TVN uses Sony's HDC-5500 camera in its XR+ studio

The German producer TVN uses technology GhostFrame, synchronizing the studio camera Sony HDC-5500 with an LED video wall, to create multiple virtual backgrounds with a single camera with a simple technical setup.

studio camera HDC-5500 from Sony with a 3 2/3 inch 4K CMOS sensor and global shutter technology enables seamless integration between LED wall and camera recording at a high frame rate of 200 fps

Julian Rössig, Head of Sales at TVN, states that "the idea behind our TVN XR+ studio was to create an emblematic project. It is a cutting-edge studio, both in technical terms and in terms of the options for our clients."

The innovative extended reality studio links real and virtual production elements to enable powerful new visualization possibilities.

A highlight of Hannover's iconic facilities is a 28 square meter GhostFrame LED video wall created by AGS AG, which serves as a virtual background for people and other physical objects in front of the screen. The GhostFrame system intelligently divides each production frame into “slices” of sequential subframes. Each of them can carry a separate piece of video content.

Officially certified by AGS AG for use with the GhostFrame system, Sony's recently updated HDC-5500 studio camera now features a high frame rate mode which allows recording 200 fps. This generates four different video channels in native UHD quality using 12G-SDI.

The GhostFrame system allows them to be displayed sequentially up to four virtual backgrounds on the LED wall, with a frequency much higher than what the human eye can see. The HDC-5500, synchronized with the video wall, can selectively capture one of these “cuts” while ignoring the other subframes. What result is achieved like this? That only one camera is needed to simultaneously produce video material with several alternative backgrounds that adapt to different requirements, without the need for compositing or overlapping anything in the post-production phase.

Using the global shutter

“Sony has been instrumental in the evolution of GhostFrame,” he says Peter Angell, CEO of AGS AG, the company behind this innovative technology. “That's because Sony's range of camera models has very particular features that we use a lot.” As Peter explains, Sony's global shutter technology in the HDC-5500 allows for very precise synchronization between the camera and the LED wall: “that means we can filter out the images we want and the ones we don't, with little or no bleed in between.”

“In the last two or three years we would not have moved as quickly to develop GhostFrame as it is now without the help and contribution of Sony,” says Angell. “Not only in terms of supplying the camera equipment, but also listening to our feedback and developing the products to work even better with our technology.”

Markus Osthaus, CEO of TVN Group Holding, believes that “the XR+ studio is a very good solution for our customers.”

TVN's XR+ extended reality studio also has the live production mixer XVS-G1. The next-generation XVS-G1 features an innovative hybrid architecture, augmenting the video processing architecture of Sony's acclaimed XVS family of mixers with an optional GPU-based graphics and effects module. HDR production is also supported with Sony's SR Live workflow and various HDR format conversion options.