Chyron has unveiled version 1.8 of Prime VSAR, which merges the graphics of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 with Chyron’s built-for-broadcast design, editorial and live production capabilities to simplify virtual production. Enhancements in Prime VSAR 1.8 offer simple access to Unreal Engine 4.27 and its extensive design features, alongside new built-in production tools that are said to reduce the time, skill and effort required for key tasks such as chroma keying, trackless camera control and virtual scene creation.
“Prime VSAR is unique in its ability to simplify and de-skill the process of virtual production, and version 1.8 continues that tradition of simplicity,” said Mathieu Yerle, senior vice president of strategy, Chyron. “This release offers simplified assets, control interfaces and newsroom workflows that make it easy to bring graphics to life in a live production environment. Even more important, it constitutes a unique approach to Unreal-based virtual production. Prime VSAR 1.8 provides an exceedingly intuitive driver’s seat and dashboard with which to drive the Unreal Engine to create stunning, lifelike graphics.”
Like previous versions, the 1.8 release builds upon Prime VSAR’s easy-to-repurpose graphic assets, template-based workflows optimised for producers and journalists, and straightforward control interfaces for live virtual production.
Highlights of the new release include support for the latest and final release of the Unreal Engine 4 Series, ensuring access to all the features and enhancements that Epic Games has implemented over the years. The 4.27 release includes valuable features for virtual production such as optimisations to GPU Lightmass that allow users to bake-in light sources and create photorealistically lit Unreal scenes faster and with less strain on hardware.
Chyron has also enhanced Prime VSAR 1.8 with an API layer that powers a new chroma keyer interface for blending green-screen talent with a virtual scene. From this chroma keying interface, users can set chroma key values, refine and fine-tune key passes, monitor all components of chroma key outputs, and save and load presets for different environments. Users can access the interface on local in-studio systems or as an HTML-5 interface from anywhere via web browser, which in turn supports running VSAR productions in the cloud.
In addition, Prime VSAR 1.8 brings the Mercury Trackless Camera control interface into the Camio MOS-integrated newsroom environment. Previously, Camio only offered control over scene and graphic elements in Prime VSAR. Now, from any newsroom computer system, whether local or online, producers can easily queue up all their virtual camera moves within a Prime VSAR scene.
Chyron has also added more easy-to-repurpose scene elements to the Prime VSAR 1.8 graphics library to give users more template-based design options in a scene. For instance, the new Billboard With Shadows effect for trackless camera shots within Prime VSAR 1.8 aims to make it easy to create scenes with dynamic light and object shadows. Plus, a new AB Switch Wall Actor template offers straightforward creation of freeform wall meshes for presenting videos and images with simple AB switch playlist functionality.
Other key enhancements include an upgrade from Matrox HAL 9.6 to Matrox 10.2, with the latest driver offering native support for NDI signal connectivity. Additionally, the solution’s new API layer implementation lays the groundwork for simplified and custom control interfaces to further de-skill virtual production in future Prime VSAR releases. Built on the gRPC protocol, the same foundation used across the Prime Platform and Chyron Live to power simplified interfaces, this new API layer implementation brings Chyron solutions closer to a common content-control interface across all aspects of live production.
