Sony Virtual Production Studio opens! XR shooting of tall buildings is gradually emerging

In recent months, virtual studios have been established in many places, XR technology has been frequently used in large-scale events, and the combination of virtual shooting technology in various film and television drama shooting has made XR virtual shooting more and more popular.

01 Sony Black Crystal virtual production studio opens in Shanghai

This month, Sony (China) and Shanghai Yujian Guanchi Technology Co., Ltd. jointly built the country's first black color crystal virtual production studio grandly opened.

This virtual production studio is located on Yuyuan Road near Jiangsu Road in the center of Shanghai. The studio uses Sony Black Color Crystal B series LED screens. The screen height is 5.47 meters, the arc length is 15.2 meters, and the total area is 83 square meters. The LED screen has a brightness of up to 1800nit and a high contrast ratio of 1000000:1.

Black Color Crystal Virtual Production Studio

It is reported that Sony aims to create a high-standard virtual production solution. This virtual production studio is equipped with three core products: Sony Black Color Crystal LED screen, CineAltaV2 movie camera, and Sony 4K HDR monitor.

In terms of Sony's black color crystal LED screens, Sony engineers have made many product improvements for virtual studio applications. The brightness can reach up to 1800nit, which is almost unaffected by light. It also has excellent anti-reflection properties. The DOI indicator value is 0, and there is almost no reflection.

The wide viewing angle can reach 170 degrees horizontally/170 degrees vertically, and there is basically no color cast when shooting from the side. The black color crystal LED screen is equipped with an X1 chip, allowing the LED screen to support a wide color gamut including sRGB, DCI-P3, and BT.2020.

In addition, Sony has also developed two functions specifically for virtual production design. One is Camera Sync. The Black Crystal B series LED screen is used in conjunction with Sony CineAltaV /CineAltaV2. The shutter opening angle and frame rate of the camera are set on the display side, and synchronization is achieved through advanced algorithms.

The other is to support the mainstream lighting control protocol Art-Net, which can freely control the use of LED screens as lighting, and can adjust the color temperature and RGB values of the black color crystal LED screens through the same operation control interface together with other lighting equipment., etc., improve and simplify the work flow.

In addition, the studio is equipped with a mobile LED screen, which makes it easier for photographers to complete dual-machine shooting, reduce rendering pressure, supplement the shooting effects of different camera positions, and can also complete high-quality color filling light, real-time positioning and other tasks.

This virtual production studio can also realize cutting-edge motion capture technology. Thanks to its advanced UE5 real-time rendering system and OptiTrack optical motion capture and tracking system, it accurately captures and tracks camera motion through 24 high-speed cameras and synchronizes it to UE5., display the rendered picture on the LED screen in real time through low latency.

02 Using 6000 LED panels, an XR virtual shooting project completed in Australia

Recently, a large-scale XR virtual shooting project was launched in Australia.

NantStudios, a US-based XR virtual production special effects company, announced that its Australia subsidiary has built two new LED virtual production stages at Docklands Studios in Melbourne, claiming to be the world's largest virtual shooting stage using LED screens.

Photo source: NantStudios

One of the virtual production stages is a 40-foot (12.19-meter) high rounded LED screen wall composed of 6,000 LED panels. The stage has a total of 25,000 square feet. It also includes an LED sky screen architecture design that can be dynamically operated directly through dedicated 3D software to illuminate light as a lighting component.

The LED virtual stage facility can accommodate a large immersive scene and multiple virtual scenes at the same time, and a smaller single virtual stage is built through the LED screen wall in the sufficient space of the studio.

In the studio, another LED virtual stage with a height of 26 feet (7.92 meters) also adopts an LED canopy design, which is suitable for use in small and medium-sized scenery and shooting scenes with moving vehicles.

Data shows that NantStudios is a well-known virtual production visual effects company with decades of experience in virtual production and visual effects, and has participated in the production of many film and television works.

In 2021, NantStudios teamed up with Redio and film and television production company Lux Machina to build an immersive virtual production park with 360 LED screens in California, USA. The park uses Redio's BP2 and CB3 LED screen products respectively for stage LED video wall and skyscreen construction.

03 XR virtual shooting blooms at multiple points

Recently, in the 95th Oscar,"Instant Universe" received attention. During the shooting process, ROE, a brand owned by Zhouming Technology, provided multiple LED displays and virtual shooting solutions for "Instant Universe."

It is reported that the visual effect of space-time conversion is to use virtual shooting scheme. Yang Ziqiong sat in the center of the screen with LED display screens placed in three directions and performed the corresponding actions in slow motion. Finally, she adjusted the speed through post-production to achieve the effect of transmigration.

Not only film and television production, XR technology has also become standard in various large-scale activities, and the application scenarios of XR technology have become wider and wider, achieving a pattern of blooming flowers.

In addition to the above companies, many display companies are vigorously deploying metaverse and XR virtual shooting technology, such as Liard, Zhouming Technology, Abison, Lehman Optoelectronics, Alto Electronics, and Shijue Guangxu.