Brainstorm will showcase its most advanced technologies, starting with a spectacular presentation in the main Virtual Production Theater, demonstrating the immense possibilities InfinitySet offers for creating virtual content of all kind. The main demo will display advanced, photorealistic augmented and mixed reality content in a highly visually engaging presentation, by using a combination of chroma sets and shaped LED videowalls, provided by Alfalite, the European LED manufacturer, and featuring real-time, seamless extra-render and set extension with color-matching 3D LUTs, in-context AR motion graphics, fully immersive talent tele-transport, multi-background content and much more. Fully compatible with Unreal Engine 5, InfinitySet now includes full integration of objects created in InfinitySet or Aston within the UE environment and vice-versa, including shadows, reflections, and AR with Unreal Engine, providing unmatched flexibility for content creation.

Motion graphics are essential in any broadcast workflow, and Brainstorm will show how Aston can provide designers with the most advanced tools for data-driven, in-context, AR graphics, which can be displayed in immersive virtual environments, including UE scenes, and seamlessly interact with the scene and the talents. Aston will also show how multi-channel graphics can easily and transparently be part of any show, enhancing the information and making it more attractive for the audience. The graphics system will also showcase dedicated Touchscreen, Esports and Weather applications.

Also, Brainstorm will showcase the latest developments of its Edison Ecosystem. Built around Edison PRO, it is a complete solution that transforms any live or online presentation into an immersive experience by using AR and virtual environments. The Edison ecosystem includes control devices (Stream Deck) or free applications like Edison OnDemand. The ecosystem also includes the custom-built capture environment EdisonGO, an iOS application available for all users that provides video and tracking to Edison. This ecosystem of tools enhances storytelling with easily created real-time 3D graphics and other visual aids, while presenters are immersed in a virtual, photorealistic environment, running the presentation with clickers or other remote devices.

Also, Brainstorm and MOOV will feature a daily session at 1pm, in which Adam Lawrence, creative director of MOOV and Miguel Churruca, marketing and communications director of Brainstorm, will talk about the ITV Sport Rugby World Cup project, which extensively uses virtual production for such Sports event.

According to Héctor Viguer, the company’s COO and CTO, “For a company like Brainstorm, turning 30 years old is a fantastic achievement, which reinforces our philosophy of continued innovation and encourages us to keep pushing the boundaries of technology to make our users’ dreams come true, virtually!”

“The project focuses on the development and validation of Mixed Reality solutions to improve the interest and participation of the television audience as well as the generation of more attractive content”, says Francisco Ibáñez, R&D Project Manager at Brainstorm and Coordinator of AdMiRe. The project has been successfully completed and AdMiRe has been properly validated by the three participating broadcasters: NRK (Norway), TVR (Romania) and Premier Media (Ireland).

With a simple App installed on a cell phone, tablet or laptop, jointly developed by UPF University (Spain) and Brainstorm, the audience is captured perfectly. Their stream is sent to AdMiRe’s servers where the silhouette of the captured person is extracted. The AdMiRe project integrates, among others, the NVIDIA Maxine silhouette extraction algorithms to be able to capture the audience on any background (without the need to use green screen). The integration of the audience, guests, collaborators or presenters is done with the Brainstorm InfinitySet graphic solution, which requires the use of NVDIA graphics cards for its correct keying, and the background extraction and super resolution modules developed by EPFL University (Switzerland). The captured person can remotely participate in the TV shows as if they were physically there.

Javier Montesa, Technical Coordinator of the Project, explains that “AdMiRe incorporates highly innovative video capture, processing and transmission technologies, as well as super-resolution and background subtraction technologies in order to bring the viewers to the television sets in the most realistic and simple way possible, through the use of mobile devices”. Unlike the current technique that allows remote participation in television programs through a simple video, AdMiRe has achieved that the viewers can be perfectly integrated into the scene as if they were physically on the set, generating an excellent visual perception for the audience. AdMiRe also allows broadcasters to save costs by bringing collaborators and guests to TV sets and supports the European Commission’s “green deal” policies.

Francisco adds that “with the AdMiRe project, Brainstorm has taken the first step towards the future remote production of television programs by integrating presenters, guests and collaborators from different parts of the planet into the same program, interacting and participating as if they were all physically together and being practically imperceptible to the audience”.

Brainstorm has also integrated and validated AdMiRe with Disguise (UK) for XR (Extended Reality) studio technology based on LED screen. The whole validation process has been designed and developed by NTNU.

The progress of the project and the results obtained can be followed on www.admire3d.eu as well as on the project’s social networks.

At booth PD-53, from 1 to 3 June, the company will demonstrate InfinitySet’s advanced features for virtual production, including chroma sets and in-context augmented reality. Fully compatible with Unreal Engine, InfinitySet is the tool of choice for virtual content creation for News, Sports, Augmented Reality, Elections, Entertainment and even drama and film production. Brainstorm will feature live public demonstrations, always complying with all the safety measures required by Broadcast Asia and the Health authorities. Along with InfinitySet, the motion graphics solution Aston will demonstrate why is the designer’s choice for motion graphics creation and CG, including multi-channel options. This feature also offers multiple channel play out from a single or different workstations, and also allows for the compositing of large canvases in any resolution or aspect ratio, comprising different graphics or projects or layers that can be rendered in a single or several outputs with the desired aspect ratio to fill in the video wall as required.

Edison PRO, the company’s virtual studio-in-a-box product designed for live events and presentations, also benefits from some of the Suite 5 enhancements, plus its own features as a result of its upgrade to V5, and will be demonstrated as well at the booth. With the feedback of the worldwide users and early adopters, Edison now includes a wide range of new features aimed at simplifying live presentations and events, which open new possibilities for content creation. New features include workflow and IO enhancements, new virtual lights and actor improvements plus a new chroma keyer that vastly improves the integration of the actors.

“Broadcast Asia remains the indispensable trade show for the Asia & Pacific broadcast and audio-visual market and we are looking forward to meeting our customers and users in person again”, says Stanlly Loke, Brainstorm’s VP Sales for SE Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. “Brainstorm has benefited from two record years of sales even during these harsh years and we are glad to be back and be able to perform live demonstrations and allow attendees to watch first hand how our products and solutions can enhance their graphics and virtual production and workflows”.

At booth PD-53, the company will demonstrate InfinitySet’s advanced features for virtual production, including chroma sets and in-context augmented reality. Fully compatible with Unreal Engine, InfinitySet is the tool of choice for virtual content creation for News, Sports, Augmented Reality, Elections, Entertainment and even drama and film production. Brainstorm will feature live public demonstrations, always complying with all the safety measures required by the CABSAT and the Health authorities. Along with InfinitySet, the motion graphics solution Aston will demonstrate why is the designer’s choice for motion graphics creation and CG, including multi-channel options. This feature also offers multiple channel play out from a single or different workstations, and also allows for the compositing of large canvases in any resolution or aspect ratio, comprising different graphics or projects or layers that can be rendered in a single or several outputs with the desired aspect ratio to fill in the video wall as required.

Edison PRO, the company’s virtual studio-in-a-box product designed for live events and presentations, also benefits from some of the Suite 5 enhancements, plus its own features as a result of its upgrade to V5, and will be demonstrated as well at the booth. With the feedback of the worldwide users and early adopters, Edison now includes a wide range of new features aimed at simplifying live presentations and events, which open new possibilities for content creation. New features include workflow and IO enhancements, new virtual lights and actor improvements plus a new chroma keyer that vastly improves the integration of the actors.

“We are delighted to meet our clients and users again at such an essential venue for the Middle East broadcast and audio-visual market, as CABSAT is,” says David Alexander, Brainstorm’s Commercial Director. “Brainstorm has enjoyed two record years of business, even in these difficult times, and we are looking forward to showing live demonstrations once again, and allow attendees to see, in person, what our solutions can do to enhance their virtual production and workflows.”

As LED-based XR is becoming increasingly used, Brainstorm has developed new features that allow for easier, faster and more integrated creation of immersive XR content specifically designed to be displayed on large LED videowalls. With these features, Brainstorm’s clients will see their XR content creation significantly accelerated when creating in-context AR in LED walls, XR Set extensions, or even backgrounds for film and drama production. Suite 5 has a dedicated interface for creating XR installations, which allows for modelling any kind of video wall, including curved, shaped and corner installations, and map the desired 3D content in such model. This facilitates the creation of virtual AR content to be directly displayed and seen by the camera with the correct perspective at all times. Also, by taking advantage of the Layers and Stacking features of InfinitySet, different renders, even with different resolutions and aspect ratios, can be mapped in a canvas of any size and aspect.

In addition, the unique integration of InfinitySet and eStudio with Unreal Engine is now even tighter, allowing for the inclusion of fully editable Brainstorm scenes and templates within an Unreal project, and vice-versa. This is especially useful when creating AR projects within Unreal, which benefit from Brainstorm’s advanced data-driven graphics and broadcast workflows compatibility. This is coupled with the acclaimed UnrealControl feature which supports editing the Unreal Projects directly within InfinitySet’s familiar interface with total ease and control of blueprints, objects and parameters. Suite 5 also features a new, redesigned internal chroma keyer that includes a new mode that embeds the Unreal Engine chroma keyer directly into InfinitySet. Brainstorm Suite 5 is fully compatible with Unreal Engine 4.27 and will be with UE 5.

“Brainstorm has been deeply involved with Augmented Reality and Virtual Production for decades now, and Suite 5 is the result of applying our expertise to the new display methods that broadcasters and filmmakers are introducing into their workflows” says Hector Viguer, Brainstorm’s COO and Engineering Director. “The advanced features of Suite 5 will allow any user to comply with any kind of VR/AR/XR requirement, regardless of how complex it is, and leaving them free to choose the production workflow they feel is best for their production, whether LED walls or chroma keying. We want to be agnostic so we can provide a solution for any requirement.”

Some other features are included, like improved HDR workflows, and better integration with robotic heads from manufacturers such as Panasonic or Sony. Also, Edison, the company’s virtual studio in a box product designed for live events and presentations, will also benefit from some of the above plus its own features as a result of its upgrade to V5.

Brainstorm Suite 5 will be available on March 1st, and will also be demonstrated at NAB 2022 at the Brainstorm booth N2608.

Despite delaying the decision in the hope that NAB  2021 would be the opportunity to again meet with customers, partners, providers, and the market in general, the current situation is so uncertain in terms of travel bans, social distancing, and other health and safety measures, that Brainstorm has reluctantly decided to withdraw from the exhibition. For Brainstorm the well-being of its staff, visitors and others involved in the Show is of paramount importance, for which the decision, although extremely difficult, was made with everyone’s health and safety uppermost in mind.

Brainstorm appreciates the enormous efforts that the NAB committee has made to ensure a safe show, however we must face the fact that the situation in the wider world is outside of their control.

According to Ricardo Montesa, CEO and founder of Brainstorm, “It is with great regret that we announce this decision not to attend NAB 2021, but the safety of our staff, customers and partners is the driving force behind it, despite the new features and announcements we had in mind for the Show. Since 1995 we have been exhibiting with great success, and as members of NAB we are very much looking forward to exhibiting at NAB 2022.”

Brainstorm is already beginning to work on its participation at NAB 2022, in the hope that it will represent the return of the shows as we know them.

What started as a discussion concept between BBC and MOOV before the cancellation of Wimbledon 2020, developed into a full-blown project as a result of a drive to maximise the available time ahead of the 2021 Championships, bringing the focus onto the virtual facilities rather than BBC Sport to rethink the way the coverage was managed and so provide better stories, data and graphics.

Built around a green screen studio, the Wimbledon studio virtualisation effectively extended the space available far beyond its physical limits, providing new virtual spaces around the real desk, which in effect created a 360 studio. There were also new and alternative camera angles, more room to add infographics, and of course additional Wimbledon branding. The added bonus was the flexibility to change, adapt and make adjustments on demand that InfinitySet provided.

“We managed to create a virtual space that allowed for a dynamic coverage of the tournament which seamlessly combined real and virtual imagery in a way that significatively enhanced the story and audience engagement” says Nev Appleton, director and co-founder at MOOV. “This was a particularly challenging project, not only due to the time constraints, but also because of restrictions on people on-site as well as technical issues such as the requirements to re-purpose the studio for the daily highlights. But, despite the challenges, the really great results reinforced our commitment to use virtual technology for enhancing live events”.

The project had to be produced in record time, as the set designs were available only at the end of April 2021. MOOV worked closely with BBC Sport as well as with a team of talented artists, and also relied on Brainstorm’s InfinitySet to create the virtual set and AR tracking, using Unreal Engine. As the studio had five cameras, including pedestals, jibs and PTZ, to ensure the output quality required, each camera was equipped with a Brainstorm InfinitySet system with Unreal Engine. The final output combined the real set with a desk for the presenters, with actual windows looking out to show the courts, and integrating the virtual world to enable the graphics and AR information to be displayed on demand.

David Alexander, Brainstorm’s Commercial Director, adds: “Together with Paul Vanlint of Storm Broadcast, our reseller in the UK and Ireland, we’ve worked with MOOV on a number of projects but what was done at Wimbledon 2021 was at another level altogether! MOOV have a really talented team who have an in-depth knowledge of our products and how to get the most out of their rich feature sets and capabilities, whether it’s the InfinitySet or our Aston 3D motion graphics system, through to our Neuron, which integrates graphics and their management into NRCS systems. So, we were very pleased to work with the MOOV team on the BBC Sport project for such a prestigious and world renown sporting event”.

Ricardo Montesa is passionate about innovation. His studies in Industrial Engineering culminated in a graphics proposal for the audiovisual world. Little time was needed for that inner strength to become Brainstorm, a pioneer in the world of graphics, data visualisation, 3D objetcs and, more recently, augmented reality and the optimisation of resources with virtual sets.

“Thank you very much for this distinction, which surprises me personally” said Montesa, moved by the distinction.

Ricardo, university professor, project leader, a man of our time and our corridors, is undoubtedly a pillar of innovation in this industry, who uses his ideas, and shows them from virtual sets, with amazing scenarios created by software , to add – who would say – much more magic to TV.

Ricardo Montesa (Valencia, 1960) is the CEO of Brainstorm, a provider of real-time interactive 3D graphics solutions. He achieved an Industrial Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. After his final degree project, he founded Montesa Grafics, a company dedicated to the development of specific software for real-time 3D and 2D rendering of graphics, mainly aimed at contests and elections.

In 1993 he founded, with other partners, Brainstorm Multimedia, a company of which he has been CEO and Director of Development ever since. Under his direction, Brainstorm presented and began marketing the software called eStudio in 1994, currently the world’s reference for the generation of real-time 3D graphics and virtual scenery, including applications for sports and electoral events.

Between 1996 and 1997 he joined George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) company in San Rafael, California, as a software developer for special effects. After his American experience, he returned to Spain to retake the technical direction of Brainstorm, directing the design and development of the applications created by the company, applications that are used today in many of the largest and most prestigious television networks around the world such as BBC (UK), NHK (JP), KBS (KO), NBC (USA), RTL (DE) and TVE (ES).

Ricardo Montesa is an experienced speaker with outstanding teaching experience at the University, and his vision has led Brainstorm to be awarded for its innovative work on numerous occasions”.

*Extracted from the PRODU news piece.

*The awards show was entirely produced using Edison PRO, Brainstorm’s brand new product for live virtual events and presentations. Watch following the whole PRODU Tecnología Awards Ceremony.

InfinitySet can receive the video and tracking information from the Sony cameras and render the virtual scene or the AR objects in real-time, even using photorealistic rendering and Unreal Engine, which creates a stunning visual experience for the viewers, affordable at the same time for any kind of production facility or broadcaster. On top of that, Brainstorm allows the Sony camera remote control RM-IP500 to direct InfinitySet’s virtual cameras. InfinitySet is the only virtual set and AR solution that allows this feature, allowing operators to run complex 3D virtual scenery in a familiar production environment.

In combination with InfinitySet, the BRC-H800 and X1000 are a powerful solution for enhancing storytelling and providing in-context AR graphics from external data sources, due to the advanced features of InfintySet, resulting from Brainstorm’s experience of more than 25 years in the development of real-time 3D graphics, virtual set and augmented reality solutions. The resulting workflow brings advanced AR to companies of any size and budget, by providing a PTZ tracking workflow that avoids the hassle of more complex tracking systems.

“Many of our products and solutions are built with modality and integration in mind so we’re always delighted to see them integrated in new and innovative workflows that broaden creative possibilities for producers and operators. Brainstorm has a series of truly distinctive software for virtual and AR set ups and we’re glad to be partnering with them here”, commented Norbert Paquet, Head of Live Production, Sony Professional Europe.

According to Thierry Gonzalo, Brainstorm’s Product Manager, “Our seamless integration with the Sony BRC camera line-up provides companies of any size to accomplish projects involving virtual sets and AR requirements, by using the PTZ tracking data and exceptional image quality from such cameras. Also, our ability to allow the Sony camera control to command InfinitySet’s production mode permits live production operators with no experience in virtual environments to run any virtual or AR show with total ease”.

Brainstorm and Sony will demonstrate this integration in a public webinar scheduled for March 5th, 2021, so anyone that wants to know more about this advanced workflow can register here.

The project was initiated at the end of 2018 by VIDEOMEDIA, Brainstorm’s reseller in Chile, and executed by Warner Media in mid-2019. The regional guidelines have been led by Alexis Collao, Director of Broadcast Technology of WarnerMedia in Latin America, who, together with an interdisciplinary team, projected the use of virtual studios as a medium and long term solution as a mechanism to achieve greater efficiency in the ROI related to content production. In an effort between the Graphics Area (which already provided solutions to all areas of the channel), the Engineering Department and the collaboration of Brainstorm, two laboratories were set up over the last two years, with the aim of practising, evaluating the possibilities and tacitly comparing each virtual tool available on the market.

The first augmented and virtual reality lab was so successful that the channel’s management decided to allocate a budget to the project. The equipment supplied is identical and in both Chile and Argentina consists of three InfinitySet +Track with Unreal Engine, an InfinitySet Controller with Unreal Engine, two design systems with InfinitySet Edit with Aston Designer and Unreal Engine, and an OnDemand.

The graphics team focused on generating an efficient production pipeline for set development in Unreal Engine 4, assigning a team of five designers to generate multiple exterior and interior virtual sets. The approval of the budget and the purchase of Brainstorm’s solutions meant leveraging a figure that linked the real-time potential of Unreal Engine through photorealism and top-level blueprints with the operability of Infinity Set.

The second laboratory, started at the end of 2019, provided Warner Media with a range of possibilities to articulate the figure of this Unreal Engine 4 + InfinitySet integrator, which resulted in the first on-air broadcasts with a case of Fernanda Maciel and Congressional Data for CNN Chile and Chilevisión, in trackfree mode.

At the beginning of 2020, WarnerMedia defined the physical location where the virtual production set would be installed: a space that was destined for props storage, but was reassigned due to the good results of the second laboratory. In February, Brainstorm provided the Warner Media operators with training and installed the final equipment along with the integration of Ncam.

In October, WarnerMedia broadcasted for the first time a live preview of the Chile-Uruguay football match, using UE4 scenery, actors, cameras and screens integrated from InfinitySet and a camera with Ncam tracking, proving WarnerMedia’s leadership with its TNT Sports-Chilevisión channels. The impact was such that the heads of the drama area of teleseries have been very interested in this solution, expanding the future possibilities of the project.

“In the more than 2 years that we have been working with the implementation of virtual studios, we have advanced considerably until we have reached the maturity of the project, so that we have already launched programmes with virtual scenery on air with great success. In the USA, Virtual Studios have become an industry standard and this year in particular, one of the strategic priorities of WM’s International Technology area is to adopt these technologies locally, which is a challenge that we have been able to develop successfully in the region,” says Alexis Collao.

According to Sergio Amuchastegui, responsible for Brainstorm sales in the region, “at a strategic and commercial level we are very pleased with the results obtained so far by our business partners, which have been achieved with local support by César Núñez, a key element in this implementation. During the pandemic we have provided them with more than 15 Brainstorm Suite licenses across Chile and Argentina as extraordinary support so that those involved could work from home; we expect to be able to reactivate the second and third stage in 2021 according to the information WarnerMedia have provide us with”.

In the words of Borja Chirivella, Brainstorm’s Commercial Director for Latin America, ‘the key elements to successfully complete this regional project have been mainly the impulse and trust put in Brainstorm at all times by Alexis Collao and the great internal professional talent of the creative and technological areas, who have worked in complicity showing a total cohesion and understanding in the resolution of the obstacles that have appeared along the way and in the achievement of the common objectives’.