Sony PCL Shows NeRFs for Virtual Production

Part of Sony’s production arm, Sony PCL, has announced they are using NeRFs as part of their virtual production offering in Japan with an accompanying video demonstrating the lifelike view dependent effects across a variety of scenes.

Throughout the video, they touch on the ability of NeRFs to reconstruct smaller details in complex environments, while being able to accurately capture the feeling of being there. They compare the NeRF to a Photogrammetry capture, to illustrate the benefits of Radiance Fields. It is unclear as of yet if this is a completely proprietary implementation of NeRF, but there is deep depth of field and sharp details. Perhaps this is a tweaked variation of Nerfacto-Huge?

It’s easy to forget that they are filming on a LED wall during the demos and shows how both NeRFs and Gaussian Splatting will continue to drive virtual production forward, creating the ability for team’s to film in locations that they otherwise might not have access to.

This marks the second major corporation to explore the use of Radiance Fields in media and entertainment, after Shutterstock. Additionally, there is the Spanish startup, Volinga, which also uses Radiance Fields for virtual production.

I have reached out to Sony PCL for more information and am awaiting their response. Sony PCL is located in Koto City, in Tokyo. More information about their offering can be found on their website here, though you may need to use Google Translate.