In 1995, Federico Pignatelli and his Art and Fashion Group Corporation founded Pier59 Studios located at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Featuring 11 column-free studios and 110,000 square feet of multimedia studio and live-event space, Pier59 Studios is a top destination for famed photographers, filmmakers, designers, brands, and advertising and production companies worldwide.
Per a statement, the largest photography and multimedia complex for fashion and advertising in the world, Pier59 is equipped with the latest technology to accommodate the needs of the demanding clientele. With its latest venture, Pier59 notes it is embracing the next era of content creation. Here, the organization launched an immense, state-of-the-art virtual-production stage. The new virtual stage features a Disguise media server and an array of LED display technologies from Planar.
Bringing in Planar
The Planar LED solutions include:
- A curved, 65-foot-wide by 18-foot-high (40×11) Planar CarbonLight CLI VX-B Series LED videowall with a 2.6mm pixel pitch (CLI VX 2.6).
- A nearly 30-foot by 10-foot articulating LED ceiling comprising an 18×6 Planar CarbonLight CLI VX-B Series LED videowall with a 2.6mm pixel pitch (CLI VX 2.6).
- Four LED display moveable carts, each with a 5-foot-wide by 11.5-foot-high Planar CarbonLight CLI VX-B Series LED videowall with a 2.6mm pixel pitch
(CLI VX 2.6).
“Federico Pignatelli has always embraced technology and its capacity to change the way content is captured,” says Steve Baum, chief innovation officer for Pier59. “So, when he became aware of the concept of virtual production, he immediately recognized the opportunity to build a full-sized virtual stage at Pier59.”
Ultimate Creative Flexibility
Located in Stage C, a 6,500-square-foot space with 30-foot-plus ceilings, Pier59 says its new virtual-production stage has been hailed as the world’s biggest and most advanced for fashion and advertising. According to a statement, the stage, dubbed the “LED MegaWall,” is a studio for rent that provides fashion, beauty and luxury partners with a captivating backdrop for their photo and video productions, product launches, events and more. As part of its services, Pier59 provides its virtual-production team as an extension to its client’s crew to operate the technology on their behalf.
“The LED videowalls look great with the naked eye, but what’s most important for us is that they look great in-camera,” adds Lorenzo Ferrante, virtual-production manager at Pier59 Studios. “Production professionals like DPs [directors of photography] that use our stage have the guarantee that any color profile they want can be accomplished. [Additionally,] the representation of color is accurate. And obviously, virtual production provides the advantage of in-camera visual effects, which cuts the time and costs for post-production.”
Baum adds, “By combining 3D virtual environments with the flexibility of the virtual-production stage, we can conjure nearly any place, at any time of day during any season, precisely controlling the environmental conditions.”
He continues, “We can even adjust them on the fly to get the perfect shot. And then, of course, the virtual stage can deliver cost savings. It achieves this by eliminating the time and cost of traveling with cast and crew to far-flung locations.
Achieving the Immersive Experience
Working with Planar, Pier59 achieved its goal of building a large and immersive LED videowall and articulating LED ceiling. Thus, it created the largest LED volume that could fit in Studio C, according to Baum. He also emphasizes the role of the four LED movable carts in their virtual-production operations. Baum terms these as “one of the more interesting and unique design components of the project.”
He explains, “They have very specific purposes. One is to create foreground lighting and reflection. So, if we have something shiny in a shot, like a car, we can move those walls behind the camera facing into the shot to generate reflections on the car. This would otherwise be extremely difficult to add in post-production.”
A second benefit is the ability to move the LED display carts to any of Pier59’s other stages for smaller production shoots. “Significant engineering went into those products,” Baum says. “We can not only move them, but we can also daisy chain them together. It is quite ingenious what Planar [could build] for us.”
Pier59 Studios Founder and President Federico Pignatelli remarks, “As a disruptive technology, virtual production is thus comparable to the digital-photography revolution of the late 90s. By delivering significant cost savings and incomparable creative flexibility and quality control, virtual production is going to radically change the way of producing fashion and advertising content.”
Modernizing Pier59’s Lobby Venue
Pier59 also integrated three Planar TVF Series LED video walls in a two-story lobby and café space located directly adjacent to Stage C. The new additions include a 6-foot-wide, 8-foot-high (3×7) installation with a 1.2mm pixel pitch. It also includes two nearly 12-foot-wide and 8-foot-high (6×6) arrays. Here, one comes with a 1.2mm pixel pitch and the other with a 1.8mm pixel pitch.
“It’s an incredible open space with a beautiful deck and the video walls create a visual enhancement,” Baum explains. “On most days, we run promotional content or client work examples on the video walls, but we also have a fairly robust event business at Pier59. And now with the addition of the videowalls, we see a lot of interest in utilizing them as a presentation element for keynotes, screenings and other use cases. People also expressed interest in using the lobby space for brand takeovers with their events. It’s another great addition for us.”
Click on “View Slideshow” for additional images of the virtual-production stage.
