Pixotope: helping open up virtual production

In this video shot on the IBC show floor, Dave Shapton talks to Pixotope about the current and future state of virtual production technology.

So, where are we with virtual production at the moment? In an interesting position, according to Pixotope, a company that has been there from the start and indeed built its own software for virtual production because there just wasn't anything else on the market at the time.

“I think now we've gotten to the point where everyone is starting to understand and feel that there's a real opportunity to leverage these tools and technologies to bring the business of media creation into the future,” says CEO, Marcus Brodersen. “And with that, there's also a shift in focus maybe from features and stuff like that to how does this actually impact your workflow? How does it impact the bottom line, how many people do you need, how much time do you need.”

That’s always a sign of a maturing technology: where the feature set is pretty much considered a given, and the R&D effort from thereon in is all about optimisation. And, according to the company’s VP of Global Marketing, Ben Davenport, that’s where Pixotope has an edge.

“I think one thing that makes Pixotope different is that because we come from that production background, it's in our blood, we understand the challenges that the customers are having,” he says. “One thing we always strive for, it’s kind of in our mission, is to make virtual production more and more accessible; make it more accessible to a broader audience, but also making it more accessible in terms of how you deploy it. How many people you need to actually to run a production, making it less of a challenge, make it less an obstacle.”

There’s plenty below, including the company’s education initiatives, and its commitment to open standards and how it's working with SMPTE groups to open-source the software it has already built, making sure more and more people get access to the tools of (virtual) production.

“Success for virtual production is success for us,” says Davenport.