RL LEADERS

When it comes to developing immersive environments, the initial impulse is typically to create them using computer generated imagery (CGI).   There is no question that the quality and capability of computer-generated imagery has improved remarkably in the past few years, and that progression will continue.

There are many situations, however, where the current capability of CGI cannot suffice, especially when it comes to live/real-time capture, and more nuanced presentations featuring the subtlety of human faces or requiring visualization of small, detailed objects.  The limitations become even more apparent when a truly immersive presentation and/or large screen immersive environment is required (without feature film budgets and timelines).

LEADERS has developed a solution to these limitations by pioneering a new generation of HD (high definition) digital video. Linking a number of cameras together in a sophisticated matrix can provide a continuous band of photorealistic imagery that accurately depicts the real world. Additionally, CGI objects can be readily added to such imagery, providing an optimum solution combining both live action and CGI.

The concept of 360-degree capture on multiple cameras is not new. The problem, historically, however, has been that (a) synchronization between cameras has been difficult, and (b) that nodal disparities (distances) between the lenses of high-resolution cameras has caused problematic distortion in the resulting stitched imagery, and (c) where smaller-format cameras have been used to compensate for nodal disparity, any gains have come at the cost of tremendous amounts of resolution.  Such trade-offs may be fine for Google street view or real-estate walk-throughs or low-res streaming web applications, but for products and people where visual quality is important (TV, film, and immersive environments), traditional solutions have not been up to the challenge.

For this reason, LEADERS has worked with world renowned cinematographers, technologists and post production experts to design a high resolution 360-degree camera system, software and workflows to address super high definition capture needs in real-time (e.g. live events, television, etc.) and non-real-time environments.

The SupremeVision 360 system is the LEADERS end-to-end system that offers this capability.

• Up to 360º of high definition video capture
• Captured with 8 HD digital cameras
• Generates eight 1920×1080 (1080p) video streams, which are stitched in to a single 15k x 1080 progressive stream
• One continuous band of image that can be utilized in real-time and non-realtime applications

The applications of SupremeVision 360 are virtually endless, and the development of the system is ongoing.  However, the process was pioneered and proven on LEADERS’ high-profile IEDBD project. Some of the technical details are even described in the American Cinematographer Article, by David Stump, ASC.

Please contact us if you have an application that you think could benefit from this immersive technology.