Taiwan’s TV and film industry, transformed by Cyans LED virtual studio supported by Brompton Technology

Harvatek, a Taiwanese supplier of LEDs, has collaborated with an experienced local equipment distributor to establish a joint subsidiary called Cyans Visual Creative Co., Ltd, in what appears as an exciting development for Taiwan’s broadcasting industry.

The Cyans LED Virtual Studio is the country’s very first virtual production (VP) facility placed within a broadcasting station and it’s built inside the Formosa Television station (FTV) in the Linkou district, a hub for film and television productions in New Taipei City. The studio boasts the highest specifications, adhering to the Netflix Partner Center standard, and features industryleading LED processing provided by Brompton Technology.

Offering a great span of virtual production and realtime integration services, the Cyans LED Virtual Studio caters to a wide range of commercial events, including press conferences, product launches, online activities, and small-scale concerts. Moreover, it is a versatile option for capturing dynamic shoots, including commercials, films, dramas, music videos, and other productions.

“In light of the growing global virtual production market, our goal with Cyans LED Virtual Studio is to provide Taiwanese film and television production teams with a cutting-edge, tailor-made environment that addresses their creative production needs,” says Peter Hou, General Manager at Cyans

Visual Creative Co., Ltd. “Through the seamless integration of software and hardware, we strive to unleash creativity and drive the virtual production trend in Taiwan.”

The studio offers a suspended LED main screen, the only one of its kind in Taiwan, ensuring a seamless display that greatly minimises moiré effect during shooting. Measuring 18.5m wide by 5m high, the LED wall is constructed with high-quality P2.3 Harvatek LED panels. “By using Harvatek’s LED panels and industry ‘gold standard’ LED processing from Brompton, we are able to fulfil the technical requirements for any virtual production (VP) or extended reality (XR) applications,” explains Hou. He adds that the floor LED and ceiling LED can be conveniently adjusted based on production requirements, providing flexibility in capturing various shooting angles.

With high-resolution shooting capabilities and multi-camera frequency-based multi-angle operations, the Cyans LED Virtual Studio supports up to four cameras for live broadcasting.

Leveraging Unreal Engine with Virtual Cam and Physical Cam, both virtual and physical zoom modes can be empowered for enhanced production. Additionally, the use of a tracking system significantly streamlines post-production time for the team working at the studio.

When choosing an LED processing solution, Brompton Technology was the preferred choice right from the start due to the performance and reliability of its Tessera products. “One key factor that cemented our decision was Brompton’s unique Dynamic Calibration technology, which ensures accurate colour representation and HDR capabilities for LED displays,” continues Hou.

Taking full advantage of Brompton’s Tessera software feature set was another advantage for the team and allows them to meet the specific requirements of a variety of use cases, offering flexibility and optimal performance. For Cyans, some of the most notable Tessera features include Frame Remapping, which makes it possible for multiple cameras to see different content when viewing the same LED screen at the same time; ChromaTune for making precise adjustments and corrections to the colours in incoming video signals; PureTone to compensate for any non-linearities, ensuring true, clean, accurate colours and neutral grey scales; and ShutterSync®, an industry-first, patented processing feature that automatically adjusts the timing of the LED refresh to match the preferred camera setup –.

CP Communications counts on Pliant Technologies’

CrewCom system for a series of high-profile events

Pliant Technologies’ intercom solution supplies the audio quality and reliability required for multiple deployments; to name only a few, CP Communications will use CrewCom system in production of events as NYC Marathon, NBA Finals or the Super Bowl

Pliant Technologies and CP Communications, company specialized on the supply of high-quality live event production solutions to the premium sports, entertainment, corporate, and news markets, have a long established an alliance in collaborating on intercom systems for many high-profile events, including The NYC Marathon, the Super Bowl, The NBA Finals, the All-Star Game and World Series, as well as the Westminster Dog Show, among others.

“One of the benefits of using CrewCom is it’s scalability — it can be a very simple intercom solution or we can ramp it up to be a very large-scale deployment, with the ability to sync and coordinate with multiple systems,” says Brian Ready, systems engineer, CP Communications. “For CP Communications, the typical users of CrewCom run the gamut of production, from stage managers to audio technicians to lighting. The gear is being used daily and over the long term it is robust and reliable. Our customers find it to be very easy to use, especially with its one-toone relationship between the talk and listen buttons. There is no need to scroll through menus to get to what you need.”

With CP Communications working on such a wide range of events and venues, the available frequencies often change from event to event, and from venue to venue. “We like that CrewCom operates in the 900MHz range since the usable frequency spectrum is a commodity, but with the 900 band, for the most part, it’s usable nearly everywhere,” says Ready. “The ability to also use 2.4GHz really helps for those venues operating in the 900MHz band.”

For the New York City Marathon, Pliant’s CrewCom system was deployed including 18 users at the start and an additional 18 users at the finish line for communications to and from technicians working in their respective locations. The finish line was set up in a traditional production scenario, with a booth communications kit that was interfaced to the CrewCom system and then brought back to the production truck. The starting line was more intricate in that all aspects of the production, including cameras and audio, were brought back via fiber optics or IP to the finish line – with the show being produced from the finish line. This also included all the content captured from the smart cars that were located throughout the marathon route. CP Communications managed both the domestic broadcast as well as the international feed.

This year, CP Communications also took on the NBA Finals with the help of Pliant and its CrewCom system. A variety of the brand’s products were deployed for this event, including 20 conferences of wireless PL (Party Line), three program feeds into the system, 40 radio packs [RPs], 14 radio transceivers (RTs) and three control units [CUs].

CP Communications and Pliant have also been involved with the Super Bowl for several years. For last year’s event at SoFi Stadium, CP worked directly with the NFL

Event Frequency Coordinators to provide the wireless intercom for the pregame show. Working in conjunction with the other parties involved with the game itself and the NFL Network’s CrewCom system, CP Communications utilized the Pre-Game Pliant CrewCom system as the master sync source for all of the production teams using the CrewCom systems. All three intercom systems were synchronized with CP Communications utilizing Pliant’s CrewNet network as the conduit, so there was no RF conflict with so many systems and users operating in one area. While the pregame and the game TV compounds were separated, there was a consistent intercom communications flow throughout all aspects of the event to allow for a seamless production.

CP Communications also utilized Pliant’s CrewCom system for a series of events surrounding the MLB All-Star game, including the Home Run Derby and the Future’s Game. For these events, two CrewCom control units, 14 radio transceivers, and 24 Radio Packs were used. ESPN then deployed another 20 packs and two CUs to manage those events that ESPN was involved in. CrewCom was also part of the system that CP Communications deployed for the MLB Draft. In addition to football and baseball, CP Communications also works with Turner and ESPN to supply several game day packages for the NBA and the NHL, each with a CrewCom system included. CP Communications also utilized Pliant’s SmartBoom headsets and its FleXLR Gender Adapter.

In addition, CP Communications relied on Pliant for the 2023 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. CrewCom was also deployed at this event, which included two CU’s, 24 radio packs and 14 antennas throughout the venue.

“The ability to configure the system offline with its CrewWare software and then export that drawing as a PDF for an onsite tech, really saves on time and potential set up errors,” adds Ready. 