Production safety protocols remain a major consideration as the film and television industry marches forward post lockdown. As production teams look for alternatives to working with massive crews, location shoots and excessive set build-outs, they’re turning to LED volumes in record numbers. The demand for virtual production shoots has exploded and new stages are being built to meet that demand in all corners of the world.rnrn
Jay Spriggs is an LED volume specialist, systems engineer and designer. He has worked behind-the-scenes on building some of the most impressive stages. A consistent component of his stage build-outs is the integration of Brompton Technology’s LED video processors to ensure a reliable, colour-accurate imaging chain from system to screen.
”Brompton is the most prevalent processor in the virtual production industry because they understand the colour science – they squeeze the most out of what the wall can produce, and if there’s any weakness in the system it even has technology that will make the wall shine beyond its normal capacity,” Spriggs explained. “For example, things like the Dark Magic process which allows low level content to still be reproduced using dithering. This is something we picked up on early because when you’re shooting, those low-level shadows and details become very important.”
Spriggs first became familiar with Brompton products from his background in the live events and touring industry. As his career has shifted to virtual production, gear reliability continues to be a top priority when designing stages and workflow solutions.rnrn
“For many years Brompton has been the leader in stability and accuracy in live events and touring because they’re known for the extra work that they take to make LED more user-friendly.rnrnYou end up in situations where you’re saving massive amounts of time, energy, and especially money, by using this higher-quality product from Brompton that just works when you plug it in,” he shared.rnrn“Virtual production is similar in that you need stability and accuracy for these complex shoots. The last thing you want is for your very expensive wall to be unstable.”
rnrnSpriggs has contributed to the design and build-out of a number of LED volumes including Intrepid in San Francisco, California and XR Stage in Pacoima, California, as well as lending his field expertise to collaborations with the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC@USC) and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). He values the ability of Brompton processors to deliver consistent results, as well as unique creative capabilities, above and beyond other options.
“The best thing about Brompton is that I know that when I take a Brompton-chipped LED panel, and I load it in with the same settings on a different wall, I get the same results. That’s an incredible thing because in my experience, LED didn’t previously work like that. Brompton has done the heavy lifting to standardise how the LED signal path works.”
In addition to being able to standardise on and replicate reliable workflows, Spriggs also notes the colour science embedded in Brompton’s technology as a defining characteristic.
“What Brompton does that’s unique is it profiles every LED panel that comes out, especially the new processing with the Hydra series that does more individual panel calibrations now before they leave the factory,” he explained. “The measured values of those panels, especially in the SDR pipeline, are fairly even. So it’s very helpful that they take the time to actually calibrate the panels that we use.”
Spriggs is actively involved in industry efforts to establish standardised workflows and best practices for virtual production. He’s currently working with ETC@USC to prep a virtual production test shoot in Q1 2022 which will contribute to industry-wide R&D through a public white paper about the experience.rnrnImage credit: ICVR