Virtual production race hots up

Sony Professional Solutions Europe’s recent announcement that it is to launch Sony Virtual Production certainly caused its fair share of ripples in the broadcast media world.

An on-demand, cloud-based production service that allows events to be captured and live-streamed without the need for expensive OB infrastructure, the service was launched at the Red Bull Alpenbrevet motorcycle race in Sarnen, Switzerland.

The choice of the Red Bull event for the launch was deliberate. The remote location of the race in the Swiss mountains meant that deploying a sizeable physical production infrastructure was always going to be problematic, giving Virtual Production the chance to prove itself.

Indeed, by using Virtual Production’s cloud-based services and 4G connectivity, Red Bull was able to capture and live-stream the entire event using only a number of camcorders and a single laptop to access the virtual switcher GUI.

Sony Professional’s Head of Marketing and Communications Stuart Almond says the new solution resonates with “today’s appetite for exceptional content and the shift towards multi-screen and multi-platform watching, [meaning] that media companies are challenged with finding new ways to get content to audiences faster.”

The service was designed with…