Advanced rendering

The integration between the real and virtual objects and environments is essential, so the next step in virtual set production and Augmented Reality applications is to increase the realism of the content. This involves high quality rendering and the perfect integration between the different elements of the scene to provide a sense of realism. 

Along with advanced rendering features such as real-time ray tracing, PBR or HDR, Brainstorm fully supports gaming engines like Unreal Engine, providing photorealistic scenes in any resolution  

Real-time ray tracing 

InfinitySet takes full advantage of the latest hardware developments found in NVIDIA RTX GPU technology. By using NVIDIA Quadro RTX GPUs, InfinitySet can deliver real-time ray tracing, which provides a much more accurate rendering, especially with complex light conditions.

PBR and HDR 

InfinitySet fully supports PBR shaders as materials, which can also be imported from external shader editing software like Substance and other material editors. 

HDR allows for rendering wide-gamma pictures. InfinitySet can render floating 16 bit per channel/component, supporting for P2020 gamma correction output. This allows for post-rendering exposure control and extended-range filtering.

Unreal Engine workflow 

InfinitySet fully supports Unreal Engine, taking advantage of the benefits of what such game engine provides in terms of rendering quality. The added value of this configuration is the multitude of benefits of including more than 25 years of Brainstorm’s experience in broadcast and film graphics, virtual set and augmented reality production, including data management, playout workflows, virtual camera detach, multiple simultaneous renders and much more.  

With InfinitySet, UE projects can indistinctively be background or foreground, and with 100%-pixel accuracy guaranteed. This opens up the door to easily create AR with Unreal Engine, in addition to virtual set production.

Unreal Control 

InfinitySet also adds a new control layer, a dedicated, user-friendly control interface. The Unreal Control can see any blueprints, objects and properties in the UE project, and control them directly from InfinitySet, which results in a new, unique and revolutionary workflow that does not require to previously prepare blueprints for every action in UE. 

Unreal Control works in both directions, so in addition to the control of blueprints, objects and properties from InfinitySet’s interface, it can also transfer any input to UE to use it as a texture within a UE object. 

Beyond game engines: Combined Render Engine 

What Brainstorm offers goes far beyond what a game engine can do by itself. Broadcast graphics workflows have specific requirements, like database connections, statistics, tickers, social media or lower-thirds, a variety of hardware and software elements that are alien to the game engine framework but essential for broadcast operation. 

Brainstorm’s approach to external render engine support is unique in the industry, as it provides alternatives for using different render engines so users can achieve anything they might require. Brainstorm’s initial approach to using game render engines combined its renowned eStudio render engine with the Unreal Engine in a single machine, and it is called Combined Render Engine.  

In addition to the new developments and the improved UE compatibility and UE-native workflows, the Combined Render Engine approach allows users to select the alternative that fits best with their requirements or workflows. 

InfinitySet’s TrackFree™ technology allows for using tracked, fixed cameras or any combination of them to shoot the talent on the set, indistinctly using internal or external chroma keyers.

Virtual production 

Visual effects are as old as movies, and as technology evolved, “analogue” visual effects, stop motion and shooting in studio over moving cycloramas or painted backgrounds were replaced by digital effects. However, taking so much of a movie to post-production requires time and money, and as the minutes to be included into post increase, so does the budget. Therefore, the challenge is to reduce the post-production budget by bringing in more finished shots or by requiring less time into post. 

Brainstorm technology has been used in film for real-time pre-visualization of the green screen shots in lower resolution to ensure the synthetic elements match with the real ones, simplifying post-production. Brainstorm pioneered this in movies such as A.I. (2001) or I Robot (2004), and further developed in later productions. This technology reduced the post-production time ensuring the shots were accurate and post artists did not require to dedicate time to fix issues, but to finish the shot. Now, as broadcast tends to 4K and beyond and so does film making, InfinitySet’s real-time technology allows for creating virtual scenes out of green screen shooting that are good enough to match the quality of film and high-end drama production, further reducing post-production time and increasing flexibility when shooting. 

Traditionally, production takes care of shooting (outdoors, in studio or in chroma sets), lighting and other, while post-production involves editing, grading and VFX, which includes chroma keying, tracking, focus matching, computer VFX, compositing and much more, all significantly time-consuming.

Real-time post-production 

Although chroma keying technology and virtual sets have been around for a long time, the latter have sometimes been criticized for the relative lack of realism compared to other non-real-time applications such as composition and VFX technologies.  

The ability of InfinitySet to work as a preview hub, allows for substantial savings in the costs of filming and post-production, ensuring the different shots are adjusted (chroma, camera movements, tracking, etc) prior to enter in post-production, and even directly delivering the final production master.

Web Control 

Brainstorm’s Web Control is an independent, HTML5-based application designed to control the playout mode of InfinitySet.

As it has been developed with flexibility in mind, it can sit on the InfinitySet workstation or alternatively in a remote computer, separated from the workstations, allowing for the remote control of virtual sets, camera presets, actions, transitions, or graphics directly from its GUI. The Web Control interface can be accessed using a standard web browser, and provides as such an easy-to-use interface, not only from desktop computers, but also from tablets.

Web Control Main Features

• Replacement for an InfinitySet Player remote workstation, including the Remote control of most InfinitySet features:
  • WebControl can trigger predefined Camera Presets.
  • Camera parameters and positions can be controlled directly from the Web Control interface.
  • Direct adjustment of Chroma key settings from the WebControl interface.
  • Management and control of InfinitySet’s playlists directly from the WebControl. Additional media can also be added to existing playlists from the resources folder.
• Trigger Actions when present, so users can control the pre-defined Actions buttons.
• Control of several InfinitySet workstations via Ethernet .
• Can sit in the same workstation of the InfinitySet or in a separate computer, and connect to one or several InfinitySet workstations, read their project’s configuration and load the for its controlling, in sync with the software mixer.
• Allows for full editing of Forms. The user-customizable Form interface is fully accessible from the Web Control interface, allowing the user to control their custom interfaces as if they were inside of InfinitySet
• Remote launching of InfinitySet. Web Control, when paired with the ADM software and license, can launch InfinitySet remotely, on all configured render engines.
• Users can create Custom Setups, which can include all or only select render engines for use, allowing for the creation of show/production specific setups that the operator can choose from.

Internal software mixer 

InfinitySet features a software-based production mixer for enhanced production functionality such as full control of all the virtual cameras, with non-linear transitions such as Cut-Fade-Wipes and Flies between 3D cameras, plus controlling actions and objects. InfinitySet also features an optional hardware controller for enhanced program production, including manual control of transitions.

FOR-A Hanabi HVS 110 hardware control mixer 

As an option, InfinitySet can use the FOR-A Hanabi HVS-110 to take control of the software mixer, but also maintaining all the production mixer/switcher capabilities of the Hanabi. So, InfinitySet can be used as an input device with full 3D capabilities with the added benefit of being fully controlled by a broadcast mixer, which still uses its mixer capabilities apart from InfinitySet.

Third-party mixers 

InfinitySet is fully compatible with the AW-UE150 PTZ camera, and also with the RP150 Camera Control Panel. This means that InfinitySet can use the video and tracking data from the PTZ camera and also the Camera Control Panel can manage the virtual cameras within InfinitySet, along with the real PTZ cameras. From the Camera Control Panel, real (UE150) and virtual (InfinitySet) cameras are controlled, and the tracking data from the PTZ cameras is received per frame by InfinitySet.