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AVI-SPL is predicting strong growth in corporate investment in virtual production studios, after demonstrating an XR stage at InfoComm 2023.
The company believes we will see the extension of an approach to technology that is now described as enterprise broadcast – meaning AV architecture blending with elements of broadcast technology.
“Enterprise broadcast is already here. We have just not called it by this term until now,” said Julian Phillips, senior vice president and MD, XTG at AVI-SPL. “We have many customers with virtual production stages installed all around the world. But we predict that there will be a huge growth of investment in the second half of 2023 into 2024.”
The main markets where this surge in investment is expected to be seen are large organisations in the corporate, higher education and healthcare sectors where virtual studios could be used for product launches, all hands meetings, or key customer and investor-facing meetings.
“We are very deliberate in describing enterprise broadcast as AV architecture blended with broadcast technology elements,” said Phillips. “Most enterprises are now familiar with AV architecture. They can secure and scale this technology in the same way they do their conferences rooms. Our design focus is simplicity, ease of deployment and management, yet still delivering high-quality and immersive streamed content. We believe this approach will enable us to deliver these solutions at a reasonable price point and support them at scale, using our Symphony platform.”
The AVI-SPL XR stage at InfoComm had Q-SYS at its core with Purple Digital Storytelling’s Hyro as the content management system. This is an enterprise application that can serve XR but can also cater to digital signage, experience centres and even digital art exhibits, all from the same platform with a simple interface on an iPad.
Broadcast elements of the system include disguise (as used in the Mandalorian), NewTek TriCaster, and Sony cinematic 4K PTZ cameras.
“What we showed on the booth could be a typical installation,” said Phillips. “If we had space, we would have installed an LED floor which would have enabled us to create a ‘volume’ which adds greater depth and immersion for true cinema and TV production values. The key difference is that we have chosen not to deliver solutions for broadcast applications that hit the public broadcast networks such as NBC or CNN. That is a very different market. However, for our customers we believe that ‘enterprise broadcast’ is 80% of the future opportunity.”
AVI-SPL is also being selective in the partnerships it has chosen as it expands in enterprise broadcast. “disguise is a great example of a relationship that has flourished, but only over the last six months. We are also now working with traditional broadcast technology providers such as Ross Video who also see this enterprise opportunity,”Phillips added.
AVI-SPL’s expansion in enterprise broadcast comes as AVIXA is predicting a major increase in spending on content, production and streaming. The association’s vice president of market intelligence Sean Wargo told a joint AVIXA/IABM Upstream conference in London this week that spending in these solution areas was expected to increase by $12bn to $51bn in the next five years. In particular, production rooms for broadcast were among the top end-user investment priorities.
“AVIXA have already seen this emerging trend, have commissioned research, and are attracting new technology partners to InfoComm and ISE too. The bottom line is don’t expect NAB to be the only home for ‘broadcast’ into the future,” Phillips said.
The equipment list for the XR stage on AVI-SPL’s Infocomm booth
- Belden 12G SDI cabling
- disguise XR media servers and rendering engine
- Elation KL Panel XL LED studio lighting fixtures
- Fohhn Audio-Scale 2 loudspeakers
- Middle Atlantic rack and power distribution
- Nanolumens 1.2mm fine pixel pitch LED display
- Netgear AV network switches.
- Newtek Tricaster 2 Elite and NDI transport
- Purple Digital Storytelling, 3D unreal environments and Hyro CMS/control platform
- Q-SYS audio processing and control
- Sennheiser wireless microphones
- Sony 4K LCD displays
- Sony Cinematic 4K PTZ cameras
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