twofour54, the Abu Dhabi-based media, entertainment, and gaming hub, has announced that it is expanding its world-class production facilities through pioneering Virtual Solutions. Launched in partnership with the Canadian media firm Ross Video, the new offering includes Virtual Studios, Virtual Production services, and Extended Reality features. Featuring the latest 3D graphics and augmented reality (AR) technologies, it the first facility of its kind in the Middle East.
Using state-of-the-art cameras, virtual monitors, floating AR elements, and customisable virtual sets, twofour54’s Virtual Solutions offer a comprehensive service for film, TV, and advertisement producers, broadcasters, event organisers, and gaming companies. The Virtual Studios are powered by three of Ross Video’s Voyager graphics platforms, which are based on the market-leading Unreal Engine to provide high-quality photorealistic visuals.
Virtual Studio’s cutting-edge technology provides enhanced flexibility, allowing production companies to quickly change a set, deploy a new scene and look, or share a studio space with other businesses without any downtime due to set construction. Each of these benefits reduces the time and cost of production, limits negative environmental impact, and allows producers to focus on creating engaging and innovative content that captivates their audience.
Katrina Anderson, Director of Commercial Services, twofour54, said “With a full suite of world-class creative media companies based in Abu Dhabi, the emirate has firmly established itself as a true capital for all forms of content creation. A core driver of this success is the vast range of services and facilities provided by twofour54, all of which look to increase the ease of production and help these companies find new and innovative ways to create content and engage their audience. By providing flexible, technology-driven solutions that can create production cost savings as high as 80%, this is what Virtual Studios is set to accomplish, so we are proud to be the first to bring this offering to the region through the end-to-end partnership with Ross Video and Rocket Surgery.”
She added “Following the launch of twofour54’s new home at Yas Creative Hub, we continue to provide the very best facilities and services to the creative industries ecosystem in Abu Dhabi. Being a core driver of the emirate’s economic development, we will continue to advance the media sector over the coming months and years.”
Complementing the physical Virtual Studios facility, Virtual Production allows companies to create flexible production teams that can execute a variety of tasks remotely whilst the talent, news anchor or event host is on set. This service is provided by Ross Video’s cloud-enabled remote contribution solution, Interstellar.
Rounding out the Virtual Solutions, twofour54 will provide a full range of Extended Reality (XR) services, a new production trend for on-premise production that utilises a combination of real and virtual environments and interactions to reduce the cost of production. Available for live or pre-recorded content, twofour54’s XR services feature large format LED screens that act as a direct replacement to traditional green screens.
Jim Doyle, Director of Rocket Surgery Creative Services, is pleased about the partnership. “We are excited to offer our award-winning Rocket Surgery Creative & Professional Services to a market leader like twofour54. Since 2020, we’ve been focused on expanding our international footprint, and this great partnership is a testament to that. The combination of high-quality creative services with state-of-the-art technology ensures twofour54’s new virtual solutions will be the first of their kind in the region.”
To support production companies looking to capitalise on the new virtual studios, twofour54 partner Rocket Surgery, the creative arm of Ross Video, will be on hand to provide design and creative services. These services will include design consultations with the client, creative project management, and a range of graphics packages.
The launch of Virtual Studios is part of twofour54’s commitment to providing the creative industries with all of the tools they need to succeed. This is the latest addition to twofour54’s existing facilities, which includes an AED 800 million Studio City, a 300,000 sqm backlot comprising of 219,000 sqm of land for production companies to build their own sets, 81,000 sqm of standing sets, a range of studios, an experienced production, creative and technical crew, and multiple post-production houses to choose from.
