Digital Catapult gives 5G starring role in advanced media production

UK tech incubator Digital Catapult has teamed up with virtual effects specialist Target3D to launch a network of 5G-enabled, advanced media production (AMP) studios.

One is based in London, the other in Gateshead in the North East. Digital Catapult and Target3D have enabled seamless connectivity between the two sites, which they say will facilitate high-calibre production at scale, and promote wider access to cutting-edge content creation technology.

There is a smorgasbord of tech on offer, including mixed/extended reality, 360-degree live-action filming, motion capture, photogrammetry – which is the creation of 3D models based on photographs – and 5G private networks.

“A new dawn in Advanced Media Production, where the ever closer merger of the digital and the real world, means new exciting outputs – from new techniques and skills, for ever expanding mediums, and discerning consumers of content,” said Allan Rankin, managing director of Target3D, in a statement. “How to make better, make faster, make smarter, make with lower impact is a continuous puzzle to be solved.”

5G could represent a key piece of this puzzle, offering up several possible use cases to improve the performance and efficiency of media and visual effects (VFX) production.

Digital Catapult gave multiple examples in an email to Telecoms.com. These include real-time VFX, where high-speed mobile connectivity facilitates real-time integration of VFX and virtual sets with live-action footage. This enables instant feedback and adjustments on the fly, reducing post-production time.

5G can also support synchronised, multi-camera setups, enabling cameras to film scenes from different angles and transmit the footage wirelessly to a central hub for real-time editing.

With 5G, production teams can also collaborate on projects irrespective of their location.

And from an audience’s perspective, 5G can support immersive viewing experiences, such as augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), interactive live video, and 360-degree footage.

5G “offers several technical benefits to virtual production studios, revolutionising the way content is created and produced,” said Digital Catapult. “With low latency, actions can be synchronised seamlessly, allowing for accurate real-time rendering and responsiveness. This means that virtual objects and environments can react to physical actors and props with minimal delay. Similarly, the system provides higher bandwidth, which is essential for transmitting large volumes of high-resolution video and 3D data in real time.”

Digital Catapult said the new studios are in the early stages of experimenting with 5G and that these use cases are very much in the investigative phase.

Digital Catapult casts its net pretty wide to find and promote emerging technologies, advanced media production being just one of them.

Recent highlights include its efforts to stimulate smart manufacturing uptake, providing up to £100,000 to individual tech companies developing solutions that can help manufacturers overcome supply chain challenges. That followed a £4 million programme to help UK manufacturers address sustainability. On a related note, it has also launched a smart manufacturing accelerator programme in Northern Ireland to help companies improve efficiency and sustainable growth.

Digital Catapult is also heavily involved with Open RAN development.

In March, under the auspices of its Sonic Labs (SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre) programme, it partnered with UK telco regulator Ofcom to launch a new Open RAN test lab. And just last week, Digital Catapult announced that seven new companies have agreed to participate in the next phase of the Sonic scheme, which involves testing the performance and scalability of Open-RAN components with multi vendor solutions and multiple units.

This phase of the programme runs until 2024, by which time Digital Catapult and its partners hope to have measured various KPIs that will push Open RAN closer to commercial reality.

Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Register for the Telecoms.com newsletter here.