Mo-Sys tracking chosen for the Oscars

For this year’s Oscars, E! gave their coverage a cosmetic face-lift, debuting augmented reality for the first time in their 24-year reign as official red-carpet commentators.

E! brought in CGLA Studios, Full Mental Jacket and Mo-Sys to provide a variety of possibilities for augmented reality, enhancing the countdown and the post-ceremony shows. Throughout the coverage, floating AR videos were shown hovering over the pool at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, showcasing the biggest talking points and highlights of the Academy Awards ceremony.

To achieve this, CGLA Studios had a two-camera setup at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel situated a block or so from the Dolby Theatre. One of the cameras used a Vinten 70 head with our Mo-Sys bolt-on encoding kit, also a crane position used our external CamMate kit for tracking. CGLA chose our encoding kits as they needed a reliable, travel friendly option that guaranteed accurate tracking data.

This project was backed by Ross Video’s XPression powering the AR graphics with Full Mental Jacket designing and operating the visuals and with virtual production support by Paul Lacombe from Unreel Pictures.

Chris Marsall, owner of CGLA Studios said “For this year’s E!'s coverage of the Oscars I wanted to do something different and sold them on the idea of enhancing their broadcast with AR graphics during the Countdown show as well as the Post show. As this was E!'s first foray into AR graphics we needed a solid and reliable tracking system. We used 2 systems; the Mo-Sys Vinten V70 Kit and also the Mo-Sys crane encoding kit for tracking. They are both robust and travel friendly options that guarantee accurate tracking data. Next year we will hopefully be using a full Unreal set-up with AR and you can be sure we'll have a full complement of Mo-Sys encoders”.

Mo-Sys offer a variety of film remote systems, broadcast robotics and camera tracking equipment. For more information on the services on offer, please contact us at info@mo-sys.com.