CJP building virtual production suite for Basingstoke College of Technology

CJP Broadcast Service Solutions, systems integration, production and content digitisation specialist, is developing a cutting-edge production suite for Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT). The studio, a £500,000 investment by the college, will be implemented in time for the new academic year in September, supporting the college’s new courses in media, broadcast and games development.

The greenscreen studio features Kinoflo low-energy professional lighting installed by CJP. To provide real-time virtual production the studio uses technology from Mo-Sys, built on the Unreal graphics engine. The studio will also use two Red Komodo 6k cameras, providing very high resolution image capture. To ensure perfect registration between the camera and computer generated environments in real-time, the camera position and orientation is continually tracked with sub-millimetre precision using the Mo-Sys StarTracker Max.

Particularly to support games development and real-time performance capture, the studio will also include the Xsens MVN Link motion capture system with Animate Pro Software. This uses body suits to precisely capture every detail of an actor’s performance, to create natural movements in a computer-generated character streamed into Unreal Engine.

“This project will create a studio using exactly the tools that leading professionals use,” said Kieran Phillips, Director of Sales and Marketing at CJP. “These are the systems used on top TV productions, such as MOTD, Strictly Come Dancing etc. We have also seen the major adoption of Virtual Production technologies for blockbuster films such as The Batman, where toolsets like Unreal and camera tracking technologies have been critical.

“At CJP we have a huge amount of experience in building complete facilities using these game changing technologies,” Phillips continued. “But we also have a high level of understanding of the education sector. We know how important it is to charge young people with skills and enthusiasm for the creative industries, to fill the ever-increasing demand for talent.”

Peter Gordon, Course Director for Games, Media and Art & Design at BCoT added “Students will be able to work side by side on projects, each contributing their speciality, whether it’s narrative planning, costume and props, motion design or real-time production. By working in a cross-curricular way, our students will be able to have hands-on experience working as a team.

“This project has been years in the making, so we are all very excited to see construction work starting in the studio space, and we cannot wait for it to open for the next academic year,” he said.

The specialist software for the new studio will run on high-powered workstations built for BCoT by CJP. Alongside the studio CJP is building associated post-production facilities, including editing and colour grading suites. Funding for the project comes in part from the Local Skills Improvement Fund.

CJP builds media production studios and mobile facilities for broadcasters, commercial users and education. It is the only major media systems integrator that has delivered a high number of VP Facilities registered as a supplier with NWUPC, which provides framework purchasing agreements on behalf of universities and educational bodies across the UK.