Welcome to Virtual Production month

May is Virtual Production month here at RedShark. Along with your regular news, reviews, and opinion we are taking a deep dive into the industry’s hottest topic right now - virtual production.

With the help of our team of writers, contributors, readers, and partners we are going to shed light on what a virtual production actually is. What technologies are driving this thriving new sector? What are the possibilities? Can you define “extended reality'' (XR)? Who is filming in virtual production right now and if you are a student, and is this the area you should be focusing on right now for your career ahead?

We’ve seen with our own eyes at recent trade shows and events just how far virtual production technology has come on in the past 2 years. Along with cloud-enabled remote workflow tools it has clearly been the sector that has benefitted the most from new, covid, and carbon-conscious producers, networks, and production companies. Is it a solution for everything? Obviously not. At NAB I witnessed a fascinating panel discussion “Inside Mixed Reality for Live Broadcast” where the panelists were at pains to state there is still a mountain of work to do, standards to define, and code to write to hit a target that is constantly moving. However, the work already done is very exciting and worth championing. That’s exactly what we will do this month. Look to magnify the work already done, the studios investing in the technology, and (with the help of industry experts) take a look into the future to see where those moving targets may end up.

As always we need your help dear reader. Working in virtual production? Get in touch and tell us what it’s like. Own/ run a studio and invest in an LED Volume? Cool, tell us why.

Finally, I must say thank you to the amazing team at CVP whose support for our monthly themes allows us to commit additional resources to dive deeper into the topics that matter most. If you need new gear please make sure you head over there and check them out. They are usually ultra-competitive with price and (more importantly) have a top team to support you from testing through to support.