Dahoo is a company that LED maker Leyard purchased recently and they were showing an innovative display solution at NAB – a green screen replacement technology using LED video walls.
In all green screen work, the actors stand in front of and/or on top of a green screen. The camera records their actions and using chromakey technology, the green screen can be replaced with a computer generated image. In the broadcast market, that can be a virtual studio or weather station. If there is a ‘confidence monitor’ on set, the actors may be able to see themselves in the virtual set. If not, they have little feedback to guide their performances.
Dahoo’s solution is to replace the green screen with walls and floor composed of LED videowall segments. At NAB, this demo consisted of two walls at a 90º angle, perhaps 10 feet (3 m) long made using 1.8mm pitch LED cabinets. The floor used 4.4 mm LED cabinets.
The virtual background is displayed on these LEDs so the actors can see exactly where they are in the virtual set. However, the image may be a bit distorted on the LED displays so it is geometrically correct when captured in camera. IR LED track the camera movements to allow realtime adjusting of the virtual set.
We had a chance to check this out and found it quite compelling. In the photo below, the stairs come together at the corner of the LED walls and continue onto the floor. I was able to clearly see this and “walk down” a couple of steps with ease. The solution will be more expensive than a green screen, but does provide needed feedback for the actors. – CC
