Notting Hill Carnival ’20

Dimension Studio, 80six and Pixels and Noise re-create the Notting Hill Carnival using Virtual Production techniques in Notch.

Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event that has taken place in the streets of North West London since 1966. Last year’s August bank holiday event attracted 2.5 million attendees. The event organisers wanted to keep the spirit of carnival alive and reached out to Dimension Studio to produce a special digital broadcast using virtual production methods for Notting Hill 2020.

80six provided the technical crew and hardware required to broadcast three days of Notting Hill Carnival live from Malcolm Ryan Studios in South London. Lewis Kyle White headed up the Notch integration and visual design. In a short space of time, Lewis and his team created a design that embodied the spirit of Notting Hill carnival. The virtual set design blended real-time animation, live feeds from zoom and video content created by Fixation. Rendered in Notch for the virtual stage, the final design transported the presenters and viewers alike to the carnival streets. Immersed in the virtual Notting Hill, presenters could interact with Zoom guests naturally. At the same time, Director Chris Cowley could move from virtual stage to vox pop or GV with freedom and ease.

“I wanted to create a set that was instantly recognisable as the home of Notting Hill Carnival. The architecture around Notting Hill is distinctive, old, tall terrace houses, which in the run-up to the carnival, are covered in hoarding to protect them from the 2 million revellers. I decided I could use this hoarding as a canvas to incorporate video content into the scene live.

The XR workflow is one of preparation. Everything that you would do in post-production shifts into pre-production. We had a lot to deliver in a short space of time, and Notch allowed us to work fast. Notch’s seamless integration with modelling software made it easy to import, assemble, texture and optimise scenes with rapid speed. We had a scene that the client loved ready for the virtual stage in no time. We couldn’t have achieved such a fluid workflow with any other renderer.”

Lewis Kyle White, designer, Pixels and Noise

Additional press coverage:
Think with Google, The Guardian, The Standard, The Independent, GQ Magazine, Sky, The Drum

Credits
Client: Notting Hill Carnival
Video Production Company: Fixation
Producers: Steve Jelley @ Dimension Studio
XR Production Management & Technical Integration: Jack James @ 80six Ltd
XR Technical Direction: Andy Coates
Creative Direction: Pixels & Noise / LKW
Notch Design: Lewis Kyle White
Live Director: Chris Cowey
Video Director: Glenn Austin

Live Director: Chris Cowey
Video Director: Glenn Austin
Lighting Design: Rob Myer / Stephen Ley
Animator: Pixels & Noise / Catherine Woodhouse
Equipment Vendor: 80six Ltd
Media Servers: 80six disguise gx2c’s
Tracking System: Stype RedSpy