Last month we welcomed the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to our Studio 15, as part of its Innovation Week. 17 members of the world’s leading alliance of public service media broadcasters visited WL HQ for a specially curated workshop in extended reality (XR), virtual production and the Metaverse.

In collaboration with Epic Games, Brompton Technology and disguise, we ran a series of presentations and demonstrations via our SmartStage®. The day kicked-off by introducing the conception of XR – explaining some of the specific terminology, as well as the key differences between virtual and XR production. Our Technical Solutions Director – Andy Hook, presented case studies such as our work on the ITV Sport Euros to outline the differences in using green screen versus LED wall-based virtual production.

MalfMedia’s Michael Al-Far then joined the workshop, via teleportation, to discuss the range of different workflows that can be integrated into a content-agnostic solution such as SmartStage.

Another session explored lighting considerations in XR and Virtual Reality (VR) environments and the importance of tracking in an LED volume, including a BlackTrax demo. The features of Frame Remapping integration within a high-performance LED wall were presented by Brompton Technology’s Rob Fowler. Epic’s Ben Lumsden then demonstrated the application of Unreal Engine for virtual production, before the day concluded with a Roadmap to the Future panel and audience Q&A.

EBU Senior Manager Hans Hoffmann, commented: “This week created a particular value in media innovation for Public Service Media (PSM) Broadcasters, enabled and facilitated by the EBU. The workshops identified one critical common challenge: media engineering talents and media technology topic experts are desperately needed on the journey for media innovation for the industry as well as Public Service Media organisations.”

WL’s Business Development Manager, Neil Coles adds: “We were thrilled to host the EBU, along with our supporting partners at WL. Engagement and interaction with the all the themes we explored was extremely high. It’s clear that there is huge appetite in the industry to harness technological innovation and use this to push boundaries in creativity.”

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