Meet some of Brompton Technology’s virtual production partners who are using the manufacturer’s innovative technology to raise their game.  

As a leading manufacturer and supplier of LED processors for high profile live events, stepping into the fast-growing world of virtual production was a natural progression for Brompton Technology. With the new challenges arising, the company’s wealth of experience supporting televised live events and getting the best image quality on-camera were paramount from day one. 

“That gave us a great starting point, and we’ve worked hard to understand the requirements of our many virtual production users and deliver improved functionality to meet their needs,” says CEO Richard Mead. 

Some of Brompton’s UK partners, 80six, Bild Studios, Garden Studios, iMAG Displays and White Light, were amongst the first ones to offer virtual production and XR solutions, giving creatives access to this innovative technology. 

“Combining incredible colour management with technologies like ShutterSync® ensures that we get perfect in-camera results with no artefacts on the LED wall,” comments Andy Hook, Technical Solutions Director at White Light. “The reliability of Brompton processing gives us complete confidence in being able to achieve seamless results in demanding live broadcasts and film productions. The technology gives us the toolkit needed to rapidly adapt to changing requirements on set.” 

While delivering the best possible LED processing, Brompton is just one element in a complete virtual production ecosystem, so optimising workflows and integrating other systems ensure users have the tools needed to get the best results. Helping its partners achieve photo-realistic LED backdrops and effects for everything from television shows to large- and small-scale film productions has quickly confirmed its place as the industry’s preferred choice. 

“Brompton image processing plays a major part in the running of our stage,” says Mark Pilborough-Skinner, Virtual Production Supervisor at Garden Studios. “It’s one of the most important steps in our signal chain, giving us control over our colour pipeline, ensuring that the best image possible is displayed on the LED.” 

But not everything is new, the service that the company has always offered in the live events sector carries directly over, as Dan Hamill, Director at 80six notes. “Brompton’s years of industry experience, field-proven hardware reliability and excellent customer service make its Tessera system a natural choice for LED processing.” 

Features like On Screen Colour Adjustment (OSCA), PureTone, ShutterSync and Frame Remapping are now joined by Extended Bit Depth, increasing detail and reducing banding in the darkest areas of the content, and Stacking, enabling control of multiple processors to seamlessly adjust precise values across a larger canvas. 

“The single control of often-changed elements such as brightness and colour correction values across multiple processors is powerful,” confirms Tom Court, Technical Operations Manager at iMAG Displays. 

2023 and beyond… virtual production and XR trends 

The industry keeps evolving with a still-growing number of permanent and semi-permanent XR/VP stages across the world.  

“As with all new innovations introduced to market, there is often an initial degree of hype,” says Joanna Alpe, Chief Commercial Officer at Bild Studios. “We are seeing virtual production emerge as a strong viable tool for filmmakers as part of their production mix.”  

Now with its viability established, and along with the Tessera features being integrated to improve quality, virtual production is on course to benefit other industries and create even more added value for users. 

Efficient and sustainable – “We believe the future is bright,” Alpe continues. “Education is a huge part of this, and we were so proud to launch MARS Academy last year with key contributors such as Brompton. This is a huge part of building the future of virtual production. The more production teams know and understand the technology, the closer we all get to realising the future of efficient filmmaking.” 

Driving innovation – Pilborough-Skinner believes that as the industry gets more familiar with virtual production and its best use cases, it will get more and more used in the future. “The technology has developed significantly over the past few years, and it will keep doing so in the future, constantly driving innovation, and improving practices. Brompton supports us on this journey by keeping at the forefront of integrating new plugins and features,” he says. 

Beyond boundaries – Hook is confident VP and XR will become more widespread across a much broader range of industries. “Brompton gives our Innovations team another tool to continue pushing those boundaries in 2023 and beyond.” 

Tools for efficiency – “With each firmware release there seems to be something that breaks ground and moves us all forward towards the smoothest and most efficient workflow possible,” states Court. “I see XR becoming the go-to tool for complete control of the shooting space, saving time in post-production and enabling quick turnarounds on set. For me, Brompton is the company that makes this side of the industry such a quickly developing and exciting place work.” 

All these benefits will keep helping push the main purpose: Using technology to enable the maximum creative freedom above what has ever been possible before. 

“In virtual production, if the technology is visible, you fail. Brompton acted as a guide for us at the beginning of our journey into virtual production, so any future we imagine, we’re in it together!” Hamill concludes. 

The collective effort, made by so many different companies to develop such an amazing option to create content, has resulted in a tool that will continue to change the future of storytelling as we know it. 

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This article was paid for by Brompton Technology