Virtual Production

The rapidly changing world of On Set Virtual Production

2024-03-27
Bruce Devlin @in

tag: Sustainability tag: Project tag: Workflow

2 minute read

MetaRex On Set Virtual Production

The award winning , philanthropic, non-profit MetaRex Project makes metadata flow. In the rapidly changing world of On Set Virtual Production we already have too many incompatible formats and protocols and the poor setup and data wrangling crew perform miracles on every shoot do get things stable and keep them stable until it’s time for tear down.

Play the video from the SMPTE RIS OSVP experts and hear their views on the debate between Standards & Products. We believe, like many of the points raised in the video, that products will lead the way and standards will eventually follow.

But why is MetaRex useful?

Our MetaRex initiative is just plumbing to help the product innovators concentrate on great story telling products, confident that the metadata they rely upon will get to where it’s needed quickly, accurately and in a way that can be transformed easily depending on the use-case they haven’t imagined yet.

The MetaRex container wraps up any metadata and then the container is put on a network or storage system. We now have one, unified, free mechanism for handling any metadata. This allows single way to get a clear definition of what the metadata is, what version of the metadata was used, what is its specification, can it be automatically QC’d with a schema and are there any services available to be sure it’s right before it’s too late?

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As the SMPTE Rapid Industry Solutions On Set Virtual Production project enters its publication phase and we start to see harmonized metadata schemas and new protocols appearing, there will be a need to manage the transition to this new world. MetaRex aims to provide the plumbing to allow multiple variants of the same metadata values to be managed on a single network without insanity taking over.

We’ll be showing MetaRex use-case examples for Virtual Production at NAB this year. You will be able to play with the examples online - even if you’re not at the show.

So who benefits from this?

Everyone benefits!

MetaRex enables a generic metadata supply chain with the rigour that we are starting to develop with video and audio.

Content Creators can now track and convert metadata from camera to screen
Product Vendors can now integrate more metadata types for less initial and significantly less engineering costs
Data Warehousing can benefit by integrating disparate timeline metadata with the same ease as static metadata
Metadata Producers can benefit with greater access to more networks and file formats with no extra effort
Metadata Consumers can benefit by simultaneously managing and using multiple transformed variants of source metadata without increasing costs
The Industry can benefit by spending the money saved by MetaRex on creating rich, metadata driven workflows instead of just leaving the metadata on the floor
The planet might benefit if we spent microWatts of energy remembering the source metadata rather than spending kiloWatts of energy guessing what was lost by using an AI algorithm

If you or your company have a question about MetaRex, metadata or want to get involved with the MetaRex Project contact us.

Don’t forget to come and see us at NAB 2024 on the Signiant booth W.1931

Virtual Production

MetaRex On Set Virtual Production

But why is MetaRex useful?

So who benefits from this?

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