The School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC) is renowned for its wide range of courses and degrees focused on TV and movie production and all of the sub-categories that relate to both disciplines. Following real-world industry trends, as it always has, last fall the school launched its inaugural (and highly popular) series of classes on virtual production—that is, shooting in-camera effects against a large LED wall.
TV stations have mostly parked their satellite trucks and ENG vans in favor of mobile bi-directional wireless digital systems such as bonded cellular, wireless, and direct-to-modem wired internet connections. Is Starlink part of the future?
After several years of experimentation, movies and TV shows shot on LED wall based virtual production sets are quickly becoming the best and most economical way to create stunning virtual environments. Large stages and even mobile trailers have been outfitted with large LED displays on the floor, ceiling and of course the background, as actors can react to the live images better and the sets can be changed in a matter of hours without physically building anything.
CBS Sports is looking for some new technology ideas for its sports coverage and is encouraging sports tech startups to join with the network and its new collaboration partner, Israel-based Hype Sports Innovation, to facilitate the next generation of applications for artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and remote broadcasting.
While commercial deployments of 5G networks are steadily increasing, many commentators predict that the rise of more immersive communication, holographic telepresence, and social experiences powered by Extended Reality (XR)… IE ‘the metaverse’, will create vast amounts of generated data and applications that will rapidly exceed the current and future capabilities of 5G networks… challenges that may be solved by 6G.
In the area of virtual production, the times have certainly changed. From the early days of shooting against a green screen and compositing the image in real time, the biggest productions are now using large “volume” stages where actors are filmed in front of giant wrap around LED screens to capture the end result in camera.
We begin this mini series with some history, the basic principles of Master Control and the evolution of centralcasting.
Once relegated to lower-thirds and corner score bugs, today’s sports graphics are now used for a lot more than just reporting the score, they are helping tell the story of the game in highly creative ways. In fact, many sports outlets, in an effort to distinguish themselves from the pack, are taking their cues from online video gaming, augmented reality and Hollywood-style volumetric video capture (VVC) to create graphic looks that draw the viewer into the program or game coverage, making it a more immersive experience that builds viewer loyalty and keeps them coming back.