NHNZ is in the midst of filming 28 3D documentaries for the Discovery Channel's 3D channel, making the Dunedin-based company the largest 3D documentary maker in the world.
Mr Stedman said the growth of 3D television sets was an indication of where the market was heading. Sony had manufactured 80 million units that were 3D capable.
"You have HD [high definition] or 3D. It's another choice and experience. It's not instead of. In that sense, we think there is a significant market worldwide for us, especially with the amount of networks popping up."
The 3D industry was becoming a "feeding frenzy" with everyone wanting to be in there, he said.
Once peak demand had been met, there would be a levelling off and the industry would become sustainable.
The opportunity to film documentaries for Discovery in some of the most famous national parks and tourism spots in Asia, the United States and Africa came because of the long history between Discovery and NHNZ.
Once the opportunity appeared, it was an NHNZ team response with programme development vice-president Craig Meade able to put together a proposition in near record time, Mr Stedman said.
NHNZ would do 10 programmes in China, thanks to its 15 years of work in the country building relationships and gaining access. Even by Chinese standards, gaining filming approval was fast.
"The 3D filming is not a new step for this company. A long time ago, we knew we had to stay at the front edge and maintain our point of difference. Twelve years ago, we were the first company to work in 3D and that has paid dividends."
One of his company's strengths was the flexibility offered by the size of NHNZ and the skills of the staff. Although it did not have the billion-dollar backing of something like the BBC, NHNZ was client driven and had the ability to move quickly, Mr Stedman said.
Mr Meade is understandably excited about the latest developments, as he was one of those who worked on a 3D programme for Discovery 12 years ago.
Technology has moved along since those days and now he describes the 3D NHNZ is making as looking through a window.
There are negative and positive images in 3D. A negative image is one that seems to jump out at the audience, such as a hand reaching out, or a person or animal jumping out from the screen.
Most of the filming being done by NHNZ was positive, giving it the effect of looking through a window, he said.
"That's why this stuff will work - there is something to it."
Mr Meade, among others, has been researching 3D for the past few years, convinced that it is about to launch itself in a big way globally.
Conventional thinking within the film and television audience was that 3D filming would cost about three times the equivalent show in 2D, mainly because of the length of filming, he said.
Discovery put out its tender documents for the same money or less for producing 2D shows.
NHNZ staff looked at the tender for two weeks, realising it was a big opportunity but remaining concerned about the so-called industry logic on costs.
At the last moment, a flash of inspiration meant that staff realised they could film 3D for the same money or less because 3D shots needed to be much longer than those in 2D, Mr Meade said.
For 66 distinct 3D shots, there would be about 1500 in 2D as 2D shows have edit points every 10sec or less throughout the programme. Sometimes, 2D shows could have 10 edit points in the space of 10sec.
"If you cut quickly in 3D, your eyeballs will rocket around your head. The shots go for 90sec or more."
Eyeballs did go through a wider range than normal when looking at 3D because of the depth of the images.
The industry "experts" who predicted shooting in 3D would be much too expensive did not understand the concept of letting the cameras run to explore things like Old Faithful and waterfalls, he said.
Companies around the world were coming to recognise that NHNZ was at the sharp end of the industry and had been asking for work to be done but Mr Meade was cautious about saying yes to anyone.
As each episode for Discovery was completed, Mr Meade felt more confident about thinking about extra work.
Among the issues he was considering was the effect on the eyeballs of people viewing in 3D. Perhaps some shots were too hard to look at or was it like reading, the more you did it the better you would be at it.
"No-one knows right now."
When Mr Meade first worked on 3D, he was convinced it did not exist because he could not see it. Everyone else was "oohing and ahhing", but he believed they were having him on.
Research showed that about 10% of the population could not see some 3D but could see other 3D pictures.
"The stuff we are doing now ... I am so amazed at the pictures. I can look it at go 'wow'. I love the impact."
Asked if 3D was a fad, Mr Meade believed it would only grow in popularity. There was something about the product that made people want to see more of it.
Partly, it would be an education process. People had to wear glasses of some sort now, but television sets were being made that would allow 3D to be seen without glasses. However, the down side was that like the original black and white television sets, viewers had to sit directly in front of them.
Mr Meade was confident that technology was moving so quickly that it would not be long before televisions would be manufactured to allow people to watch 3D from different angles.
New Zealand would probably be a late adopter of the technology because of the distance from the main markets.
The country was only just becoming part of the move to high definition, he said.
It could be three years before there was a choice of programmes on television although people could buy or rent DVDs.
The programmes made by NHNZ would be shown on Discovery 3DNet and sold to other countries.
All of the associated research would be part of his ongoing development into 3D filming, Mr Meade said.
