Vicon’s VFX solutions selected by new virtual production stage DARK BAY

Vicon, a world leader in motion capture, has announced a new collaboration with DARK BAY, one of Europe’s largest, permanently installed LED-studio for virtual productions.

Based near Berlin, one of Europe’s leading film and media locations, DARK BAY’s new virtual production stage was built on the lot of the prestigious Studio Babelsberg AG. The stage consists of a 180.5-feet-circumference and 23-feet-high LED wall, as well as a modular LED ceiling — enabling digital backgrounds to be created in advance as a 3D world and displayed on the LED wall for filming.

As the first of its kind, DARK BAY also boasts a unique 360-degrees revolving stage with a diameter of 69 feet and a load capacity of up to 25 tonnes to allow filming of real sets from different angles while reducing the time needed for a set rebuild.

The virtual studio, which provides eight high-performance workstations, is currently using state-of-the-art systems from Vicon to enable high-quality and real-time tracking of the camera movement, including 38 ViperX and 12 Vero 1.3 cameras, alongside Vicon’s dedicated VFX software, Shogun.

The complete first season of the new Netflix mystery series 1899 is in production at DARK BAY – developed by the duo behind acclaimed series DARK, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar.

Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar & Philipp Klausing, Producers of 1899 and Managing Directors DARK WAYS and DARK BAY came together to comment: “Virtual production can bring you to every imaginable place in the world with no limits of imagination. Beyond that, virtual production offers filmmakers endless possibilities to redefine creative spaces and move between real and fictional worlds.

DARK BAY, one of Europe’s largest state-of-the -art virtual production spaces, will always be defined by its motion capture capabilities. Only the highest accuracy, flexibility and performance will suit the demands of high-profile productions. With decades of experience in the VFX space, we knew Vicon’s industry-leading tracking solutions were the best choice for achieving this level of precision. We look forward to our continued partnership and to push the boundaries of new filmmaking techniques.”

Imogen Moorhouse, CEO of Vicon said: “As a company that has been involved in the VFX industry right from the beginning, we want to help enable production companies to push the boundaries of this space. Our work with DARK BAY is testament to this, and we are extremely proud that they selected us to play a part in this ground-breaking project and support them in taking virtual production techniques to the next level.”