The new immersive tech is primarily focused on streamlining productions so that filmmakers, live events experts, and broadcasters can use it with fewer license requirements and costs.
Immersive experience company Disguise has received £1.2m in funding from Innovate UK and the EU as part of a larger investment into MAX-R — an alliance of companies dedicated to advancing virtual production, extended reality, virtual reality, and metaverse technologies. The MAX-R alliance — made up of Disguise, the BBC, ARRI, Improbable, Brainstorm, Foundry, FilmLight, The University of Hasselt, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, CREW and FilmAkademie Baden-Wurtumberg — has already announced its first developments.
For Disguise, these are primarily focused on streamlining productions so that filmmakers, live events experts, and broadcasters can use immersive technologies with fewer license requirements and costs. This will open up the creative possibilities for mid-to-low-budget productions, helping to make virtual production and extended reality technology available to projects like shorts, ads and corporate presentations.
Disguise’s new MAX-R technology developments include RSConnect which enables the connection of live events to metaverse platforms. The new protocol allows for the transfer of audio, visual media and metadata from Disguise’s Designer software into a third-party system. Next, the Depth Reprojection capability improves depth estimations on virtual production sets . This results in a more realistic 3D background, even when the camera perspective shifts. MAX-R’s OCIO allows users to define their own colour space on a virtual production set, helping them seamlessly integrate shots into visual effects pipelines. The Reimaging 2.0 function reduces downtime when configuring media servers. Initial results from Reimaging 2.0 offer an 83-84% decrease in time needed for a 10-server bank to be completely reimaged, streamlining the setup for large productions and enabling teams to get back to work faster than previously possible. Finally, the Porta function enhances the level of control that’s available to on-set operators with software that offers more experimental transitions, scheduling and content manipulation options.
Outlining the benefits of MAX-R, Disguise Chief Collaboration Officer Abi Bowman said: “MAX-R will offer exciting new opportunities to broaden the way creators and audiences craft, present and interact with digital realities. By offering an array of tools to streamline existing ways of working or facilitate exciting new ones, we’re making sure that the next generation of content creators have the tools they need to make the virtual world look and feel as real as the physical one.”
