Epic Games has partnered with Brompton Technology, ARRI and creative technical production company 80six to refurbish its Innovation Lab in London with a new curved LED Volume.
The complete LED fleet includes 144 ROE Black Pearl 2 LED panels, 38 CB3 Carbon 3 full-size and eight half-size panels that have been calibrated with Brompton’s Hydra advanced measurement system to take full advantage of Dynamic Calibration features and Brompton HDR (High Dynamic Range).
The space is a mix of lighting from the LED panels as well as traditional lighting fixtures found on a professional film set, with all of the traditional fixtures provided by ARRI. Additionally, ARRI offered its high-end AMIRA camera system with various lens packages for the studio.
“At ARRI it’s been clear to us for some time that Virtual Production with LED will be a key part of many of the projects we see and work on going forward and the interplay between cameras, video and lighting is crucial to the success of these projects,” said ARRI’s regional business development director, David Levy. “We have seen our cameras work brilliantly with Brompton processors in the most demanding environments and this project has been no exception. It’s been a pleasure to work on the London Lab with Epic, Brompton and 80Six to deliver a facility which can be a proving ground for more ground-breaking developments in this field and we are excited to see the content it will produce.”
The screens are driven by Brompton Technology’s Tessera 8 LED processor.
“We chose to use the new Tessera S8 was because we wanted to send a smaller number of pixels out of the GPU. Rather than using all of the GPU’s overhead to deliver a 4K signal it now outputs only half of that, with the remaining 50 per cent of the GPU’s capacity used to significantly enhance image quality,” said Epic’s technical artist, Ben Kidd. “We have more grunt inside of the GPU and can still take full advantage of a wide range of the S8’s features, including its full support of Brompton HDR to provide stunning realistic imagery, which was another key consideration for the team.”
“What we stand for here at Epic is empowering people to create content,” added Kidd. “Our new facility is another way of breaking down the barriers in content production and allowing great things to happen. Thanks to our close-knit community of virtual production partners like Brompton Technology, we have been able to create a platform that delivers a new level of immersive visual experience. The Innovation Lab with its LED Volume, expert processing and our Unreal Engine software can support all the latest technology advances in virtual production, and we’re excited to see how it continues to transform the art and craft of filmmaking.”
