NAB Show Amplified: From the Desk of Meptik

Nick Rivero, co-founder of Meptik, reveals what products and technologies Meptik will be showing in the disguise booth (Booth C6118 (Central Hall) at the 2023 NAB Show, which takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center April 15–19. disguise acquired immersive entertainment specialist Meptik last year.

What has your company been working on since the last NAB Show?

I think one of the most noteworthy developments since the last NAB Show is Meptik becoming part of disguise, the award-winning technology platform for creatives to make their vision a reality.

With Meptik as part of the company, disguise now boosts an entire division focused on creative services for broadcasters, production companies, brands, and more. Together with the cutting-edge technology disguise offers, Meptik provides a virtual art department, a virtual production studio build & integration team, and a Volume Operations team, making disguise the single platform for content experience and graphics production.

We have since integrated the disguise system for the second LED volume at the Savannah College of Art & Design, which makes it the only university in the world with two full-scale virtual production stages to train and educate the future workforce in virtual production. We pushed the limits of virtual production for the live sports event Karate Combat, where we extended a mix of physical and LED sets with virtual environments for in-person audiences and for remote viewers that tuned into the live-streamed broadcast. The Karate Combat 37 broadcast has been nominated for best technical achievement in the Metaverse, Immersive and Virtual category in this year’s Webby Awards, honoring the best of the internet.

We have also opened up a research & development facility in our Atlanta office, where our team can test and develop new technologies to create more boundary-busting virtual experiences, and we can bring in clients and the community to experience what we do firsthand.

What products or product categories are you highlighting at the 2023 NAB Show?

We will be showcasing our virtual set design capabilities for broadcast, corporate, and film productions, as well as our visualization tools for LED studio builds. We will have work from our virtual art department, and teams from our virtual production studio build & integration and Volume Operations teams to chat with and learn more about the possibilities with virtual production.

disguise will showcase some of their exciting new tools and integrations such as their recently announced partnership with Move.ai and the new Invisible Solution. The Invisible Solution is a state-of-the-art solution that combines Move.ai’s Invisible real-time markerless mocap software with disguise’s superior graphics processing hardware and its proprietary RenderStream™ protocol to redefine real-time motion capture across VP, broadcast, xR brand experiences and the metaverse. It will democratise motion capture by removing the need for restrictive and costly mocap suits in production workflows. It has multiple use cases including realistic shadow casting for talent on stage, gesture-triggered 3D graphics, movement-triggered particle effects, such as smoke and fire, digital puppeteering (the rendering of a digital human version of the person on stage) and the recreation of game play in 3D, from the player’s perspective.

Visitors to booth C6118 will also get to see disguise’s EX3 solution. The new video playback and pixel-perfect mapping solution is designed specifically for location-based experiences and fixed installations. It harnesses the power and scalability of Designer, disguise APIs and disguise Cloud to suit the needs of a wide range of applications and experiences.

We are truly a one-stop shop for all production needs: disguise provides the tech & software, and Meptik takes projects to the finish line.

What recent technology developments do you think are the most exciting for the media and entertainment industry?

I think we are just at the infancy stage of what virtual production is capable of, we’re at the tip of the iceberg.

Most productions currently only use the basics, like applying 2D content to an LED wall and using it for virtual productions. So much more can be done and some of the tools are already out there to explore new possibilities, such as engaging data visualizations with augmented reality, set extensions for limited-space broadcast studios to create encompassing holistic environments for viewers.

disguise’s new Move.ai tool integration, for example, allows creative and technical teams to explore noiseless, real-time markerless motion capture without the need for a costly mocap suit, but with the same capabilities.

The technology to create new and exciting content is here and is constantly evolving.

About Meptik
Meptik is your one-stop shop for all your virtual production needs. We help you build your next virtual production powerhouse, fuel it with stunning virtual sets and deliver in-camera visual effects on set. As one of the most experienced teams in the industry, we have the creative vision, and, as part of disguise, access to the latest Emmy-award-winning tech to help you Upset Reality. We’ve done it for big and small productions, corporate clients and major film studios, broadcasts and live events – and now, we’ll do it for you, too. Work with us throughout your entire creative journey, or let us be part of your next visual masterpiece. We can’t wait to see what we create together.

For more information, visit www.meptik.com and www.disguise.one.