As Versatile Media’s LED volume opening date approaches, the technology behind the stage is a key point of discussion with upcoming productions and how it differs from competing stages.

More LED stages are entering the marketplace and filmmakers are gaining experience and confidence with filming on LED volumes.

The capabilities of our virtual production volume are defined by a few factors, including the adoption of the correct workflow for increased productivity, and proprietary technology such as our LED panels, which determine how sequences can be filmed. The graphics processing unit (GPU) also plays a critical role in driving what and how virtual environments can be delivered to the screen. Taken together, these areas create a significant impact on the quality of results achievable under typical production deadlines.

The Versatile Stage, set to open in South Burnaby, will rely heavily on NVIDIA® RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs as a vital hardware component. The stage was specifically designed around a proprietary solution that facilitates real-time computation and display of graphics across the volume, so adopting the most powerful GPUs presently available was a mandatory decision to make.

Traditionally, LED volume filming involves blending the foreground, midground, and background to create a simulated environment. At Versatile, we take a different approach, striving to seamlessly integrate physical set construction within the digital environment to create truly immersive scenes that can accommodate greater flexibility when on set.

Thanks to this innovative solution, we are able to eliminate some of the standardized hardware and software solutions. The result being a greater number of computing cores driving our volume, enabling vastly improved performance.

Versatile Media uses proprietary VX LED panel

Traditionally, LED volume filming involves blending the foreground, midground, and background to create a simulated environment. At Versatile, we take a different approach, striving to seamlessly integrate physical set construction within the digital environment to create truly immersive scenes that can accommodate greater flexibility when on set.

Achieving this level of integration demands precise camera tracking between the physical camera movement on set and the image displayed on our LED volume. As a result, our technology can offer much greater flexibility when lensing shots, allowing for efficient and effortless changes with camera movement and shot framing.

“Part of the efficiency equation for adopting the new NVIDIA® RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs was understanding its impact on the VAD work required to run in real-time when shooting on the volume. We can now allocate more resources towards enhancing the visual quality of our virtual environments instead of time spent optimizing scenes. As the filming industry becomes more proficient in its practices, we see a growing demand for higher-quality photorealistic VAD work, making the upgrade to RTX 6000 GPUs even more valuable and ensuring we are future-proofing our LED sound stages.“

-Steve Read, VP, Versatile Media, North America

Versatile has also created a unique VX LED panel that plays a crucial role in the company’s volume stage. This panel can generate images at a remarkable speed of up to 240 fps, with a brightness of over 2000 nits, highlighting again the need for additional GPU computational power.

Previz to LED

As both LED and previz expectations increase and  directors and cinematographers need to experience it as close to live action as possible, so will the demand on GPU power.

The NVIDIA® RTX 6000 Ada Generation professional graphics card puts us one step ahead with our evolving real-time pipeline for productions. It’s a huge contributor to efficiency and ease, but more importantly, like virtual production,  it is putting the creative power in the hands of filmmakers.

ABOUT VERSATILE MEDIA LTD.

Versatile Media Ltd. is a global media company founded in 1993. The company has over 500 creative and technical artists and R&D staff, globally. Our North American virtual production studios are located in Vancouver, Canada. The company has built a full cycle virtual production workflow for both servicing the film and television industry as well as original IP and co-produced projects.

For more information please contact:

Roula Lainas, Marketing & Business Development Executive
Versatile Media Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
roula@versatile.media

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