The convergence of legacy broadcast studios and virtual production has produced another landmark case. Orbital Studios, a virtual production company, has relocated its LED walls to Television City, the former CBS studio on Los Angeles' Fairfax Avenue.
The company moved its headquarters from the L.A. Arts District to the historic lot once home to "The Carol Burnett Show" and "The Price Is Right."
The move reflects a structural shift in Hollywood's production environment. As location shooting costs and scheduling pressures continue to rise, productions are increasingly replacing physical locations with LED volumes.
Jung Han
At the same time, legacy studio lots—facing the ongoing challenge of runaway production out of Los Angeles—are seeking to attract virtual production infrastructure to strengthen their competitiveness as rental facilities. Studio real estate and virtual production technology companies now need each other.
With this relocation, Television City gains LED volume capabilities supported by Orbital Studios' virtual production expertise and its research and development lab. Virtual production uses technologies such as CGI, LED screens, and augmented reality to create backdrops and effects on a physical set.
For Netflix's "Nemesis," Orbital Studios rebuilt portions of downtown Los Angeles using digital scans—a case where the challenges of urban location control and cost were solved with an LED volume.
Orbital Studios is currently in production on "The Drop: A Snowfall Saga" for FX, and has previously worked on "Justified: City Primeval," "History's Greatest Heists," and "World War II with Tom Hanks." The breadth of that portfolio—from documentary to premium drama—illustrates how the application range of LED volume production continues to expand.
There is a takeaway here for the K-content industry as well. Rather than building large new soundstages, grafting virtual production facilities onto existing broadcast studio lots is a model that Korean broadcasters and production companies with underutilized studio assets could readily adopt.