Verizon 5G Ultra Show

For Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, we crafted an XR show mixing film, design, & virtual production technologies to create a multitude of environments, seemingly bending time and space. The show hosted by Elizabeth Banks shot entirely against an immersive LED stage, and featured a technological first, for the segment at SoFi Stadium in LA. For the first time, we projected a live-action environment in real-time onto an XR stage, connecting two remote locations into a single shot with no CG or VFX, creating a live conversation between 2 participants without post production.  

With our target audience being both consumers and corporate audiences alike, we were tasked with developing segments in collaboration with partners as the NFL, Apple, Niantic, Disney, and more, showcasing how their respective technologies and offerings benefit from 5G Ultra Wideband, requiring distinctive visual and narrative solutions and environments for each. 

From live-streaming an impromptu Brittany Howard performance to fans via Apple SharePlay, to teasing Disney’s “The Book of Boba Fett” from the sands of Tattooine, to showing off Niantic’s latest game with larger than life environments using its game assets and more.

Another task laid out in our brief, was to find a way to make our set itself an active participant, and allow it to “connect and transform” to a remote location via the 5G Ultraband technology. This ask was executed in the segment featuring Hannah Storm on location at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. We projected a complete live-action environment in real-time onto our XR stage, connecting two remote locations into a single shot with the help of 5G Ultraband.

We built the show around a dynamic custom built LED/XR stage. We had a versatile stage surface, into which we could design and execute a number of varied environments and animations, some augmented with practical set pieces as well, seemingly transporting Elizabeth Banks, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, and the other guests, to a vibrant assortment of immersive virtual, and real, environments. 

With custom servers that enabled us to create environments in Unreal, Notch, as well as live-projection - we were able to build a massive collection of setups, running the set as a multi-cam show, rather than a straight commercial project. In this way we were able to capture massive amounts of visually stunning content in an incredibly rapid schedule, to craft an exciting master show, along with many other cutdowns and versions.

To achieve the challenge of literally ‘transporting’ Elizabeth Banks, on our stage, to meet Hannah Storm, who was on-location at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles - for the first time ever, we projected Hannah Storm and her complete live-action environment in real-time onto our XR stage, connecting the two places into a single shot with the help of 5G Ultraband.  By carefully matching the field-of-view perspectives and utilizing proprietary video streaming and timing channels, the two were able to have a real-time conversation ‘in a single place’.