OXFORD, OH — Miami University (atmiamioh.edu) recently debuted a new extended reality (XR) stage at its the newly-constructed Richard M. McVey Data Science Building. The XR stage will be used to education students in realtime workflows.
Meptik (www.meptik.com), a creative and technical services provider for virtual and immersive productions, spearheaded the design and installation of the stage, which is based on technology from Disguise (www.disguise.one). The new stage marks Miami University's commitment to offering students hands-on learning opportunities in conceiving, developing, creating and deploying next-generation media solutions.
Within Miami University’s College of Creative Arts, the Emerging Technology in Business and Design undergraduate and graduate program students will now be able to explore the complexities of designing visuals for LED stages. They will also be able to learn how to manage LED stage technical integrations.
Courses will cover a wide range of fields, including conventional VFX and animation, interactive installations, projection mapping, virtual production, digital set design, technical integration and extended reality applications in broadcast. The curriculum aims to provide students with foundational expertise to integrate into a community of creative technologists, serving various sectors within the entertainment industry.
“The design of this space and the hardware are unique to the curriculum we teach at the University,” notes Ben Nicholson, Immersive and Reactive Lab and XR stage director at Miami University. “We don’t want our students to function as single platform base users. We want them to know how and why equipment works and reinforce that immersive technologies are ecosystems that must be maintained and understood. Our system here was designed as a multiple input system to the wall where we can teach several methodologies, including Disguise virtual production and extended reality workflows, amongst others. Additionally, all the systems can play together to do deeply integrated interactions involving people tracking, moving light programming via Unreal Engine and sound reactive installations, to name a few. Meptik’s team was clever in how they met these demands and even included and taught our students about the actual installation process.”
Working in conjunction with Rogue Productions for LED panel installation, StYpe for tracking system calibration and lighting designer Paul Guthrie, Meptik handled the design, installation and integration of the university’s virtual production stage. Beyond technical support, Meptik provided on-site shadowing opportunities for students, and let them actively contribute to the construction of the front of the house, set up media servers, hang lights and learn how to service many of the pieces of equipment. The comprehensive system integration service also included a five-day training program covering Disguise fundamentals, lighting basics and advanced lighting techniques, as well as XR and virtual production training for students and faculty.