BRIGHT SPARKS
The virtual production boom has drawn a new generation of companies into the cinematography sphere. Leading the charge are the LED processing specialists at Brompton Technology.
10 years ago, the name Brompton was synonymous with a certain ubiquitous folding bike. But in London, an idea was being forged for another product that would offer convenience and quality; something that would plug the gap between the LED panels being produced in China for the live events circuit and the processing systems paired with them. A decade on, Brompton Technology has established itself in both the live events and the film and television realms, where it has become known for its game-changing Tessera processors for virtual production.
“We started at the top, really!” says CEO Richard Mead, who founded Brompton Technology in 2012 with CTO Chris Deighton and CFO Chris Hunt. He’s talking about the 2013 Oscars, for which Brompton provided its processing systems. “It was quite stressful as a first project, but it went well, and we built from there.”
Brompton is not Mead et al’s first adventure into the industry. He met Deighton at the British lighting control developers Flying Pig Systems (inventors of the creatively named Wholehog console), whose products were used on rock concerts around the world. Later, the pair set up a new company, Carallon, with five other founders as a contracting firm developing control systems for leading brands in the entertainment industry. “But, inevitably, when you’ve got a group of engineers together, we started coming up with our own ideas for products,” he admits.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Having already done some work at Carallon developing LED video control systems for other manufacturers, they’d noticed the industry was in flux. “What was happening was that the panels being made by vendors based in China had got to a level where they were good enough in most respects and their pricing was clearly attractive, but the one area they fell short was the processing, which was a long way below the standard of what people were used to from [fellow LED specialists] Barco,” Mead says.
They decided to form a new company that would bridge the divide by developing a high-quality processing system that could be paired with the panels coming out of the better Chinese factories. “We were led by the rental companies on which panel manufacturers to support – and they liked that they could choose their preferred LED product and we’d make it work with our processing,” adds Mead.
Early on Brompton worked closely with AV rental company VER (now part of PRG) and the 85th Academy Awards were their first really high-profile event. Live productions remained their focus until a range of new applications for their technology for the film and television industries emerged.
“When people started doing film and television production using LED as a backdrop instead of green screen, they went to rental companies and asked, ‘What looks good on camera?’ and they’d reply, ‘You want Brompton processing,’ as so many of the major live events are televised and that was our thing,” Mead says. “From the beginning we’d always prioritised making it look good to both the eye and the camera.”
They have 17 UK-based virtual production partners – among them 80six, Bild Studios and Garden Studios – along with many more around the world. And if you haven’t seen their technology on set, you’ll definitely have seen it in action somewhere else – from Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour to the BT Tower’s unmissable LED infoband in London.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Brompton hopes to introduce more film and television industry figures to Tessera’s capabilities with their recent move to a larger office in Chiswick. As part of a 50% increase in demo space, the new site will also accommodate a spacious virtual production test zone, allowing more customers than ever to see features such as extended bit depth, Stacking and Tracking Markers, compatible with the Mo-Sys StarTracker system.
“We’re really looking forward to being able to bring people in here, to show them our features,” says Mead. “It’s such a visual thing – a lot of the time you can say, ours is better, but unless you can actually get in front of an LED wall and see it for yourself, it’s difficult for people to really assess that.
“That’s part of why we sought some investment now and moved buildings, because we’ve got this exciting new world of customers we’re supporting in film and television production, but we’ve also got our existing customer base in live events that are still there and we need to support them, too.”
That investment is £5.1mil of funding from Connection Capital, which will boost their recruitment efforts over the next six months. The firm also hopes to bolster its existing roster of international sites – in Los Angeles, Shenzhen and Taipei – with a hub on mainland Europe, to be stocked with demo equipment to showcase the company’s range across the Channel.
In 2019, over 80% of the firm’s business was in the live events world. In 2021, however, it made roughly the same turnover but with 90% of business in the film and television world while the pandemic suppressed live events. Mead expects fortunes to bounce back in the live events field soon, with the rapidly expanding Brompton focused on providing support to both markets.
In an exciting year which has seen the launch of several game-changing new software features for the Tessera processors, Brompton Technology hope to toast their 10th anniversary with a sparkling event at their new West London home. It’ll be an opportunity to celebrate the past decade of innovations, but more importantly look to the future, as the company continues to grow in an unexpected new industry. What will the next 10 years bring?
