‘World’s highest-resolution XR stage built for rental’
Utilising ROE Visual 1.5mm LED, interactive LED flooring and the disguise xR workflow, the stage in Northern California is attracting interest from corporate clients, VFX firms and film producers.
WorldStage and Intrepid Studios have joined forces to open the highest-resolution Extended Reality (xR) production stage ever built. Located at Intrepid Studios’ comprehensive 12,000-square-foot production and post-production facility in San Rafael, California, xRStage-SF is aimed at the virtual event, corporate, broadcast and film production communities.
At xRStage-SF, two ROE Visual Sapphire 1.5mm pixel pitch LED panels, one measuring 11 x 20 feet and the other 11 x 10 feet, meet at right angles and frame WorldStage’s interactive LED i5FLOOR. The set is powered by disguise xR and gx 2c media servers with 4K capabilities for live or pre-recorded camera capture. As the exclusive North American Certified Solutions Provider (CSP) for disguise, WorldStage has what is claimed to be unparalleled expertise in implementing the media servers’ built-in xR applications and integration with the Notch and Unreal real-time content engines.
xR production stages combine high-resolution LED video walls and an LED floor with 360-degree virtual backgrounds that are rendered in Unreal Engine or Notch content environments and then tracked, composited, and recorded in real time. xR environments can run the creative gamut—from photo-realistic cinematic exteriors and interiors, to dramatic studio sets, to all manner of abstract and highly imaginative scenes. Inside these virtual worlds, the camera perceives amazing depth, parallax and vanishing points – just as in real life. Actors or presenters can see and interact with the details of the scene they are immersed in instead of just a blank green screen in a typical VFX studio.
With xRStage virtual set extensions, user can expand the scope and scale of wide shots far beyond the physical limitations of the set. Using augmented reality (AR) layers, actors or presenters can also interact with foreground 3D objects – creating exciting, dimensional experiences. Once all of these capabilities are integrated with practical props, almost any vision becomes possible. And because everything is being created in-camera, in real time, producers walk away with finished material – avoiding the time and expense of compositing in post.
“We’re very excited to bring this amazing visualisation tool to creatives working in every aspect of digital content production. It offers unlimited creative potential that will usher in a new era of digital storytelling,” said Mark Pedersen, CEO and president of Intrepid Studios and Intrepid Creative.
“Covid-19 has been a wake-up call to rethink event marketing,” he continued. “You can’t replicate big-room live event experiences in an online world. You need to design content for virtual event environments that takes advantage of the medium to hold audience attention for all kinds of messaging. xR is a phenomenal option that can take audiences anywhere.”
WorldStage was the technical partner in the launch of the disguise xR workflow at NAB 2019 where it was awarded Product of the Year, and went on to demo the concept at the company’s annual NEXT Technology Demos in New York and San Francisco.
“Extended Reality is enjoying rapid adoption in the corporate event and cinema industries, becoming one of the fastest growing segments of our portfolio,” said Richard Steinau, senior vice president of WorldStage. “Increasing numbers of clients are eager to use various aspects of XR to create immersive content and explore a new world of possibilities. For digital events where engagement continues to be challenging, XR offers highly dynamic content with considerably improved production value vs today’s virtual presentation formats.”
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Posted: 29th June 2020