In VR production the videowall is often used to partly light the scene, to reflect the background on the subject. However, videowalls are RGB, so the light is not full spectrum. To counteract this, Kino Flo has devised the Mimik VR, “a lighting panel fed by a video signal,” that can light the foreground correctly, said Frieder Hochheim, Kino Flo’s founder. It takes a 3D LUT of the video to extrapolate the RGB to a five-colour pixel comprising red, green and blue with both 2700K and 5600K whites.

The carbon fibre unit is light enough to be flown (weighing 12.5kg for a 600x1200mm panel). It uses a 10mm pitch (for 7200 pixels at that size), “as you don’t necessarily want high density, you want power. A videowall is typically 800 to 1200 nits, whereas this is 10,000 nits.”

D4-Kino Flo

Hochheim promises greater realism in lighting for VR production

It has a very high refresh rate (31kHz), for shooting at high frame rates (at least 240fps) and is 16-bit to support HDR. It is driven by Megapixel VR’s Helios LED processor and fully synchronised with the videowall.

Kino Flo is also developing a cinema-quality video wall at 1.9mm pitch, “which is the sweet spot,” but the Mimik VR is processor agnostic and will work with any video wall.

Hochheim started work on the concept in 2019 and has already obtained US patents for it. The light should ship in December.

Also new is the Freestyle Air, a lightweight rugged range of three LED lights that run off existing Freestyle control systems and ballasts. They use multi-cell panels that are easy to maintain, for the rental market.

Stand Number: 12.D36

Company: Kino Flo/Chauvet Lighting