ATG Danmon Builds Multi-Camera UHD Studio

ATG Danmon announces the completion of a studio upgrade at the London premises of one of the world's most active financial management services. The project centred on the design and construction of a fully-featured UHD virtual production facility plus the provision of a high-specification UHD portable production system.

Jonathan Hughes, ATG Danmon's Head of Systems Integration, said: "The studio proved an interesting challenge as the available floor area was very tight, having previously been equipped for single-camera shooting. A further complication was the room shape which included an unusually angled wall.

"The solution we recommended to the customer and which was enthusiastically adopted is based on three Panasonic AW-UE100K UHD pan/tilt/zoom cameras and an ATG-designed green screen virtual production set. PTZ cameras are inherently space efficient as they can be remotely operated from a separate location. They also enhance productivity because the production crew can handle complex shoots as a tightly integrated team without having to rely on headphone-based intercoms. Routine multi-camera productions can even be controlled by a single operator. In this instance the production team operates from an adjacent control room.

"The cameras have zoom lenses with 24-times optical magnification and are capable of wide-angle capture which makes very effective use of the studio dimensions. Each is tripod mounted to allow easy repositioning if required for specific production tasks. Camera control is via single-cable Ethernet including power. We also have the option of implementing NDI connectivity if required in the future.

"Lighting also demanded careful attention as the building's dimensions conform to corporate office standards where ceiling height rarely exceeds 3 metres and is usually limited to between 2.5 and 2.7 metres. This called for very creative thinking as studio lighting is normally located overhead. We have gained a lot of experience in creating space-efficient studio lighting grids for both the broadcast and corporate sectors. The lighting system in this instance is based on a Cirro Lite LED Cloud which provides soft illumination for the green screen plus a colour-correct overhead fill. This is supplemented by Dedolight focusable luminaires and barn door lamps plus Diva-Lite LED panels."

Additional elements of the studio installation include Portaprompt on-camera prompters and a 24 inch talent monitor. Audio infrastructure centres on an Allen & Heath sound production mixer and Genelec active monitor loudspeakers, Blackmagic audio-to-SDI embedders plus a range of wired and wireless microphones: desk-mountable, boom-mounted and lavalier.

A Sony PXW-FX9VK camera with full frame 6K sensor forms the core of the portable production system. This is designed for UHD operation but can also function at up to 6008 x 3168 pixels resolution. The camera is augmented by a Zoom multichannel audio mixer/recorder.

"The entire studio system can be powered from standard 13 amp mains with the option of batteries for the portable equipment," Jonathan Hughes added. "13 amp mains is much more practical in corporate buildings than investing in heavy-duty power supplies. One of our recent clients ran in power cables and UPS backup that would have jump-started a cruise liner! It is all a matter of scale."

www.atgdanmon.co.uk