How expensive is virtual production? How much do LED walls cost?
We get these questions all the time, and while we would love to give people one definitive answer, there isn’t one. You can’t put a cut and dry price tag on virtual production.
Take for example a 80 ft. diameter, 30 ft. height LED volume, a common size used for TV shows like The Mandalorian. Building a volume that size with rendering equipment could run you $8-16 million, excluding labour. Where does that $8 million range come from?
We sat down with Phillip Galler (co-founder of seismiq and former president of Lux Machina Consulting) and Mike Smith (Director of Operations at ROE Creative Display US) to break down exactly why LED virtual production is so expensive.
How much do LED volumes/LED walls for virtual production cost?
When calculating the cost of an LED wall, you need to account for more than just the LED tiles (though the majority of that $8-16 million price tag will go into your tiles). You’ll also need to consider camera systems, camera tracking solutions, timecode genlock systems, LED processors, and PC builds.
The most price variation is going to come from your LED tiles. The quality, how they’re packaged within their cabinet, the assistance from the company you purchase from, pixel pitch, and colour quality all play a factor.
High-end, premium quality LED tiles can mean easier setup, easier removal for servicing, and assistance from the company you purchase them from — all things that you may have to sacrifice if you choose a more budget-friendly LED tile. For example, ROE Visual technician support goes beyond help for building and servicing your LED wall; they can also help you troubleshoot lighting, rigging, cameras, and media servers to help you get the best results.
“If you ever have a problem, it doesn't matter if you're in Switzerland, Colombia or wherever in Montana — we can have boots on the ground helping you within 48 hours, if that's what you need,” said Mike Smith, Director of Operations at ROE Creative Display US. “And that's just something that you're not getting with other companies.”
The specifications of your LED tiles, particularly pixel pitch, will also play into the cost.
Pixel pitch is the distance between two pixels on an LED panel, measured in millimetres. The smaller the pixel pitch, the closer the pixels are to each other, and therefore, the higher the resolution. A smaller pixel pitch can also help prevent moiré, but it may not be the most financially sound decision to make.
“I think the reality is this is a problem that is unresolvable,” said Phillip Galler, co-founder of seismiq and former president of Lux Machina Consulting. “The higher the resolution, the higher resolution cameras you start using, and eventually, we’re using 8k cameras and now we got a 1.5mm [pixel pitch] wall — but it’s the same equation, right? Like you end up in moire-land somewhere and you end up in focal depth falloff-land no matter what you do.”
“More now we’re focused on colour. What does the HDR performance look like? How wide is the colour gamut? What colour spaces can we work in with the processing chain? What brightness and peak brightness do we get to work at? Those are really the things that make the most difference I think.”
This doesn’t mean that every project should opt for the highest quality, most expensive LED tiles out there. Depending on your project, there’s an optimized balance of LED wall quality and specifications for you.
Similarly, the cost of your camera system, camera tracking solution, LED processor, and PC build is going to vary depending on the quality of your equipment and your needs. Depending on your setup, there is an optimized solution for you.
How much does it cost to run an LED wall?
LED volumes don’t run themselves — they need a team of skilled workers to make sure everything runs smoothly.
“The second biggest cost outside of the LED is often the people,” said Galler. “I've worked on shows where we've had 25 people and I've worked on shows where we've had three or four people, but on average, a big virtual production team … usually in the range of about 14 people is a good, really healthy team size on a large project.”
This team would typically include:
- LED supervisor
- Producer
- Motion tracking technicians
- System technicians
- LED technicians
- Virtual art department (could range from two to 20+ people)
- Software developers
Like everything else in the realm of LED virtual production, the labour costs are rarely ever cut and dry.
“Very few people think about this as well, but when you get onto one of these really large projects, it's an opportunity for people to move up in their careers,” said Galler. “So over the course of an eight month long project or a year long project, how do you manage people who are trying to move up in the world as well? How do you make sure you maintain education and mentorship while you're making sure the job is also getting done? And that actually has a bearing on costs as well.”
How much does it cost to rent an LED volume?
Most productions don’t need a purpose-built LED volume — most will rent a studio with an appropriate volume for their needs.
“For 2D plate playback, my estimate is 65 per cent of the work in the industry is … people in cars, driving in cars, and they’ve got LED on the outside,” said Galler. “It is where almost all the money is. That costs, if you're a production, somewhere in the range of $50,000 - $75,000 a week, depending on how big your setup is.”
A few years ago, that figure would’ve looked like $75,000 - $100,000, but the growth of the industry since has brought the price down. It’s also dependent on factors like the number of cars, how many people you need, how many days of setup you’ll need, and the type of stage you’ll be renting. According to Galler, a standing (or permanent) stage might get you prices closer to $35,000 - $50,000.
Large pop-up volumes, on the other hand, can look like $100,000 - $400,000 per week for an 80 ft. diameter, almost 360° enclosed, 20-30 ft. tall wall. Medium pop-up volumes are more common, costing around $100,000 - $250,000 per week, inclusive of some motion capture or camera tracking.
Pop-up stages are more expensive since you need to account for the cost of renting and transporting the equipment, whereas with standing stages, all the equipment is included in your space rental.
Alt text (125 characters): A man with a camera in front of a large, curved LED volume with a ceiling panel. - 80 characters
And there you have it. Though we weren’t able to give you a specific number, we hope this gives you a better idea of what investing in virtual production would look like. If you have any questions or are interested in building an LED volume for your organization, leave us a message: consulting@copilotco.io
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