Multi-machine studio with Vanilla System
For Warner Bros. Discovery we installed a Vanilla System virtual production setup as a multi-machine deployment. Each camera has its own render engine, generating the 3D and composing it with Vanilla System on Unreal: one camera, one workstation.
In the server room we installed three Vanilla System nodes, one per camera, across two PTZ cameras and one broadcast camera. All on the same network so 3D, genlock and camera signals reach every node. Each workstation is a custom build of ours for virtual production: high power, dual power supply, made for broadcast.
They chose AJA as the capture card brand for input and output. Two AJA boards per workstation: one 4K, used for keying the camera feed off the green screen at full resolution, and one HD for external feeds. The whole pipeline runs in 4K, with the broadcast output downconverted to 1080.
Around the Vanilla nodes:
- Blackmagic Teranex frame converters that take the workstations' 1080p50 output and turn it into 1080i50 (Full HD 50 interlaced frames per second), the format their television channels accept.
- Matrox KVM extension: a transmitter in the server room and a receiver in the production room, in the same facility but in a separate space, so operators drive the three workstations remotely.
- Three Ultimatte keyers, which Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to use alongside our internal Vanilla keyer. The production picks between them depending on the show.
- Lens distortion calibration done on the PTZ optics and on the broadcast camera optic, the curve that maps how each lens bends straight lines.
In the production room we set up the Matrox receiver to drive the three workstations, plus two multiviews. One shows the composited outputs: camera 1 with the foreground (the people commenting in front) and the 3D background behind, then camera 2, then camera 3, all composited. The other multiview shows the keying previews per camera, the clean foreground and the matte, so the keyer chain stays precise and under operator control.
