XR FOCUS
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Thanks to the snowballing effect of virtual production technology, NIPA has been actively venturing further into that landscape, with the goal to strengthen South Korea’s information and communications technology industry and bolster its global competitiveness when it comes to media output. “I believe that featuring globally recognised products in our expanded NIPA studio will yield significant results for South Korea’s virtual production industry,” states Lee Jin Seo, deputy director of NIPA. Having come from humble beginnings as a relatively modest studio, NIPA has now become pivotal in various sectors including advertising, film, production and education. This time around, NIPA once again chose Roe’s most popular products, BP2V2 and CB5L MKII, to maintain the high standards that are demanded by virtual production. With a well-planned blend of XR and ICVFX capabilities, NIPA’s highly skilled creative and technical teams managed to incorporate these new products, in turn successfully transforming NIPA KOVAC XR Stage into South Korea’s most advanced integrated studio. “Working with NIPA has been an excellent journey for us,” emphasises David, representative of ARK Ventures. “Over the previous couple of years, our collaboration has evolved into a close strategic partnership driven by profound understanding of each other’s objectives. With a forward-thinking approach, we are confident that, together with NIPA, we can achieve further breakthroughs and explore new dimensions within the immersive digital world.” CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATION Academic institutions have also had a hand in the developing XR landscape. Most recently, CJP Broadcast Service Solutions was involved with the
and how we’re fitting the bill for a lot of these studios. Partnering that with our pixel processing hardware is how we’ve really managed to find our place in this competitive marketplace.” Having collaborated with the Target3D team for several years for a range of projects, largely to do with tracking systems, 7thSense was the sensible choice when it came to setting up its new London facility. “We supplied two of our R-Series 10 media servers there, which are used to drive the main LED wall. Then they’ve also got a relocatable LED wall, which they can use for lighting effects for their shoots. Additionally, we’ve partnered that with a couple of our Juggler units, which they can deploy for lighting effects,” Bates adds. Juggler is 7thSense’s hardware-based pixel processor range, which is designed to simplify the management of multiple sources and outputs for complex high-resolution systems, multiscreen experiences, mega canvasses and warped or blended projection displays. The new location features a single large LED volume and two moveable tracked LED walls – of which 7thSense’s technologies are essential components – in turn facilitating virtual production workflows and motion capture of up to ten performers at a time. That includes full-body, finger and facial expression capture, as well as intricate performance sequencing. Historic and potential use cases range from virtual and augmented reality applications, through to visual effects and animation. There is an undeniable shift to virtual production – and the opportunities that XR offers – within the industry, and Bates points to the benefits of this. “The fact that you can create these virtual environments saves vast amounts on the costs that come with location shoots and flying huge teams of people around the world.
“It also means you can partner up with other studios, because as long as you’ve got fast connections, you can link up studios and work collaboratively.” It seems that, with the influx of virtual studios, we are only really at the start of XR’s journey. “We’re only at the beginning,” Bates expands. “As the costs of making this technology come down, it means that more and more creatives have access to it. The more hands it gets into, the more options creative people get – and the opportunities are endless, especially with XR and AR.” XR IN SOUTH KOREA Roe Visual is another vendor making waves in the XR space – a company dedicated to making top-level LED display platforms. By using carefully selected high-end components, the latest technology and its own in-depth knowledge, Roe offers great solutions for creatives, designers and technicians that rely on its products for installation, shoot or performance. Inevitably, creating LED technology of this calibre leads Roe to working on a variety of AV installations and projects, and this is no less true for the XR variety. One example that highlights Roe’s innovation in this new space was an announcement at the end of 2023, revealing that a collaboration with Ark Ventures had resulted in further expansion of NIPA KOVAC XR Stage. A cutting-edge studio, this was equipped with Roe Visual panels and emphasises NIPA’s continuing commitment to pioneering ICVFX and XR technologies in South Korea. The NIPA (National IT Industry Promotion Agency) worked with Ark Ventures, a South Korean company with extensive experience in providing virtual production solutions, for this studio located at the South Korean VR AR Complex (KOVAC) in Mapo-gu, Seoul.
Target3D on Dock Street in central London, brought to life with help from 7thSense
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