disguise has launched a new and improved state-of-the-art xR stage at its Los Angeles office. The new space comes equipped with the latest technology to meet the growing demand for the disguise xR workflow in virtual production and broadcast in the West Coast area.
In early 2020, disguise accelerated the development of its award-winning xR solution, providing an innovative alternative for live events to resume in a virtual space. Since then, the workflow has powered over 250 projects, as well as forming an essential component in the 170+ xR stages that have been built around the world to support the demand for immersive real-time productions.
The upgraded stage, which was also the first xR stage opened by disguise, comes with an enhanced design, state-of-the-art equipment and a full cluster rendering setup targeting the growing wave of film, episodic TV and broadcast productions relying on scalable, photorealistic real-time content.
“The disguise LA xR stage has been invaluable to us as we pitch to our clients and evaluate workflow options. Because xR stages are generally costly and hard to come by, the flexibility and versatility of the disguise LA xR stage makes it invaluable to us for testing and exploring use cases across a range of projects and growing list of industry opportunities,“ said Steve Richards, Principal at Original Syndicate and long-time disguise customer.
The new stage is made up of: disguise rx render nodes; disguise vx media servers; ROE Visual Black Onyx 2.8mm LED wall and Black Marble 4.8mm floor; Red Komodo and Blackmagic URSA cameras; Stype RedSpy, Ncam, and Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking systems; BlackTrax tracking and lighting products from Litegear and Arri.
For the past two years, the LA stage has been providing the disguise user community with a space to learn and experiment with the disguise xR workflow, test out new content ideas and design end-to-end projects across live music, corporate presentations, broadcast and virtual production for film and episodic TV.
The stage also doubles as an R&D centre and support resource for the community, a space for the disguise technical solutions team to run xR demonstrations for clients around the world – including the latest disguise r18 software webinars – as well as an event space where various educational talks, like a session from Screens Producer Laura Frank, have been hosted. The new stage will also enhance disguise’s permanent xR setup in LA with better local knowledge and 24hr global support to better serve customers in the region.
“I think the next couple of months will be very interesting. As live events start to come back, it will be exciting to see how xR can be integrated into live production and utilised to augment in-person experiences,” said Marcus Bengtsson, Technical Solutions Specialist for disguise LA.
He added: “xR represents a huge technical leap forward for the industry, and there are now technologies and creative tools available to designers that were not around 12 months ago. I am very excited to see what the next generation of live shows will look like and how these new technologies can be incorporated.”
The doors to the disguise LA office are now reopened, and, according to Bengtsson, “We are excited to welcome new and existing customers to test out the new space, join a live demo, meet the team and discover the amazing ways in which disguise xR can take their production to the next level.”
As disguise’s first xR stage, the stage was originally opened in 2019 and shortly followed by the launch of disguise’s London HQ stage in August 2020 and its Hong Kong stage in April 2021.