Barriers to XR Adoption in Virtual Production — Part 3
And how to get past them — A guide for users
This series is an extension of an article by Nils Porrmann, Thomas Kother and myself posted at dandelion + burdock
You can read the full article at the frame:work website
Team Structure
What a good XR team should look like
Prior to XR, media servers were programmed by representative of one of three groups: a creative team as an extension of content production and display, an engineering team as an extension of screen rental and/or playback control engineering, or as an operations team, hired specifically for a programmers ability to manage and run a media server based playback environment. This latter approach is where I started in the field and my perspective on Screens Producing and Media Operations. This is my soapbox, my textbook and my perspective on XR team structure.
I start with the assumption that most teams currently working in XR are too small to manage the responsibility now expected of this department. These teams were too small before XR and have an order of magnitude more work and responsibility with XR Production. The XR team must manage not only the complex infrastructure of a good system, but educate the full production team on the disruption to their existing approach to work. It is not enough to only manage and play back content as the XR team is now responsible for any visibility of the shooting environment. The XR set exists mostly if not entirely in virtual space. If the team is bogged down with any one of a number of engineering issues, who is left to talk to the director or the content team about issues related to their departments? That is the role of the XR Producer.
For example, let’s say the director is experimenting with a shot and goes outside the allowable zoom range or pans the camera exposing part of the virtual set where there is no content. Typically in a normal production, the set designer or art director would be called over to see how that space could be incorporated into the shot. With XR, there are now technical limitations to camera zoom that will continue to limit this director’s choices. In the case of a pan, maybe it’s a budget decision that limited how much of the virtual world was built. In either case, the XR Producer needs to be available to represent the team in these discussions while other work continues, and guide directors and producers to choices that result in workable solutions.
An XR Producer or a Screens Producer, sometimes a production will need both, these roles are analogous to the role of a Set or Lighting Designer in terms of seniority. What we don’t have in our community is a creative led position to drive discussion about how this technology integrates into production. Most live event work outside theater exists without a video designer role. Instead, Creative Producers or Directors might demand XR for a project, and leave the creative development to the domain of multiple content teams and their individual leaders. Someone needs to collect all these choices and drive the conditions under which they can succeed. It takes a strong team leader in the XR department to drive discussions on budget and schedule as well as creative implications to using these tools
As an XR Producer, any production meeting that would typically involve a Set or Lighting designer should now include you as well. I believe that to be true of a Screens Producer in a non-XR environment, but this is an evolving discipline and the role of Screens Producer is still unknown to many production teams. As a community, we can’t even quite agree what this leadership role should be called (I’m talking to you JT). Here is an organizational chart that Nils Porrmann and I collaborated on to summarize a production team, and your production team on XR. Please note the cross disciplinary impacts of introducing XR to your project.
Aside from the XR Producer, other roles on the XR Production team may include or have multiple positions for: Programming, Content Workflow Developer, Content Coordination, Media Server Engineering, System Integration Engineering and Broadcast Integration Engineering. There are no small XR shows right now so I caution against allowing one person to wear too many hats.
Other examples to consider: if a content team needs attention because a file is not delivered properly while the programmer is unable to access existing files, your two content positions are busy. If camera tracking data seems off and you want to troubleshoot sync to make sure the symptom is pointing you in the right direction, suddenly most of your engineers are busy. If the director wants to change the camera frame rate, better the XR Producer handle that conversation so that everyone else can continue working.
I know the first concern will be the budget to cover this large team. Remember, you are highly skilled professionals. You have been overworked with too many responsibilities for most of your career. As a comparison, look at a well staffed broadcast truck with its clearly defined roles and large support team of utilities. I don’t know how long it took to evolve a broadcast truck to its current staff size, but that’s what it takes to mix playback, camera and graphic overlays down one broadcast feed, maybe two if they are switching IMAG separately from Program. Now look at our team sizes and the amount of signals we manage. We need larger teams.
Build out your team size. Partner with other people and teams to fill out your expertise if you need to. This is what it takes to do this job well in late 2020. In time things will get faster/cheaper/leaner, but for now, be clear with your clients about the full team needed to make XR run well. A poorly staffed XR team might mean you personally keep working after a show that doesn’t go as planned, but it sets XR adoption back 6–12 months.
Another XR challenge is thinking XR is only one incremental step in production technology. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Every department will need to be prepared to rethink how they do their jobs.
Before you assume I’m exaggerating, read on with Part 4 in this series.
