Abbison and Bocai join hands to create the world's largest single LED virtual studio: Cold thinking

On July 14, at the opening ceremony of Deqing Bocai AI Virtual Film and Television Base, the world's largest single LED virtual studio created by Abison and Bocai Media made a stunning appearance. It has a 270-degree ring screen with a diameter of 50 meters and a height of 12 meters., a screen area of 1700㎡ and 600 million pixels, is undoubtedly a new milestone in the current field of LED virtual shooting. This achievement may seem bright, but an in-depth examination of the development of the market and industry also reveals many challenges and points worth pondering.

1. The potential crisis behind the technological advantages

Abbison overcame a series of technical problems such as HDR display, color reproduction, high frame rate, high refresh rate, and moire and twill optimization for this project, and built a leading LED virtual shooting technology system. The pitch accuracy of 1.8 mm is also promoted. Industry technology advancement. However, the competition situation in the industry is changing rapidly. In the current LED virtual shooting track, companies such as Zhouming, Alto Electronics, Shijue Guangxu, and Liard also occupy an advantageous position and are all continuing to invest in research and development. Liard has been deeply deployed in the field of motion capture technology. If its mature motion capture technology is further integrated with LED display technology, it is expected to create a more immersive and interactive virtual shooting solution; Zhouming Technology is also exploring The integrated application of LED display technology with cutting-edge technologies such as multi-camera shooting and AI modeling. Once these competitors make new breakthroughs in key technologies, Abbison's technological advantages built by this project may be quickly weakened. In addition, the rapid iteration of technology also means a shortened equipment replacement cycle, which means higher equipment investment costs for film and television production companies. If Abbison cannot continue to make efforts to reduce technology costs and improve technology stability, film and television production companies may be discouraged from adopting its advanced technology.

Second, the uncertainty of market demand and commercial implementation

LED virtual shooting technology uses a virtual scene + a small number of scenes to greatly improve the efficiency and immersion of film and television shooting, which theoretically meets the demands of the film and television industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Market data also shows a growth trend. As of 2024, the number of domestic LED virtual studios will exceed 40. The global virtual shooting market will reach US$2.79 billion in 2024, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 13.3%. However, there are still many obstacles in actual commercial implementation. On the one hand, traditional film and television production teams are accustomed to real-life shooting and post-production processes, and their acceptance of the new LED virtual shooting technology is uneven. Some directors and photographers are worried that virtual shooting will limit creative freedom and make it difficult to achieve the artistic effects they expect; On the other hand, the application of virtual shooting technology requires coordinated transformation of the upstream and downstream industry chains of film and television production. From the script creation stage, the construction of virtual scenes must be considered, and new technical processes need to be adapted to post-production. However, at present, the coordination mechanism between various links in the industry chain is not yet mature, which leads to poor connection problems during the advancement of virtual shooting projects. Although Abbison has implemented dozens of benchmark projects in many places around the world, how to replicate and promote these successful experiences and overcome the last-mile problem in the marketing process is still a difficulty facing him.

3. Considerations on cooperation model and long-term competitiveness

The cooperation between Abbison and Bocai Media can be described as in-depth and close, with full collaboration from scheme design to construction debugging. However, over-reliance on a single partner or specific project poses certain risks to Abbison's long-term development. If Bocai Media reduces its investment in LED virtual studio projects due to its own business adjustments or changes in the market environment, Abison may face the dilemma of declining business volume. From a more macro perspective, Abison needs to build a diversified cooperation ecosystem, not only cooperating with film and television production companies, but also strengthening cooperation with multiple entities such as software developers, hardware equipment manufacturers, and film and television colleges. Working with software developers can optimize content creation tools for virtual shooting and improve creation efficiency and quality; working with hardware equipment vendors can achieve seamless connection between devices and create more complete virtual shooting solutions; Cooperation with film and television colleges can cultivate professional talents for the industry, enhance the industry's overall awareness and application level of LED virtual shooting technology, and thereby enhance the market competitiveness of its own technologies and products on a broader level, rather than just relying on individual high-quality projects to maintain market position.

The world's largest single LED virtual studio built by Abbison and Bosch is indeed a highlight of the development of the industry. However, in terms of technical competition, marketing and cooperation models, Abbison still needs to prepare for rainy days and constantly adjust its strategy in order to continue to lead the emerging and volatile market of LED virtual shooting, transforming a temporary technological lead into a long-term market advantage.