Disguise has launched three Extended Reality (xR) stages in its London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong offices. The new stages provide a dedicated space for xR innovation and customer demonstrations, allowing disguise to present new workflows. The disguise team have taken this opportunity to explore and finesse xR workflows, experiment with content ideas, and support the community with remote production worldwide, including the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards and America’s Got Talent.
The stages are equipped with disguise’s xR solution and a complement of LED displays, cameras, and camera tracking systems to ensure successful xR productions. For its London and LA stages, disguise has chosen long-term partner ROE Visual to deliver LED panels that bring high-quality visual effects to life on large display formats, creating immersive experiences for performers on stage and audiences at home.
Related: Disguise Powers XR Content for 2020 MTV VMAs
“It’s a pleasure to have partnered with disguise on this fantastic project,” said David Morris, manager of business development, UK and Ireland for ROE Visual. “We are pleased to be at the forefront of the ever-popular technique of virtual production and it’s great to have a fully functioning stage in the UK. I’m sure disguise and their team of experts will make a huge success of this growing technology.”
The London stage opened in August 2020 and marked its debut with a visit from creative studio dandelion + burdock. The space affords EMEA customers the chance to visit a permanent xR installation and gives disguise the ability to stream demos to clients around the globe.
“We felt very privileged to have been the first to come and play at the disguise London xR stage,” said Nils Porrmann, technical director at dandelion + burdock. “We were very cordially received, with the appropriate safety measures in place, and our support team was amazing. We used the setup to involve and condition our creative team to an ever more complex live production environment. We believe an all-team approach leads to better expectations management and smoother deliveries.”
The London stage is fitted with the following cutting-edge technology:
- ROE Visual Diamond 2.6mm curved LED wall and Black Marble 4.8mm matte finish floor
- Mo-Sys StarTracker, stYpe RedSpy and Ncam Mk2 for agnostic camera tracking systems
- Blackmagic URSA camera
- Barco E2 image processing system
The Los Angeles xR stage opened last year and has already been hosting demos and running events, including a program for SIGGRAPH 2019, when guests filled the space to attend talks by key industry experts. The stage has also been used to prep the setup for America’s Got Talent and by Framestore VFX studio for film production.
The LA stage is equipped with a ROE Visual Black Pearl 2.8mm LED wall and Black Marble 4.8mm floor, stYpe RedSpy camera tracking, BlackTrax real-time tracking, Blackmagic URSA camera and Barco S3 image processing.
While still under construction, the Hong Kong stage is set to launch in Q4 2020. As a dedicated xR space in the primary APAC office, it will allow disguise’s Hong Kong team to offer unparalleled customer service and provide 24-hour support to meet increased xR global demand. When complete, the stage will feature a Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking system, Blackmagic URSA camera, Panasonic UE150 PTZ camera—supporting 4K and FreeD protocols—and CreateLED panels.
With the launch of rx, Renderstream, and software release 17.4, there has been an acceleration of disguise customers wanting to run Unreal Engine content on xR stages, and these spaces will be available for anyone to come in and experiment with those workflows. With work underway to deliver the Epic MegaGrant brief—closer integrating Epic and disguise’s products—these spaces will also offer essential R&D and customer feature validation services to the Product teams at disguise.
“Our stages will provide a space for xR innovation and support, opening up access to our user community to see and learn the xR workflow, try out content ideas and run customer demos,” said Fernando Kufer, CEO of disguise. “With our newly launched 17.4 software release supporting completely uncompressed engine-agnostic rendering, we are solidifying our position in the market as a trusted partner for next-generation virtual production.”
