technology has been hailed as a world first, but what does it actually do?

Picture this. It’s match day. You turn on your TV and there’s your team pelting down the pitch, in razor-sharp detail. That’s what Motionflow 200Hz delivers. Our revolutionary motion enhancement technology captures every kick, every swerve, every flick at 200 frames a second. So you get action that’s as smooth and clear as real life.

Standard TVs have a 50Hz frame refresh rate, which means that high-speed action can appear to flicker and blur. By quadrupling that frame rate Motionflow 200Hz produces a picture that’s crisp and judder-free.

The technology works by adding three frames to a fast-moving sequence. It predicts movement in all directions and creates new images to match these movements, so any gaps in the action are filled. The result is an intense and immersive viewing experience. From sports to games, action movies to cartoons, Motionflow 200Hz means you won’t miss a thing.

Despite last week’s frenzied speculation about a record-breaking transfer to Manchester City, Brazilian international Kaká has announced that he plans to stay at AC Milan.

Commenting on his decision he said: “At the moment I don’t want to change anything.

“All the messages that I received said to choose with the heart and I think in the end that has been the decision. It is absolutely not about money.”

The former FIFA player of the year, and star of our BRAVIA-drome TV ad, is known as much for his strong principles as his deftness and speed on the pitch, a point he proved by turning down the £15 million a season reportedly being offered by Manchester City.