disguise xR Delivers Defining Moment in Broadcast With Katy Perry Performance On ‘American Idol’ Finale

XR Studios and visionary partners push the boundaries of storytelling and create new possibilities for remote virtual production.

London, UK, 1 June 2020 Technology pioneers XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime American television when pop sensation Katy Perry performed her new single ‘Daisies’ on the season finale of American Idol. The project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the Production Vendor.

“Started on the #AmericalIdol stage, ended up in a whole new world”, as Katy Perry wrote on her Instagram, the performance has since been watched by over 9 million viewers around the globe with over 2 million Youtube hits on top of the 7.3 million strong viewers on the night. The broadcast has left many asking ‘how was the performance achieved?’

“Having disguise for delivery of this content was crucial… there’s simply no other solution out there that I would trustwith this.” explains JT Rooney of Silent Partner Studios, who was the Screens Producer and led all the creative content creation.

“At disguise, we are building the technology platform to enable creative and technical professionals to tell stories in new and innovative ways for the world’s leading brands and artists. This show was just the beginning of disguise and xR – we can’t wait to show you what’s next.” says Ed Plowman, Chief Technology Officer at disguise.

Beginning in an American Idol-branded studio, the physical walls around Katy Perry suddenly dissolve away, bringing viewers with the ‘Daisies’ singer into a fantastical world where she interacts with virtual elements such as oversized props, a pair of giant hands and masses of floating daisies.

“From a creative perspective, the actual look and feel of the piece was a deceptively difficult effect to achieve. The graphics’ solid flat colours and simple textures actually made it difficult to complete the illusion of making the physical LED [backdrops] disappear and magically combine with a virtual environment,” explains JT Rooney.

Sitting at the heart of the set up, disguise xR seamlessly integrates with an array of technologies including camera tracking and real-time content engines, directing each element with power and precision, extending the physical space into a virtual world delivering a truly unique visual experience.

The seamless extension of the real-world LED screens to the virtual world environments could only be done by disguise’s xR camera registration workflow, allowing switching between camera perspectives and the LED content. Multi-Camera switching between perspectives also allowed us to switch cameras, and the LED content” explains Scott Millar, a disguise xR Workflow Specialist who provided creative technology support under XR Studios and Silent House Partners, and overall technical direction for PRG on the shoot.

Using disguise xR Spatial Mapping, the teams were able to accurately keyframe the position of real and virtual worlds into one coherent place where choreographed action could take place.

Conceived as a live music video performance, the unique project had a narrative from the start where the world would change in time with the song and lyrics. The visual content was created and rendered in real-time with Notch, the industry standard graphics tool for live performance. Combining the rendering power and flexibility of Notch with disguise technology, the team could edit the XR content over a network while it played back live on stage.

“Using Notch as the render engine, and being able to embed that into disguise for seamless integration is a huge benefit. We get all of the power, support and control a disguise server brings, with the ability to render in real time, across multiple synchronized machines.” adds Scott.

disguise xR also made it possible for teams to collaborate in a social distancing environment at PRG Studios’ custom-built xR stage in LA. The disguise xR workflow is perfect for avoiding non-essential contact, mitigating the risks posed by traditional approaches to filming immersive visuals which would involve high-level, real-time in-camera shoots, green screen and other VFX. Combined with carefully co-ordinate working processes established by XR Studios, everyone involved in the project was able to work safely together and apart.

The disguise team also provided support and guidance every step of the way. The disguise support team went above and beyond to ensure the experience went off without a hitch. “We consulted on workflow, investigated issues, during testing and then provided completely remote support for the shoot using remote machine control and video calls throughout set up, calibration and the shoot itself to get all the information needed just as if we were onsite in LA”, says Jamie Sunter, Senior Support Specialist at disguise.

The ground-breaking performance was produced by XR Studios, with direction from long-standing Katy Perry collaborators Baz Halpin of Silent House Productions. Content creation was led by Screens Producer J.T. Rooney of Silent Partners Studio and PRG provided production resources and technical collaboration at their Studios in LA. Cory Fitzgerald was the Lighting Designer for ‘Daisies’ with Charles Dabezies the Video Programmer and David Fafard the Video Creative Director. xR Technical Director: Scott Millar. Choreography was by The Squared Division.

To find out more about disguise xR, visit https://www2.disguise.one/extended-reality

SCROLL POSTS

A Few Kind Words...

Kapil Gadhire, Head of Marketing, Magnifi

From the word go, team Bubble was super detailed, efficient, and exhaustive in their approach. They are true partners and make an effort to understand the ideology and end goal to plan the perfect media pitch and strategy.

Lauren Myers, Director, Integrated Marketing – Ross Video

Working with Bubble during and after IBC 2022 for PR and press support was exceptional. Their professional approach, strategic communication, and extensive media network generated significant exposure for our brand. Bubble's on-site support was outstanding, ensuring our story was accurately told to a global audience. Their post-IBC efforts further amplified our reach and provided valuable analytics. An experienced, professional team and a total joy to work with.

Andrew McKinlay, Marketing Director, Avolites

All amazing, just grateful I know I can rely on Bubble to get the job done brilliantly.

Tanya Rai, Marketing and Communications Manager, Pebble

Team Bubble are an extension of our own team. They are wonderful to work with, reliable, get the job done and gain great exposure for our business in key publications.

Mike Ward, Head of Marketing, Singular.live

Since we first started working with them, our team at Bubble have acted very much like an extension of our team. They work with us to try and help us achieve our goals and we very much feel that they have our interests at heart as well as having our backs when we need it!

Gavin Bunker, AE Live

Bubble were fantastic throughout the whole process and helped us deliver a successful event to celebrate our 30th corporate anniversary with industry peers.

Robert Cloudt, Synchronized

Bubble has been tremendously helpful to bring our marketing communication to the next level, very responsive and thinking with us together on the rightful messaging and timing across different media’s. Definitely a recommendation in case you need a well balanced media agency to help you out.

Carla Molina Whyte, Farmerswife

Working with Bubble Agency for a tradeshow has been truly amazing. The bubble team is incredibly helpful and talented. We are very happy with the results and with all the coverage we got prior and during the tradeshow!

Silvia Candido, Ateme

As usual, we were super busy before and during a tradeshow this year. What a luxury to have Bubble take care of our media relations and our social media accounts! We saw a surge of followers on LinkedIn and got good coverage in a number of publications.

Meg Travis, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, Director, Global Head of Marketing & Communications, Entertainment Services

The Bubble team made everything easy at MPTS! From advising before the show, to facilitating client and press conversations during the show, to making recommendations on how to make the most of the connections we made there - we rely on Bubble as a key strategic partner for our sales and marketing teams.