The fourth of the 26 state-of-the-art purpose-built sound stages that will be on our Studio Lot will be our virtual production Delta Stage. Our Delta Stage will be our permanent LED Video Wall stage.
The Delta Stage will be 250’ long by 150’ wide with a grid height of 45’. There will be 3 bay doors, each 25’ high and 24’ wide. The Delta Stage will also have 3 power cans, 9600 AMPs with 120/240 Volts and 9 circuits. The floor is wood over concrete.
What’s a Virtual or Volume Stage? It’s a large high-definition LED video wall that displays computer-generated backgrounds, usually created in Unreal Engine. The Video Wall is usually built in different shapes and sizes, typically in a “U” shape and can be from 180° to 270°. The Virtual Stage also has a ceiling of LED panels extending over the Video Wall. The panels are usually calibrated for 10bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) to ensure optimal image quality.
The Volume Stage is also set up with motion capture cameras that are linked with the Unreal Engine computer system and tracked with the main shooting camera. As the main shooting camera moves around in the physical environment of the set, the motion capture cameras track the camera movement and the backdrop displayed on the LED Video Wall (generated from a computer or multiple computers operating Unreal Engine gaming software) moves to match what the camera would be looking at. The Video Wall acts like massive VR goggles for the shooting camera.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian series has used this technology extensively to create the alien worlds that the show moves through. Here’s a video showing the power of shooting on a Volume Stage in virtual production.
On addition to our Delta Stage having its permanent Virtual LED Video Wall, The Studio will also have multiple smaller and portable Volume Stages that can be set up on any of our stages, Alpha to Zulu.
Our Delta Stage will be able to accommodate any set that needs to have any kind of background replacement without the restriction of shooting on a small cyc wall. Any world will be possible through virtual production on our Digital Delta Stage.
Below are different virtual production stages.
