It brings me great satisfaction to be refreshing this humble studio. Back in the early 2010s, we spent weeks building the curved walls out of 2x4 timbers, bendy MDF and a whole lot of Polly-filler! Ten years later the room fell out of favour, but has now been injected with a new lease of life, codenamed: Virtual Production.

PC Specs:

For the PC, I have gone for a 4090, i9 and 128GB RAM, this is running Windows 11, and of course, Unreal Engine. The PC has a deckink quad duo card that was laying around from previous adventures.

Processing

I was shocked at the price difference between the Ultrimatte HD and the 4k. The HD variant is so cheap, but the price difference makes you think you are paying by the pixel. I went for the HD for now, it's a proof of efficacy after all.

Routing

It soon dawned on me that yes, we need a router. Especially with how much back and fourth you need to do to check the decklink is working, and to look at the Ultimatte monitor feeds. The Blackmagic Smart Hub was a cheap solution and fit the bill.

Trackers:

I chose the Vive CamTrack bundle, as it was a clear budget friendly choice. Four base stations positioned high up on magic arms, and 3 rovers with their trackers mounted. The whole thing talks back through cat6 to what could be described as a NUC pc running windows, which Vive have named the Mars.

Camera:

I wouldn't call myself a Blackmagic fanboy, however looking at this room, it would be hard to argue otherwise. The Blackmagic 6k Studio Camera is a perfect choice (not pictured), as it has a nice big screen with PGM/RETURN, which means you can see the composite live on the camera in real-time!

Scopes

Often relegated to a 'nice-to-have', I can't admit this was something I aimed to have from the get go, however it's in the kit. The scopes help someone like me light and shoot in a green screen environment. I like false colour, but i'm used to a scope!