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LED and digital technologies are ushering in an era of big video in studios.
Costs for LED walls are dropping, and they don’t present some of the challenges broadcasters face with green screens. Virtual, or digital, sets are increasingly realistic as the technologies that support them improve, and they offer flexibility that is rare with real sets. Even with the pluses, uptake on virtual sets in U.S. broadcast studios has been sluggish compared to international broadcast studios although LEDs are present in many projects.
“LED video is becoming more commonplace as the budgets become friendlier,” Mack McLaughlin, CEO and creative director at FX Design Group, says. “There’s probably an LED wall in as many as 50% of our projects. They can afford at least one LED area.”
LED walls are trending larger and less expensive, with local stations spending $100,000 to $150,000 on a video wall, and national studios spending upwards of half a million dollars on LED walls, he says.
Jared Schatz, SVP vertical markets and solutions at Ross Video, says even smaller markets were discussing LED options for studios during April’s NAB Show.
“They need to catch up with their audience,” adding that one of the ways to do that is to take advantage of the biggest trend he’s seeing right now, which is the concept of big video.
“LED is primarily the big driving force behind big video,” he says, noting LED makes it easier to interact with content, and the environment can be extended using graphics