STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio

Mediatrade was honoured to be selected to deliver the VP studio for the EU-funded STARTS LAB Oulu project of Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The commissioned project covered design, equipment supply, configuration, installation and commissioning training, making it a good example of Mediatrade’s broad expertise and ability to deliver a complete studio on a turnkey basis. The studio was handed over to the customer on schedule in August 2025. The project was preceded by the design of the studio’s backbone cabling, which we were commissioned for in December 2024.

Built on Mediatrade’s test studio

Designing and building a studio for In-Camera VFX production requires broad know-how and experience beyond traditional production methods. The method combines solutions from many different areas of the AV and media field into a complete image production system that must work tightly as one whole. The only way to gain in-depth knowledge of building and operating such a system is to build one and use it.

Because Mediatrade’s work is guided above all by integrity in quality, we have to generate our own knowledge and experience as the basis for the systems we design. The STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio is therefore largely based on the Mediatrade Research and Marketing VP Studio, built in early 2023 at our office in Vallila. In other words, the STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio is the result of 2.5 years of hands-on development and testing.

Production methods and tools of the STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio

In-Camera VFX is a complex production method with tight technical tolerances. At the same time, it is a rewarding way to create images in a more immersive studio environment, offering a qualitative improvement over green screen production. In-Camera VFX refers to a VFX production method in which the virtual environment created for the composite is captured in camera together with the actors and set pieces in the foreground. The virtual environment is displayed in the background of the shot using either an LED video wall or a video projector. It can be created using, for example, video plates, 2.5D compositing or a virtual world built with a game engine.

Mediatrade designed the STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio as a hybrid studio. In other words, the studio supports both In-Camera VFX and green screen production. It was equipped with a 72-panel LED video wall, which can equally be used as a high-quality green screen, and with virtual production software that supports both methods.

Tools for creating an authentic illusion

Virtual production is about creating a convincingly authentic illusion, and the studio must provide the tools to make this possible. These include a camera tracking system, which keeps the image generated by the game engine at the correct angle relative to the recording camera in real time, and a lighting method that lets the virtual environment image drive the studio lights.

A common quality problem in virtual production is that the actors and set pieces in the foreground do not appear to be inside the virtual world. Instead, the image separates into foreground and background, two distinct elements within the same composition. This happens because the conditions of the virtual environment do not appear to extend into and affect the actors and sets in the foreground. To create the illusion, the image must show an authentic interaction between the virtual world and the foreground.

The single most important factor in creating this interaction is light. Light must come from the right angle, with the right intensity, in the right rhythm and in the right colour. Achieving deep consistency with traditional lighting control alone is impossible, which is why a lighting control method called Image Based Lighting has been developed for virtual production. In Image Based Lighting, an image derived from the virtual environment is fed into a pixel mapping matrix, which programmed studio lights interpret in real time. This method makes it possible to match the lighting of the virtual environment and the studio floor precisely. As the customer’s aim is to enable high-quality virtual productions as part of teaching, we designed a studio that offers its users:

• a hybrid workflow supporting both In-Camera VFX and green screen production
• the Image Based Lighting method
• nDisplay and LiveFX projection methods

Quality assurance

The In-Camera VFX method was first used in a major production in 2019, when Disney’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian was shot with it. Since then the method has become widely popular, and In-Camera VFX studios with LED video walls are now being set up at a rapid pace around the world.

However, the lack of standards has left the industry with solutions of widely varying quality. We were therefore pleased when Netflix published guidelines for VP studios in summer 2024. Since their publication, Mediatrade has followed the Netflix guidelines in its own test studio and guided its customers to follow them. We designed the STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio to meet and exceed the image quality parameters defined in the Netflix specification.

In modern VFX production, a thorough understanding of the colour management pipeline, for example, is essential. That is why it is important to train professionals in an environment where quality standards are documented and verified.

Manufacturer partners on the project

Mediatrade has been fortunate in its high-quality manufacturer partners. All the manufacturers selected for the project are long-standing Mediatrade partners and represent the very best in their fields, both in quality and as technology developers. As noted earlier, In-Camera VFX is a production method with tight technical tolerances. It is therefore essential to equip the studio with devices that can operate within the required specifications. Below is a list of the main manufacturer partners and equipment:

• LED video wall: ROE Visual Black Pearl 2v2 and Megapixel Helios Jr. processor
• Camera tracking: Mo-Sys Engineering StarTracker and VPPro software
• Image Based Lighting: Creamsource Vortex8 and 4 LED panels
• VP production software: Assimilate Live FX Studio

About the customer

Oulu University of Applied Sciences is an ideal partner for Mediatrade. From the very start of the project, it was clear that we shared the values guiding the project’s goals. Together we set out to build a system that meets the highest international standards in the field. This created an atmosphere of enthusiasm and trust that carried the project to a successful outcome. “Mediatrade’s uncompromising attitude to quality, rooted in its broad expertise, gave us confidence that we were getting a studio that meets international quality criteria,” says Petteri Stáven, studio manager at the STARTS LAB Oulu VP Studio. “This is particularly important for a system like a VP studio, where it can be difficult for the customer to define the quality criteria.”