Planar and OptiTrack Join Advisory Board for On-Set Virtual Productions Initiative
Planar and sister company OptiTrack have joined other industry leaders and SMPTE to form The Advisory Group of the On-Set Virtual Production (OSVP) Initiative. This initiative is the first project within the society’s new Rapid Industry Solution (RIS) program.
Planar and OptiTrack both take part in SMPTE’s new initiative for the RIS program, focused on creating a portfolio of essential tools that can help the industry tackle the complexities of OSVP, including the development and curation of knowledge resources. The companies’ participation follows the launch of Planar Studios in June of 2021. The initiative combines the advanced technologies, industry partnerships and personnel customers required to create realistic in-screen content for today’s virtual production (VP) and extended reality (XR) applications.
“The success of the On-Set Virtual Production Initiative hinges upon the expertise and support of a wide range of technology and thought leaders,” said Hans Hoffmann, SMPTE president and head of media fundamentals and production at the EBU. “For this reason, SMPTE has established an Advisory Group drawing from emerging technology companies, traditional production users, manufacturers, educational institutions and professional organizations. We are so thankful to have the best minds in the industry to assess the challenges, establish our goals and deliver a fast-track response,” Hoffman continued.
The key goal of the RIS OSVP Advisory Group is to establish interoperability, training, workflows, best practices and a unifying common language to smooth collaboration, building on whichever formats the creative industry chooses to leverage. SMPTE underwent in-depth discussions with groups and individuals in all aspects of the OSVP pipeline to uncover several hurdles that are currently preventing many from deploying these new content creation technologies.
Planar and OptiTrack’s participation in the Advisory Group allows both companies to have a voice at the table, helping review, recommend and guide the outputs from the group. As global industry leaders, Planar and OptiTrack are well-positioned to contribute to the two main goals of the initiative: enabling systems interoperability and training at all levels.
“Planar and OptiTrack are excited to be building a framework for the On-Set Virtual Production Initiative with SMPTE,” said executive vice president Adam Schmidt. “LED video walls and motion capture technology represent key components of today’s virtual studios and together, Planar and OptiTrack bring more than 60 years of experience delivering best-in-class display and optical tracking technologies. We look forward to collaborating with this impressive group of industry leaders and seeing what we can help establish to support future VP applications.”