SP keeps Lux Machina on track at esports championship

Lux Machina Consulting has implemented Stage Precision’s SP software into its workflow for the production of Riot Game’s League of Legends World Championship esports competition in South Korea. 

For the project, the virtual production (VP) specialist deployed several different tracking solutions, including an inside-out optical tracking data system via Mo-Sys, a tracked cable camera and a SuperTechno crane. 

But Lux Machina needed a tool to provide a common link between data sources with offsets and profiles. 

The company’s vice-president of production, Wyatt Bartel, says: “We’ve used every tracking tool out there. Most of the workflows available are proprietary, meaning you’re locked into a particular manufacturer’s ecosystem.  

“We came to know Stage Precision when we were searching for a platform to stabilise our camera tracking practices across the film, television and live events markets. Upon learning about their lens calibration features and Shield plug-in, we realised it was exactly what we’d been looking for – a tool that would unify data from several sources.” 

 Jeptha Valcich, a camera tracking specialist at Lux Machina, says: “SP provides us with a workspace in which we could view the data coming in and out. 

“Having this data overview means the camera tracking team can work in a separate environment from the technical team, leading to a greater sense of organisation on projects.” 

The updated features for camera and lens calibration included in the release of SP version 1.1.0 in September 2023 proved invaluable during the production in Seoul. “We used lens profiles in SP for all five of our cameras, three Mo-Sys systems we were operating, the crane and the cable camera,” says Xander De Jong, a camera tracking specialist at NEP Group Netherlands, a sister company that worked with Luxe Machina on League of Legends. 

“Additionally, we had mechanically tracked camera heads without tripods that we needed to track and control the height of.  

“SP gave us a platform from which to pull in the data, manipulate it and in turn control the height of the cameras. Without it, we had no way of combining these data packets.” 

This lens calibration workflow within SP proved a gamechanger for Lux Machina. Unlike methodologies employed by other tracking workflows, SP’s approach provided a user friendly and scalable solution.  

 “SP gives us a single source of truth with the ability to understand the data as a whole, as signals come in and go out,” says Bartel.  

“It’s amazing to see the discrepancies in the data flow and to view the data as a visual representation is a real plus when it comes to timing the various different types of tracked systems in use.  

“As you boot the system up every day, SP allows you to guide your calculations in a predictable and visual way, and helps us to avoid dirty data and mistimed frames.” 

The Lux Machina team emphasises the advantage of being able to create unique tracking profiles and the openness of the platform. “Stage Precision has unlocked what other companies prefer to keep locked,” says Bartel. “You can do a lot within native software, but with SP, you can do so much more. 

 “Equipped with SP we can do more: have more cameras, have different types of cameras and bring different technologies to productions we previously wouldn’t have due to the time it would have taken to set them up. 

“On League of Legends, we had about 25 cameras overall, and with SP in our workflow, we can turn more and more of those into AR or XR cameras in the future.  

“I’m convinced that the ease of set-up that comes through utilising SP will push the XR industry forward as a whole.”