This week a Brobdingnagian collection of bits and pieces from a new smartphone ring light, to CG innovation, to a 410 MP sensor, and more.
With apologies for the slightly scattergun nature of the following news roundup, these are the stories that have caught our attention in the past few days and weeks.
NANLITE's lumo is a lightweight, foldable light that is fully MagSafe compatible and equipped with a built-in rechargeable battery. The idea is that lumo quickly snaps onto your phone with no cables or setup required. It also transforms usefully into a phone stand or grip, making it ideal for content creation on the go.
The lumo delivers a soft ring glow and is smaller than your palm, weighing just 63g / 2.22 oz and folding down to only 6.84×6.52×1.4cm (2.69×2.57×0.55”). Price is $39.
Chaos has announced a major new upgrade to its Chaos Cosmos asset library, adding 30,000 new assets, courtesy of Evermotion and Globe Plants. Chaos users working with V-Ray, Vantage, Corona and soon Enscape (a new integration is on the way) will be able to open the Cosmos library directly within their tool and choose from thousands of digital (and animated) humans, vehicles, vegetation and more, then drop them right into an existing scene to create photorealistic projects with ease.
Add in a new AI Material Generator, and users will have an almost endless number of ready-to-use 3D options, without changing how they operate.
Staying with CG, Beeble's new SwitchLight 2.0 brings AI-powered relighting to any footage.
It's built to convert raw video into detailed, physically based rendering (PBR) maps—including normal, basecolor, metallic, roughness, and specular—SwitchLight 2.0 enables users to relight full scenes in real time, without requiring 3D reconstruction or isolated subjects. The company says that SwitchLight 2.0 is already being adopted in previsualization, virtual production, and VFX workflows. More at beeble.ai.
The UK Film Industry is launching its inaugural Location Managers Awards. Location Managers, Scouts, Studio Managers and Unit Managers, those who shape the visual identity of every production, will be honoured for the first time at the Location Managers Awards UK, set to take place on Saturday, 4th October 2025 at the historic St George’s Hall, Liverpool.
These people are absolute heroes who deserve to have their names in lights more often. Ticket info here.
Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo has been bought by Gamefound. Indiegogo has raised over $3 billion for projects over 17 years, but the perception is that it has lost ground to rival Kickstarter in recent years (which is ubiquitous enough to be well-established as a verb). Gamefound has made its name and its reputation for underlying tech in the boardgames funding sphere, which has embraced crowdfunding with huge enthusiasm. And if you think that's a small industry, RedShark Ed. Andy reports that his new copy of Stonemaier Games' Vantage is number 22,000-and-something of an original run of 50,000. At $75 a pop, that's $3.75 million revenue alone for one game. Not small at all.
Canon has started accepting orders for its mahoosive 410MP full-frame sensor. The LI8030SA has a native resolution of 24,576 x 16,368 pixels, though it scales down to a far more pedestrian 100 megapixels when used for video. No idea who will use it first, but our money would be on industrial or specialist applications before it trickles down to anything at our end of the industry.
The following video shows the FIESP building in São Paulo—now Latin America’s largest open-air digital art façade, featuring over 120,000 LED dots, each installed by hand across 2,818 square meters.
This was actually a renovation by ON, and one which multiplied the original installation's resolution by four and its brightness by ten.
The PIO-E is a compact IP remote interface designed specifically for PROTON cameras. With a single Ethernet cable, that means you can get power (PoE), camera control, and bi-directional communication. "Whether you’re in a live OB van, a sports venue, or a multicam studio, the PIO-E simplifies your setup and extends your control possibilities without compromise," says the company.
Size is 22x27x60mm (housing), 22x27x66mm (with Hirose), and weight is 60 grams / 2.12 oz. Proton has recently opened a dedicated production facility to cope with expanding demand so is obviously doing something right.
And finally, building on the momentum of past Pride Happy Hours at IBC, CES and NAB, this year’s IBC Pride Happy Hour is proudly supported by returning partners Quickplay, Caretta Research and Evergent, and joined for the first time by Dalet and Twelve Labs. This year’s event is set to be twice the size as before and once again bring the broadcast, media and tech community together for an evening that’s as significant and meaningful as it is memorable.
"At its core, the IBC Pride Happy Hour is about diversity, inclusion and making genuine connections," say the organisers. " It’s an opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community, allies and others throughout the industry to come together to celebrate diversity and inclusion and to foster and empower this growing community."
Can I get an amen in here? More info here.