PORTLAND, Ore., June 16, 2021 - Planar, a global leader in visualization technology, today announced the launch of Planar Studios, an initiative designed to revolutionize the explosive virtual production (VP) and extended reality (XR) markets. Planar Studios combines the advanced technologies, industry partnerships and personnel that today's customers require to create realistic on-screen content in the ever-expanding VP and XR industries.
Through the Planar Studios initiative, Planar is empowering the world's leading visual storytellers to deeply engage audiences through advanced technological development, particularly critical LED and motion capture systems. By bringing VP and XR to mainstream entertainment, corporate and education markets, Planar is helping make VP and XR solutions more accessible, streamlined and repeatable.
Planar solutions for VP and XR are being deployed worldwide, including at Orbital Virtual Studios, a Los Angeles-based VP studio dedicated to producing movies, music videos and commercials from pre-production design and development, to production, photography and all the way through post-production.
"LED display technology is taking the production industry by storm, enabling new techniques and processes that are transforming the way video producers create incredibly realistic action and transport audiences to new worlds," said A.J. Wedding, director and co-founder of Orbital Virtual Studios. "Having seen and experienced Planar's state-of-the-art LED display technology firsthand, and worked closely with their team on many shoots, I have no doubt that the company delivers the superior visual performance, support and versatility today's movie directors and producers need to create VP projects like we've never seen before."
Through the Planar Studios initiative, the company leverages Planar's established leadership in on-camera broadcast studio installations and award-winning products to deliver the best-in-class performance and installation flexibility needed in the trailblazing VP and XR industries. The company has worked directly with leading creative and technical professionals to tune and evolve the Planar® CarbonLight™ LED Displays portfolio, a customer favorite on many of the world's broadcast sets, to include key features required in contemporary and future VP and XR techniques.
Planar Studios is supported by Planar's dedicated VP and XR team, which is backed by the company's team of highly trained and experienced pre-sales and post-sales product specialists located around the globe. As a result, Planar is uniquely able to provide a one-stop shop that addresses customers' VP and XR needs from design to deployment and post-sales.
Planar's initiative is strengthened by collaboration with industry-leading partners who specialize in digital production and developing next-generation visual storytelling tools. This starts with Planar's sister company, NaturalPoint, who creates the OptiTrack family of motion-capture software and high-speed tracking cameras, in addition to providing contract engineering services. While LED display technology and motion capture are significant components of VP and XR environments, successful studio implementation also requires a broad range of hardware, software and services. Planar works closely with leaders delivering in these areas, including Epic Games Unreal Engine, disguise, Brompton Technology, Colorlight and more.
"We are proud and honored to work with the world's leading creative and technological professionals as we set out to perfect the art of VP," said Executive Vice President Adam Schmidt. "Recent developments in VP and XR are already unlocking wonderful capabilities for storytellers, but we're just scratching the surface. We recognize advanced technological development, productive industry partnerships and a dedicated team of experts to be key in helping customers overcome creative limitations. Planar Studios is our response and will be a driving force in unlocking the future of VP and XR."
Planar will continue to work with leading professionals in the VP and XR industries to innovate the company's successful on-camera LED displays to more closely meet customer demand as the markets advance.
Watch Planar's VP and XR solutions bring realistic on-screen content to life or learn more about the Planar Studios initiative at www.planar.com/PlanarStudios.