Camera tracking and virtual production technology provider Mo-Sys has announced it will be showcasing its new StarTracker Mini at the 2025 NAB Show between April 6-9 in Las Vegas.

The StarTracker Mini, a ultra-compact, all-in-one camera tracking system, is designed to make camera tracking solutions accessible to content creators, in-house studios, and educators.

The StarTracker Mini offers the precision and dependability of the company’s StarTracker Classic, now condensed into an ultra-compact package with no external processing unit. The StarTracker Mini is specifically designed to meet the needs of content creators who operate in more confined spaces and lack the ceiling height of full-scale studio facilities served by StarTracker Max.

Unlike SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technologies, the StarTracker Mini knows its place. It requires no re-calibration between setups, ensuring reliable operation without interruption. Its immunity to interference from direct light or changes in ambient lighting conditions makes it an ideal solution for smaller in-house studios, as well as corporate and education facilities.

"We are proud to be showcasing the StarTracker Mini, which brings the power of our StarTracker Classic technology to a wider range of users," said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. "Our latest addition to the StarTracker line reduces the complexity of absolute tracking and is set to transform the way content is created in compact studios, providing the accuracy and reliability that the film and broadcast industries expect to content creators, educators and the corporate sector."

Mo-Sys will be showcasing the StarTracker Mini at NAB Show 2025, at booth N3039 in the North Hall,

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—LG Electronics has acquired a stake in Mo-Sys Engineering, a developer of virtual production solutions and camera robotics.

The strategic seed investment and partnership will expand LG Business Solution’s capabilities in the virtual production and broadcasting technology segments, enabling LG to deliver a more comprehensive lineup of sophisticated hardware- and software-based solutions, according to Ki-mun Paik, senior vice president and head of the Information Display business unit of LG Business Solutions Company.

“This new partnership and the unique value we’ll be able to deliver to customers combines LG’s mastery of display technology with Mo-Sys’s expertise in virtual production solutions,” said Paik. “LG will continue to pursue collaboration with partners to strengthen its capabilities as a provider of B2B solutions and innovative experiences.”

Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys Engineering, said, “Having LG’s support as we continue to innovate in the field of next-generation virtual production technology will enable us to enhance our R&D efforts, drive sustainability and create more efficient production solutions.”

Formerly the exclusive province of the movie industry, virtual production studios are becoming increasingly popular with TV broadcasters, as well as corporations and educational institutions seeking to create their own content in house. Employing a wide array of advanced technologies, including large-scale LED screens, camera tracking, LED controllers and media servers, virtual production stages have brought a new dimension—and a raft of new possibilities—to the art of visual storytelling.

LG has established itself in this growing segment, providing its Micro LED and LED screens for both virtual reality (VR) studios and extended reality (XR) stages. Now, through its strategic partnership with Mo-Sys, LG will be able to offer a fuller range of solutions for virtual production and XR studios, Paik explained. As part of the agreement, the two companies will be able to seamlessly support customers who choose to combine LG’s LED displays and controllers with Mo-Sys’s XR products and systems to create a total solution for XR

These solutions will be on show at the IBC Show at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 13-16. LG will be in Stand 3.B45 and Mo-Sys is in 7.B45. For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/.

Missed any of our recent product news? Here is TV Tech's weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between August 19 to August 23. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday August 23, day by day back to our stories from Monday August 19.

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LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering will showcase MoViewer, a cost-effective and fully autonomous system that integrates with existing studio infrastructure to transform virtual production for multi-camera projects during IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

Delivering an AI-assisted, real-time, perspective accurate preview of all cameras to directors, MoViewer is compatible with all LED screen manufacturers and processors. The product brings a traditional on-set workflow into LED virtual production without technology constraints. It eliminates the need for expensive per-camera render nodes and returns full creative choice of shutter speeds and exposure, empowering teams to express their vision without restrictive technical limitations, the company said.

The company also will showcase a new, customer-led addition to its robotics lineup with a miniature remote head designed for rapid and precise operation of smaller payloads. The team will invite audience participation with MoCaptury, a suit- and marker-free motion capture technology. The system offers precise, reliable tracking and user-friendly operation in an all-inclusive package that provides high-performance hardware, intuitive software and dedicated mounting accessories, the company said.

A series of Mo-Mentum panel talks will focus on complete solutions. Guest speakers will share their experience and uncover the details behind collaborations and client success journeys, it said.

Visitors also will be able to participate in hands-on workshops showcasing Mo-Sys's latest technologies, including real-time virtual production with green screen and LED using StarTracker Max and VP Pro software in Unreal Engine.See Mo-Sys Engineering at IBC 2024 Stand 7.B45.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Virtual reality and its close relatives, such as extended reality, have been completely accepted into the workflow of high-end productions. Stepping into an LED volume, you can be transported anywhere from Antarctica to a planet embroiled in an imagined science fiction war. All it takes is a lot of pixels and a good imagination.

[Editor’s note: Here are a few of the examples of virtual reality technologies and case studies that were on display during the 2024 NAB Show. This article first appeared in the NAB Daily.]

MO-SYS VFX SOLUTION FOR DR. WHO ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:

Mo-Sys Engineering recently announced that NearTime, its automated re-rendering service for on-set virtual production, was used to deliver VFX scenes for the “Dr. Who” 60th Anniversary Specials. In 2022, award-winning boutique studio Painting Practice, with CGI, animation and VFX specialists RealTime, approached Mo-Sys to develop a cost-efficient workflow for an episode of “Dr. Who” that required more than 250 VFX shots and was expected to be heavily VFX-dependent. Traditional VFX approaches would have been cost-prohibitive for this episode.

RealTime and Mo-Sys had previously collaborated on a Netflix production called “Dance Monsters,” which involved combining six cameras and eight monster characters in real time using the Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys VP Pro to create a live light-entertainment show. As part of this project, Mo-Sys and RealTime developed a pipeline for transferring precision camera and lens tracking data from Mo-Sys StarTracker through to post production to help automate and dramatically speed up the VFX workload.

By putting pre-visualization, on-set camera tracking, real-time pre-viz, NearTime rendering and automated VFX pipelines together, this VFX-heavy episode of “Dr. Who” was completed with stunning visuals at a fraction of the cost of traditional VFX.

XR STUDIOS “DANCING WITH THE STARS”: 

XR Studios, a Los Angeles-based facility with two LED volume studios, put together the season premiere opening for the Disney+ reality series “Dancing With the Stars” using a science fiction theme. Studio A has a 71-foot wide LED volume that is 20-foot tall and curved to provide a depth of 35 feet. Studio A also has an LED floor and a large movable LED panel that can be used to provide special lighting/background effects.

The overhead lighting grid uses many Kino Flo MIMIK light panels that can provide an LED ceiling. The MIMIK lights can also be put on stands to create lighting effects as needed in the production. For “Dancing With the Stars,” the LED volume was used to create an entirely fictional world, complete with spacecraft and hulking planets. The season premiere opening featured the two hosts of the show traveling in space through disco-themed planets. 

“They really wanted to get people looking as if they’re traveling through hyperspace, so we put two Kino Flo lights on lowboy stands right beneath them tilted up at their faces,” said J. T. Rooney, virtual production supervisor at XR Studios.

“The lights had hyperspace content that the talent could see and react to.” A little bit of realism in an unrealistic environment.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE INTEL EXTREME MASTERS — COLOGNE 2023:

In August 2023, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) was held in Cologne, Germany. Extreme sports fans filled LANXESS Arena for the final three days of the competition, dubbed “The Cathedral of Counter-Strike.” This event drew a sizable live audience and more than 700,000 fans online to watch the world’s top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) teams go head-to-head.

IEM entrusted Rocket Surgery Virtual Productions to enhance the video with augmented reality (AR) graphics, immersing the audience and fans at home deeper into the action. Rocket Surgery used a range Ross Video’s augmented-reality technology, including the Voyager Render Platform based on the Unreal Engine, Ultrix hyperconverged routers, a Carbonite Ultra production switcher and an OpenGear frame equipped with a range of signal processing cards. Complementing this array of production room technology was the use of the Spidercam cable-based camera system to provide unique visuals and feed the tracking data required to power the AR images.

To address the challenges presented by the rapid pace of online gameplay, Ross developed a tailored solution combining DashBoard and Datalinq to integrate all their video game APIs and devices directly into the production workflow. Rocket Surgery then programmed a custom DashBoard control panel using the RossTalk protocol, that allowed operators to automatically merge inputs and data with AR graphics in real time.

RESOLUTION STUDIOS IS VIRTUAL THE CENTER OF CHICAGO: 

Resolution Studios is an 86,000-square-foot production complex used for a variety of projects including TV commercials, TV episodes and feature films, located in Chicago’s Near West Side. Planar recently added 400 Planar Venue Pro VX Series indoor LED video wall displays with a 1.9mm pixel pitch that, when fully assembled, form a curved, 80-foot-wide by 14-foot-high LED volume.

Designed for the demands of temporary LED video wall setups, the Planar Venue Pro VX features magnetically attachable cabinets and a quick-lock system for securing cabinets together. The full 80-foot by 14-foot volume can be reasonably reconfigured into an LED video wall that is 60-foot wide and 20-foot tall, or even broken up into multiple formations.

“We definitely have common configurations that we use over and over, but certain shoots require specific layouts,” said Todd Freese, senior vice president and chief technology officer with Resolution Productions Group. “For instance, the way we will set up an LED video wall for a car process shot is completely different than what we would do for a narrative. I don’t ever want to have the conversation of trying to convince a director to shoehorn their creative into a permanent installation that may not be right.”

WHISTLING WOODS EXPLORES INDIA’S CULTURE WITH VIRTUAL REALITY:

Whistling Woods International, a film and creative arts institute nestled in the heart of Bollywood/Mumbai Filmcity in India, is working on projects that combine the country’s rich cultural heritage with immersive storytelling. The Kumbh Mela, occurring every 12 years, is the world’s largest gathering of humanity, where more than 220 million people make their way to a specially constructed city on the banks of the Ganges River. The last Kumbh happened in 2019 and the Whistling Woods crew was there to shoot it.

“Kumbh Mela 2019” will surround viewers in a kaleidoscope of colors, culture and spiritual fervor, as millions of devotees converge for this extraordinary pilgrimage. Through the use of 360 video and virtual reality, this project promises to offer a unique perspective on the Kumbh Mela, highlighting its significance as a symbol of spiritual enlightenment and collective harmony.

With more than 100 hours of content banked, the outlines for what will go on to become the most comprehensive and immersive showcase of the Kumbh are ready and so is a 7-minute trailer. The entire comprehensive docuseries should be completed later this year.

Copyright NAB 2024. 

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced ahead of ISE 2024, Jan. 30-Feb. 2 in Barcelona, it will make its lens files freely available to customers, setting the stage for development of a trade-in, pay-it-forward virtual production (VP) community.

The move gives creators a dynamic knowledge base of free lens files and fosters collaborative advancements.

“Accurate lens simulation is the cornerstone of stunning VP,” said Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler. “Each lens has its own unique properties and replicating that within the virtual camera is crucial for believable results. Traditionally, this required starting with a paid library lens file and then painstakingly tweaking it to match the real-world lens being used. Now, we’re removing that barrier to entry.”

Creators can now contribute to and tap into a growing pool of lens files, eliminating the need to start from scratch. Mo-Sys Engineering also will encourage creators to return newly tweaked files to the library, nurturing a shared resource and accelerating the democratization of VP across the industry, the company said.

The company also is continuing to develop its Lens Tweaker tool to streamline the lens-matching process, making it even more accessible and intuitive, it said.

“We’ll be showcasing cutting-edge VP solutions that harness the power of our lens files. We invite everyone to join us at ISE and experience the future of VP, together,” said Geissler.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Boutique studio Painting Practice and CGI, animation and VFX specialists RealTime relied upon Mo-Sys Engineering’s NearTime automated re-rendering service on-set virtual production to deliver VFX-heavy scenes for the recently aired “Dr Who” 60th anniversary specials.

“This ambitious diamond anniversary ‘Dr Who’ special was set to have more than 250 VFX shots, meaning traditional VFX approaches would be cost-prohibitive. So, we had to think differently,” said Mo-Sys technical director James Uren. 

“Painting Practice use[s] Unreal Engine to create animated pre-visualizations of complex VFX sequences," he added. "Could this be extended to whole scenes or a whole episode? Could we take those pre-visualizations and bring them onto set with the real camera? Could we use Unreal Engine right up to the Final Pixel, automatically re-rendering what had been filmed on set?”

Prior to the anniversary specials, RealTime and Mo-Sys collaborated on Netflix production “Dance Monsters,” in which six cameras and eight monster characters were combined in real-time to capture the production as a live, light-entertainment show. The production relied upon the Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys VP Pro, Mo-Sys Engineering said.

The approach required the pair to develop a pipeline for transferring the precision camera and lens tracking data from Mo-Sys StarTracker through to post-production, helping to automate and speed up the VFX workload, it said.

Working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mo-Sys built and patented the NearTime solution. NearTime offers a dual workflow that enables automated Unreal re-rendering in the cloud. Tracking data is re-rendered with background plates and delivered back with increased quality and resolution in the same VFX delivery window, while making on-set renders available for real-time feedback, it said.

Putting pre-visualization, on-set camera tracking, real-time pre-viz, NearTime rendering and automated VFX pipelines together meant the VFX-heavy special could be completed with stunning visuals at a fraction of the cost of traditional VFX, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering will launch MultiViewXR, an unrestricted, cost-effective multi-camera workflow for LED virtual studios during IBC2023, Sept. 15-18, at RAI Amsterdam.

MultiViewXR enables a traditional multi-camera workflow for virtual studios, offering unrestricted creative controls, maximum color depth and full resolution. A feature of the company’s VP Pro XR, MultiViewXR offers broadcasters and corporate content creators a way to re-composite multiple cameras automatically with support for multiple camera perspectives. The new solution is compatible with all leading broadcast and cine cameras, LED controllers and panels, the company said.

“For the first time, directors can see the correct perspective view of off-air cameras before switching within a limitless XR environment that gives creatives full artistic choice of shutter speeds and exposure,” said company CEO Michael Geissler.  

MultiViewXR uses the company’s machine learning technology to generate real-time AI-assisted director previews. It supports any number of cameras per system while eliminating the need for multiple rendering nodes and integrates with existing studio infrastructure, the company said.

“MultiViewXR addresses what up until now has been a major drawback for LED virtual production,” said Stephen Gallagher, marketing director at Mo-Sys Engineering. “It enables the use of multiple cameras as you’d expect to see in any traditional broadcast and newsroom studio with real-time director previews showing the correct perspective view of off-air cameras while giving creative teams full control over shutter speed and exposure. Broadcast and corporate production teams can now utilize all the benefits of multi-camera LED virtual production without creative limitation, and they can do that within an economical package.”

See Mo-Sys Engineering at IBC2023 Stand 7.C16.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced a major update to its G30 heavy-duty gyro-stabilized remote head. Designed to provide silent operation and capture beautifully smooth cinematic shots, the G30 offers precision movement with superior image stabilization together with simple tech-less operation in a cost-effective package, the company said.  

“The G30 already has a reputation for meeting the real creative needs of cinematographers,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “In developing the next generation of this gyro-stabilized head, we have listened to our users and made something that is even easier to rig, even more intuitive to operate, and even more precise and repeatable in its moves and positioning. We know that cinematographers are always under pressure to get the shot quickly, which is why we give them tools which they understand instinctively.” 

Incorporating several customer-led upgrades, Mo-Sys described the new G30 as a radical rethink of the traditional heavy-duty stabilized remote head. The rigid 45˚ frame geometry supports camera payloads of up to 30kg/66lbs and has been engineered to eliminate the risk of gimbal lock.   

The G30 balancing process has been further improved with the introduction of innovative indexing plungers. These enable the operator to lock off each axis independently during set-up while also aiding safe transportation.  

Based on input from operators, Mo-Sys said that multiple 3/8” accessory mounting points have been added while the thoughtful re-design also sees the introduction of engraved measurement markings to all sliding components for rapid deployment and fine adjustment. 

In addition, an enlarged right side tilt motor through-hole protects cables and reduces congestion, allowing more cables to pass freely through the center and customers can now specify an optional wireless control module, allowing for up to 300m remote control, the company said. 

The G30 ships with an intuitive digital display console. Taking its design cues from the automotive industry it has a shallow menu structure, clear displays showing the current parameter values, and physical controls for direct, tactile operation. It can be used with pan bars, cine wheels or a broadcast console to give the operator the intuitive response needed for the production. 

For more information on the G30 gyro-stabilized remote head, visit www.mo-sys.com. 

LAS VEGAS—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced that it will be showing new technologies for virtual and remote productions during the 2023 NAB Show and that it will be involved in a variety of demos at its own booth (C3325) and with several strategic partners during the event. 

“Virtual and augmented production is now an everyday reality, and the key issues are how to support complete creative freedom, how to implement the technology without impact on production schedules, and how to deliver the benefits cost-effectively and sustainably,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “That is why we have focused on working with partners around NAB, to show the real variety of options and opportunities, and how – whether you are looking at remote production or final pixel studios – Mo-Sys has the right products and solutions.”

Visitors to the Mo-Sys booth will have the chance to take part in a revolutionary, audience-led, interactive virtual production demonstration designed by Mo-Sys Academy graduates Hyper RPG. Hyper regularly reaches audiences over a million for its livestream projects, and has seen 16 billion Giphy views created by its fans. 

Alongside virtual production, Mo-Sys will feature its camera robotics. The heavy-duty G30 is the next generation in gyro-stabilized heads, and it will be shown alongside the two-axis L40, providing precise, robust and lightweight support for high-end cinematography cameras, the company said. 

The B20 two-axis remote head brings precision to the remote control of ENG and broadcast cameras, and the e-Crane is designed specifically for virtual studios, providing best-in-market accuracy, making it ideal for close up AR graphics like analysis tables in sports broadcasts. Extending the remote operation to a global scale, Mo-Sys TimeCam offers zero delay control from anywhere, and will be shown with the RED V-Raptor 8K at NAB.

In addition to its own booth, Mo-Sys will also be involved in other demos with various other exhibitors. 

Mo-Sys will once again collaborate with LG (C6025), where it will host the virtual beer garden in the XR Zone. Here the team will showcase a complete end-to-end broadcast workflow, bMR. bMR features multi-camera switching, set extensions, data fed graphics and simple to use custom interfaces, making it ideal for sports, news and current affairs programs.

Mo-Sys will also be showing MoRail on the LG booth. This is a powerful yet cost-effective approach to adding creative PTZ movement in traditional news rooms, or when combined with StarTracker PTZ adding parallax with tracked graphics within a virtual studio.

In addition, Mo-Sys products will also be in use on a number of other booths and presentations at NAB 2023. These include: 

• AOTO (C7435) will have StarTracker and VP Pro XR powering virtual production with a curved LED wall and floor and set extensions. 
• HP (N2826) will also have a full VP workflow using Mo-Sys StarTracker. Experts from Mo-Sys will also take part in two panel sessions on the HP booth: Closing the Virtual Production Knowledge Gap and Novel Virtual Production Technologies.
• In the Creative Inspiration Zone, Magicbox (C8045) will show the world’s first semi-trailer mobile virtual production studio, built around VP Pro and StarTracker. 
• Sony (C8101) will be discussing practical workflow considerations for LED production, using two StarTracker systems for precision camera movements.
• To demonstrate its latest LED panels for virtual production, Gloshine (C7508) will use StarTracker and the dedicated LED content server VP Pro XR. 
• Tata (W2429) is showing the ability to control a camera over global distances using the Mo-Sys U50 head.

Virtual production has been around for years: Rear/front projection, matte painting, blue/green screen, chromakey, motion capture. Its latest iteration took “The Mandalorian” to bring it to the forefront. In-camera VFX virtual production (aka “Mando Style”) using LED panels to project a background that not only reflects on actors and foreground scenery, but that actors can see and interact with. It’s a seamless transition between the real and unreal.

Research firm Research and Markets reported the virtual production global marketplace was valued at $2.4 billion in 2021, growing to $3.1 billion by 2026. That’s a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3%. But that was in February 2021. By December 2021, CAGR was increased to 17.6%. By October 2022, estimating out to 2027, CAGR was 18.7%. 

Non-Virtual Savings
A term to know is “volume,” the space where virtual production happens. Volumes combined with the rest of what virtual production offers is a cost and time savings juggernaut.

According to A.J. Wedding, co-founder & director of virtual production at Orbital Studios, while the big LED wall is what amazes most people, with virtual reality headsets you can bring all department heads together to scout locations all in one place—saving on travel and time.

From a production cost standpoint, examine the FX series “Snowfall,” where Wedding served as virtual production supervisor for seasons five and six. The series realized a savings of $1 million per season. 

While a 62x14-foot LED wall is used for a penthouse set, Wedding explained the savings didn’t end there. “The car process used to mean one car, one scene and one location. But for ‘Snowfall,’ it meant multiple scenes with multiple cars. That’s saving money and it looks so good. We also used a 20x12-foot LED wall on casters and moved it from set to set to show Paris or Detroit—the production didn’t have to pay for two LED walls, just the single portable.”

With virtual production, the set is typically ready before the actors, with turnaround sometimes 30-50% faster, according to Erik Weaver, head of virtual and adaptive production at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at USC—a think-tank working on standards for the industry and the standardization of education and curriculum within the field.

Until recently, virtual production was limited to complex, outlandish and science fiction productions. “There’s been a radical change in who uses virtual production that will continue,” said Weaver. “The shift is from large ‘Mando’ volumes to places like Stargate Studios that purchased LEDs from Costco to use as side panels outside of train windows.”

According to Weaver, tighter pixel pitch—the distance between pixels in millimeters—will mean cameras can get closer to the LED wall. “‘Mando’ used a 2.84 pitch so the camera was 16-feet away, while a pitch of 1.5 means you can get the camera 3-feet from the wall, that’s what Orbital does. This makes virtual production economically feasible for mid to smaller-sized stages.

For the new History Channel original series “History’s Greatest Heists with Pierce Brosnan,” virtual production significantly compressed Brosnan’s time on set. “This is a really cool crime reenactment show and places Brosnan as though he was in the locations,” said Wedding. “They created the virtual environments based on all the re-creations and shot Brosnan for the entire season in three days, with 11 setups a day and working no more than six hours a day.”

Familiar Names
Last December, Amazon Studios opened Stage 15, its new volume and formation of the new Amazon Studios Virtual Production (ASVP) department. The stage accommodates an LED wall that’s 80 feet in diameter of near wraparound LEDs with two additional floating walls 26 feet tall in a 34,000 square foot space with 46-foot ceilings.

Stage 15 is fully connected into the AWS cloud, and is an integrated part of the production-in-the-cloud ecosystem. The facility provides a camera-to-cloud workflow with direct connection from Stage 15 to AWS S3 storage for cameras, post-production, remote global collaboration and compute power. 

Ken Nakada, head of Virtual Production Operations for Amazon Studios says what’s learned during a project stays with ASVP. “With normal productions, the experience, crew and key learnings wrap at the end of each given project. ASVP aims to retain and build on these learnings, thoroughly document them, and share them across projects to elevate the industry’s use of this new technology.”

In August 2021, NEP Group launched NEP Virtual Studios through the acquisition of Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment. Stage 22 at Trilith Studios outside Atlanta was designed and commissioned by Lux Machina for Prysm and is powered by Lux Machina’s real-time 3D engines. It’s a fully enclosed 80-by-90-by-29.5 foot volume in an 18,000 square foot purpose-built stage, built to accommodate large set pieces wrapped 360 degrees with LED panels, including an LED ceiling.

“Stage 22 incorporates new LED, volumetric capture and structural technologies with amazing image processing capabilities to allow the utmost flexibility for today’s filmmakers,” said Wyatt Bartel,  vice president of Production for Lux Machina. “We’ve seen virtual production grow significantly in recent years. This is partially due to the increasing capabilities and affordability of virtual production technology, broader understanding from filmmakers of its benefits and capabilities, and the number of virtual production companies worldwide.”

Last October, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) announced its first volume located at Sony Innovation Studios. It uses Sony’s high brightness and wide color gamut Crystal LED “B-Series” display, a fine-pitch LED system co-developed by Sony Electronics and SPE for use in virtual production.

It should be noted that others work with LED manufacturers to customize their walls. Orbital Studios works closely with Planar. ETC with a variety of manufacturers.

Live Broadcast Virtual Production
“Mo-Sys has been involved in the evolution of in-camera visual effects [ICVFX] from the very beginning,” said Mike Grieve, Mo-Sys Commercial Director. “We’ve been selling solutions for ICVFX almost as long as we’ve been selling broadcast virtual set and augmented reality solutions.”

Mo-Sys sees companies using its ICVFX solutions because the real-world alternative is either too costly, too dangerous or technically impossible. “ICVFX is normally associated with LED virtual production, but it’s also used with blue/green screen,” said Grieve. “LED ICVFX is popular for commercials and drama, blue screen ICVFX for cinematic drama and green screen ICVFX for general entertainment.”

Then there’s multicamera switching. “When the director switches cameras, it takes five frames for the wall to update with the new camera’s background with the correct perspective based on the camera/lens tracking data,” said Grieve. “This delay has to be compensated for, and that’s what Mo-Sys’ Multi-Cam Switching does.”

For Vizrt/NewTek’s Martin Klampferer, R&D manager and product owner of Viz Engine, virtual production is all about live. “It’s virtual studios, blue/green screen and Viz Engine delivering the graphics,” he said. “And increasingly more about live talent in front of video walls. Viz Engine combines everything, even if using multiple cameras. Viz Engine gets the camera tracking data in 3D space, the key of the talent, the graphics and does the complete compositing, including placing elements in front of and behind the talent.”

Non-Virtual Hurdles
It’s all about education and misinformation. 

“This is not an LED rental, it’s a workflow,” said Wedding. “Producers say ‘let’s rent the LED wall, let me get the individual companies needed,’ but there’s no synergy. No department head on top of it. Something always falls through the cracks and I’ve seen it multiple times. We want to be the one you fire, that way we can control it all—tell people what’s possible.”

“Mo-Sys opened a facility in Los Angeles where people could learn, train and experiment,” said Grieve. “We also started the Mo-Sys Academy in London where on-set virtual production could be taught to students, as well as cross-training experienced production people.” 

Perhaps Weaver put it best: “We’re
at virtual production 1.0. It’s the difference between getting a nice pasta dinner from a restaurant to you, getting the ingredients and learning how to make it from scratch.”

MUNICH, Germany—Content and sports producer PLAZAMEDIA here deployed a Mo-Sys Engineering LED production studio prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The deployment came following experimentation to identify the optimum technology and successful proof-of-concept testing. The turnkey solution includes real studio elements with optional extended reality (XR) ability, Mo-Sys Engineering said.

Mo-Sys provided technical guidance from concept to delivery, virtual production training and project management of the installation in the 7,500-square-foot studio at PLAZAMEDIA’s headquarters in the AGROB Medienpark near Munich.

“We have worked with Mo-Sys on several VP projects and that experience gave us confidence to entrust their team to deliver this state-of-the-art XR studio,” said PLAZAMEDIA director of productions and customer relations Hansjorg Baumgartner. “Mo-Sys’ new and innovative camera switching technology for LED VP, which maintains render power across multiple cameras without increasing the XR engine count, together with their knowledge, technical support, guidance and ability to bring in key partners has been invaluable to our success here.” 
The Mo-Sys StarTracker incorporated into the design generates six-axis camera and lens tracking data for each of the studio’s four cameras. The data drives the perspective of the virtual set, Mo-Sys Engineering said.

The tracked cameras work with the Mo-Sys combined LED content server and on-air bMR (broadcast mixed reality) graphics system, which delivers the virtual set content from the graphics engine, it said.

The bMR system also solves the problem of switching between full-resolution tracked cameras shooting a virtual set displayed on an LED wall where the camera outputs switch faster than the LED wall can update with the correct camera background. Mo-Sys bMR orchestrates the switch to ensure only the correct camera perspective view is visible, it said.

“The entire team at Mo-Sys is incredibly proud to have played such a significant role in the delivery of this incredible XR studio project. We would like to thank PLAZAMEDIA for their trust in us and we look forward to further strengthening our relationship,” said Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler.

Mo-Sys worked with PLAZAMEDIA’s in-house technical and graphics teams as part of their project management, which ensured the complex studio build was delivered on schedule. Mo-Sys was responsible for all virtual production technologies, which included the 1,291.6-square-foot LED wall from Spanish manufacturer Alfalite. The company’s Modularpix Pro ORIM 1.9mm pixel pitch panels were specified for the 108-foot-by-11.6-foot U-shaped LED volume, which is driven by 11 render nodes, it said.

The studio is being used to immerse 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer fans into game action.

More information is available on the Mo-Sys Engineering website.

Virtual production is the cutting-edge of modern film and video creation, and a strong source of job growth within the entertainment industry. Mindful of these facts, DeSales University of Center Valley, PA, is building its own virtual production studio (VP Studio) in its Labuda Center for the Performing Arts.

The new studio, which is currently operating at an off-campus location, is built around an AOTO Electronics high-performance LED screen, which covers two sides of a corner wall. The video wall serves as a high-resolution greenscreen replacement for in-studio video productions, supporting interaction between human actors and computer-generated characters, props, and environments.

“Virtual production in this format relates to live action performers acting in front of an LED screen,” explained Karen Ruggles, associate professor of computer science at DeSales University and the visionary who led the systems design and integration team for this project. “On the LED screen is a photorealistic world constructed by computer science/digital art students. The final product is captured by a physical camera navigated by our TV/Film students.”

DeSales University and its Performing Arts Department built the VP Studio in an effort to "stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology in the TV/film industry,” said Stephen Furry, the virtual production supervisor in charge of the new facility. He is also a 2001 DeSales University graduate and video production pro whose credits include Star Trek: Picard and The Mandalorian. “Virtual production is becoming commonplace in motion picture and television production.”

Moving (and Non-Moving) Parts
The heart of DeSales’ VP Studio is its LED video wall. It is composed of 96 AOTO Electronics RM series LED display panels (2.31 mm pixel pitch) assembled into two 13x10-foot sections that join at a 90-degree corner within the studio. The wall’s full-motion visuals are assembled on a computer known as the "Primary Operator" within the VP Studio’s control room, which is loaded with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) software. “The Primary Operator also sends the high-resolution worlds processed by its GPUs to the LED wall,” Furry said.

A Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking system communicates with UE5, telling the software where the on-set physical camera is in relation to the world displayed on the video wall. “To record the performances, we use the Sony FS7 4K camera with prime lenses," Furry added. "The camera is mounted on a mini-jib arm with a remote head for easier adjustment of the camera positioning and flexible camera moves.”

To light performers and sets built in front of the LED video wall, the VP Studio uses LED lighting fixtures from Aputure. “Their Nova 600c and 300c series fixtures are RGB LED units that provide a wide range of color with built-in gels and lighting effects, and can be controlled through DMX to emulate lighting consistent with the virtual lighting within the worlds,” Furry explained.

he VP Studio’s camera tracking system is connected to the Primary Operator via UE5 plug-ins such as Live Link. The actors in front of the Sony camera can be shot as is, or they can don motion capture suits so their actions can be used to animate digital characters stored within the system. "We can create video games with characters,” explained Anne Lewis, division head of performing arts at DeSales University. “We can also capture dance on film, while being anywhere in the world.”

Whatever project is being produced, the Primary Operator renders the full motion backdrops in real time and sends them to the AOTA video wall. “From there, it’s like a normal film shot on location, except that the location is a completely digital world that my students can customize without traveling outside of the studio,” Ruggles said. “Furthermore, I can load up any kind of weather or time of day that I want and keep it there for hours—and then reload it up again tomorrow if we need to reshoot.”

Currently, DeSales University is storing all of its virtual worlds on the Primary Operator for easy access by students. “This saves time in post production by marrying the background to the performances,” said Furry. “The students’ footage can then be transferred directly to their external drives in one of the TV/Film Department's editing suites using Adobe Premiere or Avid Media Composer.”

Strange New Worlds
DeSales University recently broke ground on the addition to the Labuda Center that will be the permanent home for the VP Studio. Meanwhile, the university has been renting a bay in a local car painting facility so students can use the system. “Our vice president of campus environment, Marc Albanese, was instrumental in helping us to get the beta site space as well as getting the addition built," Lewis added.

So far, the university’s virtual production capabilities have been kept in-house, although the studio may also support commercial work down the road. “The classes that can utilize the VP Studio are only limited by our own imaginations,” said Lewis. “We are starting out with our computer science classes first, as they build the ‘worlds.' Then, cinematography classes will begin in the spring. It needs to follow this sequence, as the TV/Film students need the ‘worlds’ to be completed in order to shoot their films.”

Students are already producing scenes that are "all over the map, from galactic gambling and historic courtyards inspired by Shakespeare filled with choreographed expressive dance, to a man returning to his village to find it destroyed, and a post-apocalyptic scene with fire demons,” Ruggles said. “And this was just in one semester! We are really only scratching the surface of what our students will imagine to fill the space. I am excited to see what their creativity will unleash once they feel oriented to the technology through a few courses.”

Investment in the Future
When it comes to the university's eventual return on investment for the new studio, Lewis said, "Our ROI lies in having more students in TV/film and computer science wanting to study this new technology and preparing them to use it in the work world, as well as making some very fun and awesome films.”

Ruggles sees the ROI being spread across multiple departments. “Virtual production, in this format, involves computer science, TV/film, acting, and dancing students,” she explained. “There is a lot of opportunity for students to enter the space as a knowledgeable scholar, but only as one step in the process, so that they have to engage with other knowledgeable students in a different discipline and communicate for a common goal. In this way, they learn together and about each other’s discipline, which is really the whole purpose of a liberal arts education.”

Translating the VP Studio from concept to reality hasn’t been easy for DeSales University. “But sometimes, God just has a hand in aligning all the stars,” Lewis concluded. “He has certainly helped all of us realize this dream.”

This article originally appeared on Systems Contractor News. 

AMSTERDAM—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced the launch of its new high-performance motorized rail, MoRail, which enables cost-effective creative pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) and ENG camera movement within newsroom environments. 

The high-performance motorized MoRail system will be on display at IBC2022 from September 9 to 12.

MoSys said the system is primarily designed for use in newsrooms, which may include traditional studios, greenscreen, LED volume-based broadcast applications and corporate presentations. 

MoRail supports all major PTZ and ENG camera systems weighing up to 15kg, transforming regular static shots into repeatable creative shots with controlled parallax movement. The perspective change achieved dramatically improves on the existing static only movement of PTZ cameras, allowing producers to achieve accurate movements during a show that immerse viewers into the studio, without the need to invest in expensive and complex track-based dolly systems. 

“With the introduction of MoRail we are opening the doors to a new level of creativity with PTZ cameras that has not been possible before,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “Production teams can now benefit from accurate and repeatable PTZ movement, and beautifully smooth and immersive parallax movement, that helps even small news operations to create more immersive and engaging content.”  

Included in the MoRail package is a powerful Mo-Sys controller that allows rail height and camera position to be set in addition to pan, tilt, zoom, focus and iris. 

For a demonstration of MoRail, visit Mo-Sys at IBC2022 on stand 8.A49. MoRail will also be on view at the AOTO (7.C09) and Canon (11.C45) stands. 

BURBANK, Calif.—The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Awards Committee has announced the winners of the 2022 HPA Award for Engineering Excellence. The awards will be bestowed at this year’s HPA Awards gala on November 17 at the Hollywood Legion in Hollywood, Calif.

“The pace of innovation in our industry continues unchecked! This year, we received more submissions for Engineering Excellence consideration than ever before,” the HPA Awards Engineering Committee chair Joachim Zell said. “It’s gratifying to see this record number of submissions, driven by a deep understanding of the true needs and desires of our industry, laying the groundwork for future progress even as they launch us ahead in the moment. Congratulations to the winners, and our deep respect for all of the entrants, who have contributed to the continued evolution of our industry.”

The HPA Awards recognize creative artistry and innovation in the professional media content industry. A coveted and highly competitive honor, the Engineering Excellence Award rewards outstanding technical and creative ingenuity in media, content production, finishing, distribution, and archive. Submissions for the Engineering Excellence Award include a video presentation, followed by interviews with a distinguished panel of industry judges.

The winners of the 2022 HPA Award for Engineering Excellence are:

• Amazon Web Services: Color in the Cloud. Leveraging JPEG-XS, signals are compressed to be suitably transmitted over AWS Direct Connect, AWS VPN or the open internet while maintaining lossless or uncompromised image quality, resulting in a viable and scalable solution for high fidelity, visually lossless color from a cloud provider. 
• Arri: REVEAL Color Science. The ALEXA 35 REVEAL Color Science reveals improved dynamic range, color gamut, and superior rendering of skin tones and subtle colors. It separates looks from display transforms, to support dual monitoring of HDR and SDR on set, enabling more efficient grading for multiple deliverables in post production.
• LG Electronics: LG UltraFine Pro OLED Monitor. The UltraFine OLED Pro EP950 reference grade HDR monitor meets color critical needs for content creation in cost-effective small-formats (32in & 27in). The RGB additive OLED UHD panel delivers close to 100% AdobeRGB and P3 coverage with peak luminance of up to 700 nits at 25% APL (HDR mode) and 250 nits full-field white. In-monitor 1D LUTs, 3D LUTs and 3x3 matrices allow accurate user calibration with Calman or LG software.
• Mo-Sys Engineering: LED Key. LED Key makes VP filming affordable by allowing wide shot capture on small LED walls. Virtual Production LED wall based filming is great for mid and close up shots, but wide shots required set builders to build floor and wall extensions or huge LED walls, which increases cost and time. LED Key allows filming with much smaller walls or even projectors, enabling greater location flexibility for filmmakers.

Four technologies followed closely, earning honorable mention: Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC (ZEISS CinCraft Mapper), Frame.io (Camera to Cloud), Glassbox Technologies (DragonFly virtual camera) and LucidLink (Filespaces).

The Engineering Excellence Award will be presented at the HPA Awards gala on November 17th. 

Other special awards include the Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation, and The Jury Award for Restoration and Preservation. 

Kim Waugh, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Post Production Creative Services, will receive HPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Creative artistry will be recognized in fifteen categories, which includes new honors for nonfiction post production.

HPA Awards tickets are currently available to HPA members only at hpaonline.com. Tickets sales will open to the general public in the coming weeks.

More information about the HPA Awards and the Hollywood Professional Association can be found at www.hpaonline.com.

LONDON—Virtual production tech provider Mo-Sys Engineering has announced plans to introduce two new StarTracker products, the StarTracker Mini and the StarTracker Max. 

The introduction of StarTracker Mini will expand the Mo-Sys range, increasing its market reach to a new generation of Virtual Production creators, the company said. 

The StarTracker Max will allow Mo-Sys to offer improved camera tracking technology for professional broadcast and cinematic use in virtual productions.

Mo-Sys noted that its StarTracker solution is the world’s best-selling absolute tracking solution for broadcast and film virtual production and the new products reflect an extensive R&D effort to further improve them. 

StarTracker Max has an all-new, compact form factor 3x smaller and significantly lighter than the original. Together with a detachable processor for convenient handling, gen lock sync and 120-degree wide-angle tracking, StarTracker Max will deliver twice the tracking accuracy of the current StarTracker.

Furthermore, auto alignment technology will simplify set-up and ensure ultra-precise studio calibration. With rapid star map discovery, a new user-friendly interface (iOS and Android) and simple D-Tap power inlet, Mo-Sys said that StarTracker Max is designed to set a new standard for set-and-forget professional tracking.

Designed and manufactured in the UK by Mo-Sys, StarTracker Mini incorporates a robust wide-angle IR camera which is immune to studio lighting and provides the ideal solution for office-type Virtual Production spaces utilizing green screen, lower cost LED walls, or projectors. A powerful processing unit is integrated within the all-new miniature design for maximum freedom of unintrusive mounting to cameras, pedestals, jibs and gimbals. 

As part of the upgrades, Mo-Sys has also announced an exchange program allowing StarTracker Mini customers to trade-in their Mini for a StarTracker Max as their business grows, protecting their investment in Mo-Sys tracking technology.

StarTracker Mini is designed specifically for studio spaces with ceiling heights up to 3.5 meters, and floor space up to 10 square meters. This new low-cost tracking system will use the same Mo-Sys lens calibration system as the current StarTracker, and is set to unleash the imaginative possibilities of YouTubers, streamers and creative industries taking their first steps into Virtual Production, the company said. 

In addition, Mo-Sys has launched a StarTracker Max exchange program that allows customers who order a current StarTracker to benefit from a free exchange to StarTracker Max when stocks are available.

For more information is available at https://www.mo-sys.com/new-startracker-mini-and-startracker-max. 

LAS VEGAS—At its NAB Show booth, April 23-27 in Las Vegas, Fujifilm will showcase its latest lens technology facilitating virtual production and augmented reality technologies and capabilities in partnership with Mo-Sys and APG Media, as well as introduce attendees to several Fujinon cinema and broadcast lens products and accessories.

“We look forward to not only connecting with our industry colleagues in person at NAB 2022, but also exhibiting our world-class lens range with this critical group of industry experts,” said Stosh Durbacz, national sales manager, Fijifilm North America Corporation, Optical Devices Division. “We are also excited to bring attendees into the world of virtual production and augmented reality on site by displaying and demonstrating products designed to improve production workflows.”

Fujifilm’s role in the growing world of virtual production and augmented reality will be on display in partnership with Mo-Sys—renowned creator and manufacturer of advanced and innovative camera robotics and virtual production technologies—and APG Media, industry experts on LED videowall technology. 

Using Fujinon broadcast and cinema lenses with Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking technology and a state-of-the-art 1.5mm pixel pitch LED wall from APG Media, Fujifilm will showcase an end-to-end LED production workflow, highlighting the benefits of designing a solution specifically for cinematic and broadcast virtual production.

“More than ever, and within the last two years especially, virtual production and augmented reality have proven to be a growing, important part of our industry,” said Durbacz. “We are proud to partner with Mo-Sys and APG to educate the NAB Show community about the technology and capabilities available and required to accommodate the needs of this emerging market segment.”

Fujinon product debuts at NAB 2022 include:

• UA107x8.4AF (Auto Focus) lens for fast and accurate subject-tracking performance, placed on a Mo-Sys U50 Remote Head.
• Large Format Premista Series cinema lenses with new Chrosziel Drive Unit and ZEISS eXtended Data, a unique technology that creates opportunities to streamline and increase the accuracy of the lens data.
• Portable broadcast zooms equipped with S10 digital drive units to support modern remote and robotic shooting needs.
• UA125x8 4K-compatible broadcast lens with the world's highest zoom ratio of 125X
• UA46x9.5 portable 4K broadcast lens with Super 35 Musashi expander, delivering an incredible range of 24-1100mm at a relatively light weight (about 12 pounds), ideal for wildlife, sports and any environment where reach and portability is needed.
• Updated zoom and focus controllers for FUJINON box and portable lenses.

Fujinon will be in Booth 6127. To register for the NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022

HAWTHORNE, Calif.—Mo-Sys Engineering will feature its virtual production technology stack at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

Using Fujifilm lenses and a 1.5mm pixel pitch LED wall from APG, Mo-Sys will show:

• LED virtual production using its VP Pro XR LED content server and StarTracker camera tracking technology. The company will show its end-to-end LED production workflow for cinematic and broadcast virtual production. Mo-Sys also will demo the latest multi-camera switching feature for the VP Pro XR along with Cinematic XR Focus for pulling focus between real and virtual elements, managed by TeradekRT wireless lens controller, as part of a collaboration between Vitec and Mo-Sys.
• NearTime, Mo-Sys Engineering’s real-time VFX graphics quality solution—a cloud-based auto-re-rendering system using Smart Green, a method that separates talent from the LED background without introducing green spill. The solution delivers higher quality real-time VFX content. NearTime also removes Moiré patterning completely and enables the use of lower cost LED panels to deliver an image quality that’s far closer to post-production compositing. 
• Mo-Sys U50 remote head for augmented reality (AR) use for sports using Fujifilm’s latest box lens. It will be controlled remotely from the Vitec stand using a Vinten 750i remote head with pan bars. 
• New Mo-Sys camera plate for the Vinten 750 head. The camera plate leverages Mo-Sys’ precision encoders for camera and lens tracking. The plate simplifies adding camera tracking capability to a static sports/event camera position for delivering precision blended AR graphics.
• Robotics for virtual production leveraging the Mo-Sys G30 gyro-stabilized head and L40 cinematic remote head, both of which can be outfitted with encoded outputs for 3-axes.

See Mo-Sys Engineering at NAB Show booth C6127.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced that its precision camera tracking solution, StarTracker, is now fully supported by Assimilate’s Live FX software. 

The integration between StarTracker and Live FX allows for a faster way to create high end content with green-screen and LED wall-based virtual productions.

The Live FX software, which enables real time, live compositing for green-screen and LED wall-based virtual productions on set, when combined with Mo-Sys StarTracker, delivers a one-stop-shop software solution for all kinds of virtual production workflows, the companies said. 

“We are delighted to give customers access to a complete solution to accurately deliver high quality tracking data and compositing assets directly to VFX/post workflows,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “With demand for virtual production rising rapidly, filmmakers and cinematographers can deliver the best results without the need to learn a totally new way of doing things.”

The integrated solution delivered by Mo-Sys and Assimilate allows users to efficiently and accurately composite 2D and 3D elements into the live camera signal, control (and color grade) LED walls, control stage lighting based on image content, use Live FX as a simple keyer in green-screen scenarios, and link it up with Unreal Engine if needed, the companies said. 

"For Assimilate, it has always been important to create streamlined workflows at the very high end that our users can rely on,” explained Jeff Edson, CEO at Assimilate. “We are proud to offer the best possible camera tracking in Live FX with the Mo-Sys StarTracker; together they create an unbeatable, highly accurate live-compositing system with a streamlined connection to post. The support provided by Mo-Sys to help with the implementation on our side was especially valuable to us.”

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering will work together with Moxion, QTAKE and OVIDE at the HPA Tech Retreat, Feb. 21-24, in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to show a collaborative virtual production workflow in the event’s Innovation Zone.

At the companies’ combined stand, they will show a Sony Crystal LED wall and a Sony Venice camera on a curved rail. The camera will be equipped with a Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking system. The company’s VP Pro XR LED content server will drive the LED wall.

Takes will be captured with QTAKE’s on-set capture tool while the VP Pro XR, which will capture the camera and lens-tracking data, will drive the LED wall. Mo-Sys’ new NearTime service will solve the growing problem of increasing real-time Unreal image quality while maintaining real-time frame rates, Mo-Sys said.

NearTime uses cloud processing from AWS to address the issue. Once processed in the cloud, higher-quality re-rendered images will automatically be delivered to a Moxion Immediates solution for review and signoff, it said.

Using NearTime in an LED volume with a Mo-Sys enabled halo green frustum for separating talent from the LED content, the background Unreal scenes can be re-rendered automatically with higher quality or resolution using captured camera and lens tracking data. They can then be used to replace the original lower-quality background Unreal scenes, the company said. 

This process avoids the need for large quantities of on-set rendering nodes, minimizes post-production costs and completely eliminates moiré effects. This unique approach enables far more efficient workflows than those that exist today, the company said.  

“We believe there is a better way to bring virtual productions to life cost-effectively and without compromising on image quality,” said Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler. “We are excited to meet with customers face-to-face once more at the HPA Tech Retreat and to show them workflows that can take their virtual productions to the next level while allowing them to work with other tools that they are already familiar with.”  

The retreat has scheduled the “Immerse Yourself in Virtual Production” Supersession for Feb. 22. Attendees will walk through virtual production from concept to delivery. Emphasis will be placed on planning and preparation. Three LED walls—one each from AOTO, Planar and Sony—will be featured. Two will use the Mo-Sys StarTracker camera and lens tracking system. One will be driven by Mo-Sys’ VP Pro XR LED content server, showcasing Cinematic XR Focus feature.

More information on the retreat is available on the event’s website.

More information about the Mo-Sys VR solutions are available on its website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has begun shipping its G30 gyro-stabilized head, offering the performance of more expensive systems and the usability and ease of setup of simpler gimbal devices. 

The solution features key technologies designed based on the input of early adopters, including:

• Balance assist – A smart axis hold feature for significantly faster set-up of camera payloads.
• Innovative control console - For fast, accurate operation in the heat of production
• Universal camera cage to accommodate all practical camera payloads. 

Mo-Sys designed the G30 with an eye towards making a gyro-stabilized head that would meet the needs of any broadcast or movie application. It also sought to offer simple setup and operation, minimal complexity by negating sliprings and counter-balance weights, and support for the widest range of camera payloads, the company said.

At the heart of the G30 is a unique 45-degree frame geometry, large enough to accommodate any camera rig, including large ENG cameras and complete digital cinematography camera rigs. The short, stiff frame provides rigidity for camera payloads up to 66 pounds, with high-torque direct drive motors for smooth, precise movement and stabilization. The result is a gyro-stabilized head that has complete freedom of pan and tilt in any configuration, along with a +/-45-degree roll.  

More information is available in a YouTube video and on the company’s website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering and APG Media have announced that they will be partnering on providing customers with a complete end-to-end LED virtual production set-ups, combining Mo-Sys' StarTracker and VP Pro XR with APG Media’s HyperPixel, customized LED wall solutions. 

“The appetite for high production values means virtual production is no longer exclusive to big budget movies,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “In cinematography, the quality of LED walls has to be as high as possible to deliver the best results and HyperPixel meets this requirement. Through this collaboration with APG Media we are removing the technical complexity from the equation and freeing up production teams to express their full creativity with an immaculate end result.”

The Mo-Sys StarTracker camera/lens tracking system are widely used in virtual productions and the advanced tools in VP Pro XR content server include the unique ability to pull focus seamlessly between real and virtual objects. By partnering with APG Media, Mo-Sys can now offer custom engineered LED tiles and a comprehensive package for tailored LED volume, multi-camera production systems, the companies said. 

David Weatherhead, CEO at APG Media added “virtual production is taking off as cinematographers and content producers recognize the impact this model can have on their final output - if they use the right technology. In a segment that is already at the cutting edge, Mo-Sys is a pioneer and a market leader, and this partnership brings huge value to both our customers. By combining our offerings, we can now open the doors to the best technology and help cinematographers to create the stunning content that audiences demand.” 

The companies also said that the new Mo-Sys Refinery in Los Angeles will feature a HyperPixel high resolution LED wall and  APG Media will add a Mo-Sys VP Pro XR and StarTracker to the offering. The two companies will cooperate on marketing and exhibition, as well as providing support for sales channels. 

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced new solutions for LED virtual production with the unveiling of its high frame rate (HFR) StarTracker camera tracking system and improvements to its NearTime workflow that extended it to LED volumes.

NearTime for LED is a smart solution to solve multiple challenges when shooting in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) in an LED volume, the company said. At its most basic level it is an automated background re-rendering service for improving the quality and/or resolution of Unreal based virtual production scenes, and is used simultaneously alongside a real-time ICVFX shoot, the company explained.  

NearTime solves one of the key challenges of LED ICVFX shoots, which is balancing Unreal image quality whilst maintaining real-time frame rates. Currently every Unreal scene created for ICVFX has to be reduced in quality in order to guarantee real-time playback.  

Using NearTime with an LED ‘green frustrum’, the same Unreal scene can be automatically re-rendered with higher quality or resolution, and this version can replace the original background Unreal scene.   

Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler explained that “we patented NearTime almost 8 years ago knowing that real-time graphics quality versus playback frame rate was always going to be an issue with ICVFX shoots. At that time we were focusing on green/blue screen use, but today LED volumes have exactly the same challenge.”

Mo-Sys is also announcing a special StarTracker for LED that provides camera and lens tracking up to 240fps for slo-mo shots, as would be typically used for fight scenes in Asian action films. 

In this scenario, rather than drive the LED wall at high frame rates to match the camera, which requires significant hardware processing and comes with an Unreal image quality impact, NearTime for LED is used to post-render the Unreal scene at HFR following the HFR ‘green frustrum’ shoot of the talent performing. During the slo-mo shot review, the re-rendered Unreal background and the talent foreground are re-combined, delivering a significantly higher quality composited shot.  

“Proxies were used as a smart solution to solving computer processing limits in the early days of digital compositing and colour grading,” Geissler explained. “Similarly, HFR StarTracker and NearTime for LED are a smart solution to shooting slo-mo shots in an LED volume.”  

The HFR StarTracker for LED has been designed in anticipation of future GPU processing improvements enabling higher frame rate Unreal scene playback. In conjunction with Mo-Sys’ VP Pro XR content server, the HFR StarTracker’s programmable phase shift feature can utilize Brompton Technology’s Frame Remapping or Megapixel VR’s GhostFrame capability for simultaneous multi-camera shoots in an LED volume.

NearTime for LED will be available in Q4 to Mo-Sys customers with VP Pro and VP Pro XR. The HFR StarTracker for LED will be available early Q1 2022.  

LONDON—Virtual production technology provider Mo-Sys Engineering and AlfaLite, the only European LED tile manufacturer, have announced that they are working together to offer complete end-to-end LED virtual production solutions. 

Mo-Sys has an established virtual production system with its VP Pro XR content server and the StarTracker camera/lens tracking system. The advanced tools in VP Pro XR include the unique ability to pull focus seamlessly between real and virtual objects. 

By partnering with AlfaLite, Mo-Sys can now offer the ModularPix Pro LED tile modules in a one-stop package for a complete LED volume, multi-camera production system, the companies said. 

“Movies, television and live events all want to benefit from virtual production,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “Getting a complete, fully functional system from one supplier makes it easy for them to seize the advantages quickly, slashing the technical time and allowing them to get right on with the creativity.” 

Juan Vega, International Sales Manager of AlfaLite added that “both AlfaLite and Mo-Sys are well-known names in the virtual production market, respected for our advanced functionality and high levels of customer support in the key markets. Working together in partnership will strengthen our offering even further, and make us ever-more responsive to both experienced users and those looking to move into virtual production.” 

Mo-Sys will install a ModularPix Pro P1 LED screen at its headquarters in London. AlfaLite will add a Mo-Sys VP Pro XR and StarTracker to its demonstration facilities in its factory in Huelva, Spain. The two companies will collaborate on marketing and exhibitions, as well as providing support for sales channels. 

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2021 NAB Show?

MICHAEL GEISSLER: We anticipate that technology to support virtual production in all its variations—virtual studios, LED volumes, augmented reality, mixed reality and full CGI—will be a hot trend at the 2021 NAB Show. Interest in virtual technology has been rising and continues to rise exponentially, for movies and particularly for television. The key driver is the huge amount of content now being produced, with new players in the market like Amazon and Apple joining Netflix in investing very large sums in high-quality programming.

Mo-Sys is looking to help the creative world understand the possibilities and practicalities of virtual production with remarkable tools like Cinematic XR Focus, which allows a director and DoP to use the visual language they have grown up with, directing the viewer’s eye through the use of focus on different parts of the frame. This is the way that movies have worked for a hundred years, and technology must support it rather than work against it. 

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

GEISSLER: We’re looking to bring our cinematic and broadcast experience and innovations to the virtual production industry with new features to showcase for our Cinematic XR initiative that will revolutionize the way cinematographers and directors can seamlessly merge virtual and real worlds.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

GEISSLER: We were able to release VP Pro 4.27—the latest version of our complete solution for virtual production with a full suite of creative tools, which embed directly in the real-time graphics engine with some stunning new functionality—on the same day as Epic released Unreal Engine 4.27. That is because we have a very close relationship with the developer who gives us great insight on what they can offer. We combine that with our equally close relationship with the creative community, so we tailor our developments to meet real-world demands.

A good example is the way we now calibrate the virtual graphics software to match the individual lens. We offer our users an online portal to a lens database, so they can very quickly set up accurate lens calibration—a real time-saver on set.

The big news in VP Pro 4.27 is our NearTime cloud-based re-render engine, which is so impressive it won a highly coveted Engineering Excellence Award from the independent Hollywood Professional Association, the authoritative voice for technology in the creative industries.

NearTime allows directors and DoPs to enjoy all the practical benefits of final pixel shooting so the actors and cameras know what the final result will be. To that end, it adds uncompromised image quality at 4K Ultra HD, with the automated re-rendering starting the instant at “turn over” from the beginning of the shot. Everyone on set is happy; all the speed and throughput advantages of final pixel shooting are retained, which is that there is no post production required, but with the added benefit of maximized image quality. The method is completely against the current trend of filming and rendering in real time.  Productions immediately see the benefit. We see this becoming mainstream soon.

TVT: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your company's business over the past year and half?

GEISSLER: Having enjoyed a boom during the pandemic thanks to immediate necessity, virtual production shows no sign of slowing down, offering cost efficiency, reduced environmental impact and creativity. Mo-Sys is leading the way in technology-led innovation in this field and so the company has been able to expand during the pandemic at a time when many have scaled back activities, furloughed staff or made redundancies.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has launched on-set virtual production services in the Los Angeles market, the company announced today.

The new Mo-Sys On-set VP Services offering is an out-sourced solution for production companies new to virtual production.

Cinematographers and directors now can focus entirely on imaging and storytelling without spending hours organizing their own virtual production workflow or having deep knowledge of the latest technology, Mo-Sys said.

All Mo-Sys On-set VP Services bookings are supported by experienced on-set virtual production technicians who remain with the production for the duration of the shoot. Mo-Sys plans to roll out the service in other cities, including London, this year, it said.

The new service follows the company’s recent announcement of its Mo-Sys VP Pro XR, an XR server solution for LED volumes. The product is a hardware and software solution with multi-node nDisplay architecture, real-time VP Pro compositor/synchronizer and a new Cinematic XR toolset, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.  

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced a pairing of its Mo-Sys VP Pro virtual production software with the Sony Venice camera. The integration is meant to capture dynamic camera settings data to help with virtual production workflows.

The Mo-Sys VP Pro links directly to the Sony Venice camera software, monitoring each take and shot to highlight potential mismatch settings, while also capturing camera data to assist in down-stream post-production compositing.

With the integration, Mo-Sys VP Pro goes into record mode whenever the Sony Venice camera starts recording. The Mo-Sys software captures the file naming format the camera uses to name media files and uses the same name for the metadata file containing the camera settings data for easy matching in post-production.

Mo-Sys VP Pro, integrated with Unreal Engine, supports live or recorded virtual production workflows, the use of green/blue screen studios or LED volumes and provides additional lens data—F-stop, T-stop and shutter angle—for VFX compositing. 

The Sony Venice integration is now available. For more information, visit www.mo-sys.com.  

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering has announced Cinematic XR Focus, an innovation that enables cinematographers to pull focus between real foreground objects and virtual objects displayed on an LED wall in the background.

Until now, cinematographers have been unable to do this because the lens focal plane stops at the LED wall. With the Cinematic XR Focus, focus pullers can use the same wireless lens control system they’re accustomed to and pull focus seamlessly from real objects through the LED wall to focus on virtual objects that appear to be positioned behind the LED wall. Reverse focus pull is also possible.

“Production companies have excitedly embraced virtual production and on-set finishing using LED volumes. The ability to create any internal or external set background or set extension with an LED volume, has truly changed the dynamics of filmmaking,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys.

“But there have been limitations. Pulling focus—a fundamental part of the grammar of movies, to direct the audience’s attention to different parts of the screen—has been difficult. The Cinematic XR Focus software add-on transforms the possibilities, allowing cinematographers to freely realize their creative ambitions.”

Cinematic XR Focus, an option for Mo-Sys’ VP Pro virtual production software and used together with the company’s StarTracker camera tracking technology, synchronizes the lens controller with the output of Unreal Engine graphics. This solution relies on StarTracker for constant tracking of the distance between the camera and the LED wall, the company said.

The solution is available from Mo-Sys and is compatible with Preston wireless lens controllers (Hand Unit 3 and MDR-3).

Recent advances in LED display technology make it practical to shoot in-camera VFX shots in real-time. Having the finished virtual graphics on the LED wall means there is no green or blue spill to remove in post-production, as the LED volume casts the correct soft lighting around the talent. This reduces the cost of post-production compositing, which together with the savings in location costs make virtual production a financially attractive and time-saving choice for producers. Mo-Sys has posted a video to demonstrate use of the solution (you can check out below).

More information is available on the Mo-Sys website.

LONDON—Mo-Sys Engineering and Hyper Studios have teamed up to create the StarTracker Sports Studio, a virtual production system with data-driven sports graphics.

Virtual studios and augmented reality are becoming more common with sports broadcasters. Now, they often seek to integrate data-driven graphics inside the virtual studio for effects like appearing inside a virtual monitor or synchronizing to an AR animation.

StarTracker Sports Studio combines Epic Games Unreal Engine, capable of generating moving camera virtual studios, AR and extended reality, with an HTML sports graphic system. This enables in-context design of photo-realistic virtual graphics with data-driven sports graphics, per Mo-Sys.

Mo-Sys will make StarTracker Sports Studio available for order on April 2. For more information, visit www.mo-sys.com. 

LONDON—Mo-Sys is launching its latest, redesigned gyro-stabilized remote camera head, the G30, which offers a compact, 45-degree frame to work with any broadcast or digital camera.

The 45-degree frame provides easy access to all camera connections and accessories, Mo-Sys says. Its short, stiff frame provides rigidity for rigs up to 30kg, while high torque direct drive motors provide precise camera movement and stabilization. There are also open hubs for the three drive motors for cable routing.

Because of the unique frame design, Mo-Sys says that the G30 eliminates gimbal lock, which typically prevents pan axis movement when the camera is pointing down. G30 features a plus or minus 45-degree roll. In addition, axis motors are built into each motor assembly for direct input into virtual production systems.

G30 controlling software includes the ability to fine-tune the balance of the camera automatically. Users can also store pre-sets for frequently used camera combinations.

For more information, visit www.mo-sys.com.  

LONDON—Mo-Sys, which specializes in camera tracking for virtual studios and augmented reality, is launching its new StarTracker Studio, a pre-assembled production package that can scale up to 4K UHD production.

The StarTracker system from Mo-Sys uses dots on studio ceilings to accurately plot camera movements. With the StarTracker Studio, Mo-Sys provides cameras and mounts and a high-performance virtual graphics system based on the latest version of the Unreal Engine and the Ultimatte keyer. The Mo-Sys plugin interfaces directly between camera tracking and the Unreal Engine.

All hardware, including Lenovo PCs with Titan RTX GPUs, is mounted in a rolling rack cabinet and pre-wired, with all software loaded and configured.

The standard package comes with three Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K cameras with Canon 18-80 zoom lenses, paired with Mo-Sys StarTracker tracking units. There is also a camera jib, a rolling tripod and a camera rail set. An eight-channel ATEM production switcher provides live output for broadcast or streaming, while three video recorders are included for separate program, key and graphics recording. One Ultimatte keyer is required for the system.

In addition, the package features the Mo-Sys Beam In kit to bring remote guests into the virtual studio. There are also three radio microphones and an eight-channel audio mixer.

The kit can be scaled to any size of virtual production, offering rack kits that support either eight or 16 cameras. The package is configured by Mo-Sys before shipping.

For more information, visit www.mo-sys.com.  

LONDON—Empty sports stadiums is the current reality because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Mo-Sys Engineering has introduced some new technology that it says will fill the stands during sports broadcasts with live virtual fans.

Mo-Sys has developed camera tracking technology that provides precise, zero-latency tracking and can interface directly with an Unreal Engine (or any broadcast render engine) to put virtual fans in the empty seats.

The camera tracking encoders can be mounted onto broadcast standard Vinten Vector heads without impacting the camera’s balance or experiencing backlash while panning or tilting, Mo-Sys says. Zoom data is collected either by gear encoders or by a serial data link to digital lenses. The combined tracking data is then sent over Ethernet to the workstation hosting the augmented reality software.

Working with Epic Games, Mo-Sys has created an interface to the Unreal Engine that supports the latest software version, 4.25.

The kit includes the bolt-on encoding kit for Vinten heads and the lens calibration tools.

Mo-Sys will demonstrate the kit’s capabilities during a webinar on June 30. Registration is available online. 

LONDON — The Future Zone at IBC 2018 Sept. 13–18, in Amsterdam, will offer attendees a look at how an immersive production environment can be used for live broadcast at the Mixed Reality Tech Lab.

“The Future Zone presentation provides an opportunity for visitors to gain hands-on experience with some of the groundbreaking solutions we’ve already implemented and discuss how the boundaries of technology can continue to be pushed,” said Andy Hook, technical solutions director at White Light, the technical solutions specialist responsible for the demo.

[Read: Participate in Future’s 2018 IBC Best of Show Awards]

The demonstration will be powered by a platform from a collaborative visualization tool developer called disguise. The platform sits at the center of the workflow to be shown, allowing the set, displays, lighting and cameras to be visualized and tracked in 3D space. White Light’s research and development efforts leverage the platform to create workflows for small, flexible production spaces.

Using content from Malfmedia, the demo will feature live cameras equipped with Mo-Sys StarTracker technology, which feeds positional data to the disguise media server. Doing so allows content to be generated for display on LED walls that conforms to the cameras’ perspective.

The disguise media server will be running Notch, a real-time motion-graphics, VFX and VR software application. The demo will display how live generative content can be used as a video source to create scalable content in real-time that reacts to the environment and studio lighting.

Experts from White Light will be on hand to discuss how they have used the setup in complex broadcasts for Discovery Eurosport Cube and in the ITV Sports studios during the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

“At disguise our goal is to work closely with successful and visionary practitioners, such as White Light, to help develop the next generation of immersive experiences,” said company founder Ash Nehru.

See the Mixed Reality Tech Lab at IBC 2018 Stand 8.F40.

The IBC2018 show is Sept. 13–18, in Amsterdam. For more information or to register, visit www.ibc.org.

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LONDON—The StarTracker from Mo-Sys Engineering is an automatic, real-time optical camera tracking system that has recently been utilized by both the BBC and Canada’s Global News. BBC used the system, along with Vizrt grpahics, during the U.K. general elections; Global News did the same during its election coverage.

This was the first time that Global News used the StarTracker system and paired it with older equipment. With the Mo-Sys system they created a temporary virtual set environment for the election on May 9.

The BBC has been using StarTracker for a while, with the most recent example being its fourth live election event. Coverage of the general election on June 8 featured three StarTracker systems.

Mo-Sys is a London-based company that designs and builds camera robotics and camera tracking for AR and VR for the film and broadcast industry.

LAS VEGAS—At the 2016 NAB Show, Mo-Sys will spotlight its B20 high-precision remote head integrated with a Jimmy Jib, resulting in an economical solution for applications, such as virtual sets.

Known for its immediate response with zero backlash, the Mo-Sys B20 remote head is an ideal companion for the Jimmy Jib in terms of its size, weight and versatility. Besides its quiet operation, it can handle fast camera movements, getting the best performance out of the jib.

The Jimmy Jib’s control box is replaced with an intuitive console, allowing you to control its speed, direction and ramping. Interfaces to the Jimmy Jib control inputs mean jib operators can use the familiar joystick and lens control. The new interface also opens up the possibility of using the B20 with other Mo-Sys inputs, like hand-wheels or pan-bars for more demanding shots.

The 2016 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 18-21. Mo-Sys Engineering will be in booth C7549. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.