CHINA: Brompton Technology’s Tessera LED processing platform is at the core of one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated virtual production facilities following the opening of Chengdu Film City VP Studio (CDFC VP Studio) in Pidu District, Chengdu, China.

CDFC VP Studio forms part of Chengdu Film City, a 16.5-square-kilometre film and media hub in Pidu District that has rapidly emerged as a major production centre in western China. Officially opened on 14 April 2026 as part of the Chengdu Digital Intelligence Studio Complex during the 13th China Network Audio-Visual Conference, the wider development is now home to more than 600 film, television and creative enterprises.

The landmark installation represents one of Asia’s most ambitious virtual production deployments and highlights the growing scale of LED processing infrastructure required for next-generation filmmaking.

The new facility features a 5,000-square-metre virtual production stage centred around an 820-square-metre LED volume. The immersive environment comprises a curved main LED wall measuring 60 metres wide by 12 metres high, complemented by a 100-square-metre motorised LED ceiling. Constructed using 3,240 AOTO RM2.3S series LED panels, the installation delivers a 360-degree visual environment with a 180-degree shooting angle and an effective shooting depth of approximately 19.1 metres.

At the centre of the stage is an automated rotating turntable spanning more than 1,100 square metres, enabling rapid scene changes and production reconfiguration. Camera tracking is provided through a RedSpy and WatcherX system, while real-time rendering forms part of a virtual production workflow developed in partnership with Tencent Interactive Entertainment’s Content Ecosystem Division.

Driving the entire LED volume are 48 Brompton 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors and 96 Tessera XD 10G data distribution units, illustrating both the scale of the installation and the processing power required to support large-format virtual production environments. Brompton’s flagship Tessera SX40 processor, recognised with both an Emmy Award and a King’s Award for Enterprise, has become widely adopted across high-end virtual production workflows for its colour accuracy, operational stability and advanced feature set.

The demands placed on the processing system are considerable, with directors, cinematographers and performers working inside photorealistic virtual environments rendered in real time. Among the platform’s key technologies is ShutterSync, which eliminates scan lines and phasing artefacts that can occur when digital cinema cameras capture LED displays, ensuring clean in-camera imagery regardless of frame rate or shutter angle.

Dynamic Calibration further enhances the capabilities of the AOTO LED panels by maximising HDR performance, enabling deep, noise-free blacks while preserving bright highlights. This is particularly valuable when recreating complex lighting conditions such as night scenes, sunsets and neon-lit urban environments.

To maintain visual consistency across the 60-metre curved LED wall, the installation also utilises OSCA (On-Screen Colour Adjustment), allowing operators to fine-tune brightness and colour on an individual panel basis. Meanwhile, Tessera’s 3D LUTs functionality enables directors of photography and colourists to perform on-set colour grading directly at the display level without modifying the source content, providing a closer relationship between live capture and final image delivery.

Beyond the technical achievements, the facility represents a significant evolution in production workflows. Rather than transporting cast and crew between multiple shooting locations, filmmakers can instantly switch between virtual environments while remaining on a single stage. This not only reduces logistical complexity and production costs but also enables directors to revisit scenes repeatedly within the same shooting day. Art departments are likewise able to evaluate final composited images in real time, allowing lighting and scenic adjustments to be made immediately rather than during post-production.

“This is one of the most ambitious virtual production deployments we’ve been involved with in Asia,” says Elijah Ebo, Director of APAC Operations at Brompton Technology. “The scale of the CDFC VP Studio, including the arc length of the LED wall, the motorised ceiling, and the rotating stage, creates a genuinely demanding processing environment. Having 48 SX40s working simultaneously across this volume is a real statement of where virtual production infrastructure is heading, and we’re proud that Tessera is at the core of it.”