Renowned for its 360-degree live event solutions, which range from exhibitions, corporate, broadcast and media through to full virtual production, Faber Audiovisuals is a veteran player in the dynamic world of LED displays and audio-visual services. Part of the NEP Worldwide Network, the company has dynamically calibrated its entire fleet of LED panels with Brompton Technology’s Hydra measurement system, to unlock the full potential of its LED displays and make them Brompton HDR-ready.
“Especially in the film industry, there is a requirement for exceptionally realistic-looking visual content and extra-wide colour gamut,” says Steven Embregts, Faber’s Technical Manager. “The way Brompton HDR works with Rec 2020 and the 10 to 12-bit workflows, delivering accurate reflections, lighting, and rich final pixels to be captured in-camera, puts it in really high demand with our customers.”
With a dedication to providing their end-users with the best, there was no question in the minds of the Faber team that the company would upgrade its LED panels with Brompton’s Dynamic Calibration to make them HDR-ready.
The screens calibrated are a mix of ROE panels, including Ruby 2.3mm, Black Onyx 2.8mm, with ROE CB3 and CB5 in the pipeline.
“As well as calibrating around 3,000 of Faber’s ROE panels, within the NEP Group both Mediatec and CT London will also have their ROE panels calibrated with Hydra, which will bring the total to roughly 4,000 to 4,500 panels,” continues Embregts.
Brompton Technology has been supporting the Faber team with the calibration process from the beginning.
Brompton Technology’s Hydra measurement system
“With such a high volume of panels being calibrated, we wanted to ensure that the process ran as smoothly as possible,” says Dries Vermeulen, Brompton’s Business Development Manager for Europe. “That’s why we’ve been in close contact with Steven and the rest of Faber crew, supporting them with technical knowledge and of course offering our 24/7 remote support if they needed it.”
“The process on how to operate the Hydra measurement system was very clear to us,” added Embregts. “Once we had our online training session with Brompton, our engineers started calibrating the panels pretty much straight away and we have not encountered any problems so far.”
With most of the Faber road technician team grounded by COVID-19, the technical team had additional support from those who would normally be offsite with customers. “This meant we could deliver internal training to our extended team at the same time as going ahead with the calibration,” says Embregts.
The first major project, involving 1,132 newly calibrated ROE panels, was set up in Ireland at Kite Studios, in cooperation with independent design practice High Res. The facility included a 140-degree dome, made up of Hydra-calibrated ROE BO2 LED panels, driven by Brompton’s Tessera SX40 processors and Tessera XD 10G data distribution units.
Peter Canning, CEO and Lead Designer at High Res, notes that using Brompton HDR-ready LED panels has made a significant difference to their workflow.
“The Brompton HDR ready panels are creating extremely high-quality images as well as providing in-depth colour science data for our pipeline, which is becoming a more frequent request from our Virtual production clients working in both real-time and pre-rendered workflows,” he says.
“It’s not entirely possible to predict exactly what the film industry will look like after the coronavirus outbreak subsides, but one thing is clear: virtual production is here to stay,” concludes Embregts. “You don’t need to travel any more to make stories; they can be brought to life, right here in the studio, with real-time technology. VP is transforming the craft of filmmaking, and with tools like Brompton’s Hydra calibration system and Dynamic Calibration, we can stay on top of the latest breakthroughs in the world of real-time VFX and virtual production with our top-quality fleet of Brompton HDR-ready LED panels.”