LED virtual filming technology has emerged as a focal point in the film industry due to its high-precision perspective matching and on-site visualization capabilities.
Enhancing Filmmaking Efficiency
Unlike traditional filmmaking, implementing In-Camera VFX (visual effects) technology enhances shooting control and efficiency. This approach provides realistic environmental lighting, addressing issues like blue and green screen spill common in conventional virtual filming, while offering a “what you see is what you get” creative experience. It enables greater “pre-post production” opportunities, granting filmmakers more freedom in their creative processes.
As one of the early adopters of LED virtual filming solutions, AOTO Electronics has introduced several core technologies, including RGBW technology, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) dithering technology, and advanced control system algorithms.
Innovative RGBW Technology to Address Color Shift
In virtual filming, LED backgrounds serve not only display purposes but also provide fundamental lighting. Compared to traditional film lights, LED systems offer greater adjustability and convenience, particularly in rendering accurate reflections and transmissions for props made of reflective or transmissive materials. However, the uneven and discontinuous spectral distribution of traditional LEDs often results in lower CRI (Color Rendering Index) values, leading to color shift under mixed lighting conditions.
To tackle this issue, AOTO Electronics has developed RGBW technology, which incorporates white LED chips alongside traditional RGB, resulting in a more continuous spectrum. This innovation delivers higher brightness and richer color representation.
According to AOTO Electronics, with RGBW technology, white light is generated independently by white LED chips rather than relying on the overlap of three-color light. This allows screens to display white content more brightly, enhancing CRI and overall image clarity and visibility.
In traditional RGB modes, the CRI can be as low as 50, resulting in noticeable color shifts. In contrast, RGBW modes achieve CRI values above 90, closely resembling natural light. By adjusting the ratios of RGB components, AOTO can produce a wider range of neutral colors, such as gray and brown, allowing for more accurate color detail reproduction and a more lifelike visual experience.
High Refresh Rate and Frame Rate Innovations
In film production, high-speed shooting is often used to capture fleeting moments invisible to the naked eye, allowing fast-moving subjects to be slowed down into clear imagery, such as fireworks, particle effects, and car crashes. LED screens display images by flickering to simulate continuous visuals. However, if the shooting frame rate is too fast, the short time intervals between frames can cause flickering.
Currently, AOTO products support video inputs with frame rates as high as 251Hz, addressing image ghosting issues caused by video source limitations. They also support signal source doubling, allowing low-frame-rate video sources to be boosted up to 240Hz, resolving flickering on low-frame-rate screens.
Additionally, if the refresh rate of an LED screen does not synchronize with the shooting frame rate, the arrangement of LED lights captured between two consecutive frames may differ, resulting in recurring scanning lines.
AOTO’s products achieve a refresh rate of 7680Hz, significantly exceeding the standard 3840Hz found in common LED displays, catering to the demands of an exceptional filming experience.
The Key to High Refresh Rates: PWM Dithering Technology
To realize ultra-high refresh rates, AOTO has implemented PWM dithering technology. This technique disperses the conduction time of images into several shorter intervals, maintaining the original LED chip’s conduction ratio through the sum of the divided intervals. Consequently, each grayscale level is displayed more efficiently, elevating the refresh rate to 7680Hz, eliminating scanning lines and flickering issues even when using high-definition cameras.
However, in very low grayscale situations, each sub-frame may require only a short PWM pulse width, which can prevent the pulses from being evenly distributed across multiple sub-frames. This results in the refresh rate dropping to match the current frame rate under extreme 1-gray conditions.
To address this challenge, AOTO has developed proprietary internal algorithms to enhance high-gray refresh rates and minimize pulse merging. Additionally, they utilize specially designed driver ICs and precise parameter adjustments to achieve high refresh rates even in low gray states, ensuring image uniformity and clarity.
As one of the earliest companies to launch LED virtual filming solutions, AOTO has participated in over 70 major virtual studio projects globally, providing filming solutions to Fortune 500 companies such as Tencent, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon, Meta, and Toei Animation of Japan.
AOTO Electronics is committed to collaborating with creative teams worldwide to drive the continuous advancement of film production technology, bringing new creative possibilities to the industry.
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