Sony opens Pinewood virtual production space

Sony has opened a virtual production space in its Pinewood digital media production centre.

The virtual production space aims to allow broadcasters, productions, and technicians time with Sony’s cinematography team for education and training in the area. It is described as “always available” without the need for appointments for anyone from directors of photography to actors to walk in, speak to experts, and test out Sony’s equipment - such as its Cinema line and CineAlta cameras, Crystal LED screens, virtual production toolset, and professional monitors. 

Sony isn’t only showcasing its own work at the facility, with partners such as NCAM (and its tracking software) also featured alongside the Sony products. It also partnered with Lux Machina to create the facility. 

The 60m² space includes a 4.89m x 2.7m LED wall consisting of 64 Sony CLED Crystal B-series displays, arranged in a 16:9 ratio. 

This announcement comes after Sony opened a 700m² virtual production studio in Seine Saint Denis, north of Paris, which houses a a 90m² display that is 18 metres wide and five metres high. The company is also making a virtual production toolset available later this year, which is for use with pre-production and on-set workflows.

An example of the toolkit’s use is its Camera and Display Plugin feature, which uses Unreal Engine to connect the real and virtual worlds, achieving synergy between hardware and software to design, visualise and refine the virtual production shots before going into the virtual production stage.

Will Newman, DMPC manager at Sony, said: “virtual production is set to be the next technological step change for cinematographers, and we were keen to provide them with a space where they can learn and experiment with the opportunities offered by virtual production. There’s nothing really like getting hands on, and we know that the combination of our Venice cameras and Crystal-LED screens are the perfect way to achieve excellent quality images.”