[Report] Vividly Capturing Constantly Changing Weather and Time... Visiting SKT Team Studio

From Urban Scenes to Forests in an Instant... "So Real"
Four-Company Consortium's Ultra-Collaboration... Expanding Overseas to Strengthen Media Competitiveness

Performance scene using an LED wall. Photo by SKT

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] Against the backdrop of a large U-shaped LED wall, the sky begins to darken, and snowflakes start to flutter with the camera movement. Just as suddenly, the sky clears up again, then rain falls, wetting the floor. Not only the weather but also time can be changed at will. Bright daylight shifts to night, and the full moon changes to a crescent moon in real time. The scene shows a cityscape with tall buildings, then instantly transforms into an endless forest. With LED installed on the floor as well, it presents a three-dimensional effect that conveys a sense of depth. This vivid, realistic graphic is created inside the studio using a large LED wall and extended reality (XR) technology.

On the 12th, the SKT Team Studio, featuring two LED wall stages?the U-shaped 'Volume Stage' and the 'XR Stage'?produces diverse content and expands the media ecosystem.

Opened in June in Pangyo Techno Valley 2, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Team Studio utilizes two large LED wall stages to deliver real-time graphics at a level comparable to on-location shooting without actually going on site. This enhances filming immersion and reduces time and costs in post-production. Since its opening, it has participated in a wide range of productions including original content for Channel S and WAVVE, various commercials and promotional videos, web dramas, and music videos.

LED Wall Instead of Green Chromakey... Reduced Environmental Impact, Increased Immersion

Virtual studios like Team Studio have five major advantages over conventional studios: background, lighting, reflection, immersion, and tracking.

Filming on sets or outdoors takes a lot of time and controlling the desired environment is difficult. In sci-fi movies, the desired background may not exist in the real world. However, LED walls easily overcome these limitations.

Unlike uncontrollable sunlight or moonlight, LED studios can control the flow of light and are unaffected by weather conditions.

One of the biggest challenges in car commercial shoots is controlling reflections, which often require extensive post-production to achieve the desired result. However, LED walls use virtual spaces to easily control reflections.

Immersion is also different. The famous anecdote about Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the movie 'The Hobbit,' reveals that he felt frustrated and even cried while acting alone in front of a green chromakey background. In contrast, Team Studio allows actors to immerse themselves easily by reflecting expressions, emotions, and movements immediately within a realistic background.

Old movies sometimes feel awkward because the background does not move with the viewer's gaze. But at Team Studio, the camera and background move together, making scenes like car shots appear natural.

Next, Team Studio screened the content 'Together.' The story unfolds through the dice game 'Jureonggu,' used by nobles during the Silla period. The opening scene shows a fairy trapped inside the dice after losing a bet with a goblin. Although the actual actor sits on the studio floor, the camera shows her trapped inside the dice. Thanks to the LED wall, the trees and grass have a sense of depth, making it look like the scene was filmed in a real forest.

Kim Hyuk, Media Support Manager at SKT, introducing Team Studio. Photo by SKT

Team Studio Consortium’s Ultra-Collaborative Outcome... Expanding Regionally and Overseas to Strengthen Competitiveness

This outcome is possible thanks to the ultra-collaboration in visual effects (VFX) centered on SKT. From the planning stage of Team Studio’s establishment, SKT prioritized synergy creation as a core value and formed a consortium with top domestic companies specializing in virtual production. These include Exon Studio, which opened Korea’s first LED wall studio in 2020; MediaEl, which demonstrated visual effects expertise in the recently released film 'Hansan: Rising Dragon'; and Duriban, known for its proprietary real-time content solution 'iTuber.' As a latecomer in the virtual studio market, SKT is confident in its competitiveness through this ultra-collaboration.

Kim Hyuk, SKT Media Support Manager, explained, "Team Studio is a space where not only SKT but also media-specialized companies collaborate to create synergy. It was designed with the ultimate goal of hyper-connecting various studios. To realize this vision, we formed a consortium with companies possessing the best technology in virtual production to create Team Studio, which consolidates all know-how."

Team Studio combines each company’s virtual production technology and content production expertise with SKT’s ICT infrastructure, including 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud. This enables real-time connection between Exon Studio in Ilsan and Team Studio in Pangyo, allowing simultaneous shooting as if in the same space.

They plan to lead the future digital content industry paradigm by building platforms related to intellectual property (IP), VFX, and mixed reality (XR). They will also expand cooperation with various industries, including IP holders like webtoon, web novel, and entertainment agencies, as well as film, drama, and advertising production companies, to grow the virtual studio ecosystem.

Kim added, "Furthermore, Team Studio plans to expand the consortium from four companies to more. We will extend to other regions and establish good relationships with leading overseas companies to create connected virtual studios. We aim to contribute to strengthening competitiveness in the global media industry beyond virtual production."

Below is a Q&A session.

- As other companies build virtual studios and market competition intensifies, what differentiates Team Studio?

▲ Kim Hyuk, SKT Media Support Manager: Many issues arise that cannot be solved by warehouse-type studios or outdoor shoots. Technologies to address these are being prepared. There was a time when competition focused on who had the largest LED wall. But we need to consider the essence of the business. LED walls are modular and can be expanded by connecting modules. However, in practice, what matters more is the connection among various technological elements filling the space. The virtual space captured by the camera, not the physical space, is important. Securing this requires having diverse high-resolution background videos, building computing power for real-time processing, and securing professional personnel. In these aspects, SKT is more prepared than any competitor. The advantage and difference lie in operating as a consortium of specialized companies rather than alone.

- Team Studio seems to have produced many contents already. What are the major productions so far, and what are planned for the future?

▲ Jang Won-ik, CEO of Exon Studio: Since opening, we have filmed various content such as fashion photo shoots, dramas, and commercials. We also worked on performance content and the experimental film 'Together.' One of the biggest advantages of this space is XR content using LED on the floor and walls. We are planning various content in-house and filming diverse videos with external partners.

▲ Kim: SK Broadband’s Media S is preparing to produce travel introduction programs in the virtual studio next season to create more immersive productions.

- Could you give examples of how SKT’s cloud technology is concretely applied to content?

▲ Kim: I mentioned 'connection' several times. Exon Studio is located in Ilsan, quite far from here. However, the LED walls at Exon Studio and here are connected via communication technology to minimize time lag, and large background images are used from the cloud during filming. Although physically separate, the results can be produced simultaneously as if in the same space.

In the future, by expanding this vision and establishing branches in countries like Japan and China, filming can be done in Korea by loading the relevant footage instead of going on overseas location shoots. It could even enable stories where overseas stars and Korean stars appear together in the same background. We plan to develop this as a key feature of Team Studio based on SKT’s communication infrastructure technology that processes large data without latency.

- Is SKT building content production studios like Jump Studio and Team Studio to use them as technology references? What are the expansion plans for Team Studio?

▲ Kim: The media production environment is rapidly changing to the extent that it is impossible to keep up without digital technology. To fill the background video realistically, usually 4K, but actually 8K video is needed. If the quality is poor, image enhancement solutions must be applied, and real-time application increases competitiveness. Tremendous computing power is required to process video naturally according to camera movement. Stable network speed is essential to connect all these.

Previously, studios were built on vast land for filming, but now competitiveness depends on who can create everything digitally fastest and most cost-effectively. This involves various technologies from the SK ICT family. SKT is investing heavily to become an ICT company. Especially in media, it has accumulated technologies to reduce latency in video processing and transmission. We started from a technology utilization perspective and ultimately plan to contribute to producing diverse content unseen before, based on the belief in securing content diversity.

We plan to expand this alliance to other regions and establish good relationships with leading overseas companies to integrate their strengths and create competitive virtual studios.

- The space does not look large. You said LED wall size is not important, but what scale of filming is possible here?

▲ CEO Jang: Virtual production is divided into XR content studios and in-camera studios. This studio’s feature is that it can shoot using XR methods that transcend size constraints and improve content quality. Based on XR, various spaces can be filmed without spatial limitations. We will continue to advance technology and R&D to progress further.

▲ Kim: Unlike what our eyes see, the camera angle and what video is captured can make the space appear larger or smaller. This size was designed considering the technical appropriateness for freely using 4K video. Larger sizes impose limitations on image quality improvement and background diversity.

- The core competitiveness of LED wall studios lies in background resources. What kinds and how many background resources does the consortium currently have?

▲ Lee Kyung-myeon, CEO of MediaEl: Backgrounds are produced according to customer demand. Additionally, we have a separate goal to build an archive. Currently, we are archiving places that have disappeared or will disappear. For example, the Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium, which disappeared when high school baseball was popular. We are also building archives of hard-to-access landmarks. This is being done with government support and SKT cooperation. Backgrounds like outer space are custom-made according to customer demand.

- For a two-way studio connecting LED walls without location shoots, shouldn’t the LED width, specifications, and filming techniques be the same?

▲ Lee: Recently, a German clothing company wanted to shoot a fashion brand photo shoot with a Korean model at a specific German landmark. Due to COVID-19 and model schedules, it was difficult to proceed, so we discussed that if they shoot in 8K in Germany and send the footage, Team Studio would use the LED wall to shoot instead. With SKT’s 5G integration, real-time shooting is expected to be possible.

▲ CEO Jang: The same assets are library-ized and transmitted overseas via cloud, allowing a director to check both studios simultaneously and proceed with filming.

- What has been the response since Team Studio opened?

▲ Kim: Initially, after opening, we conducted various tests to verify commercial usability. Although it opened in June, filming became possible from July and August. Starting with one project per week, we are now handling two projects weekly. Some shoots are simple, others complex, so we contract based on manageable volume. The goal is to handle three projects weekly, including one variety show production.

- Are there applications in content for WAVVE, an SK Square subsidiary?

▲ Kim: We held briefings to promote Team Studio’s use in joint productions with WAVVE. They expressed interest in visiting. Media S also plans to film variety shows and expand to dramas. They intend to use it first.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.