Epic Games has enlisted Brompton Technology, ARRI and creative technical production company 80six to help refurbish its London Innovation Lab with a new curved LED Volume. The set-up includes an ARRI Amira camera, 144 ROE Black Pearl 2 LED panels, 38 CB3 Carbon 3 full-size and eight half-size panels, all of which are driven by Brompton Technology’s Tessera 8 LED processor and are calibrated using Brompton’s Hydra system. The virtual set is lit by a mixture of LED panels and traditional ARRI set lighting.
“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. 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. 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.”
Ben Kidd, Technical Artist, Epic Games