Virtual production
for technology brands.
A Southbank LED volume for product films, brand spots, executive content and live broadcasts. In-camera environments, built in Unreal Engine, shot by a crew that knows cloud, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure and developer tooling — so the brief lands the first time.
What virtual production gives a tech marketing team
Virtual production collapses three cost centres into one studio day. Location fees, travel and per diems disappear. Compositing and rotoscoping disappear. The delivery window halves because the shot is effectively finished in camera. For a corporate marketing team that needs to land a product film, a channel partner spot or an executive narrative on a sharp deadline, it's the biggest production economics shift of the past decade — and the one most tech marketing teams still haven't booked.
What you get in exchange is also creatively richer. Talent see the environment they are performing against. Reflections on glass, metal and screens are real. A CEO delivering a narrative about cloud infrastructure can actually stand inside a data-centre visualisation, not in front of a green void that a VFX artist will paint in three weeks later. The performance lands differently because the environment is in the room.
What we shoot on the stage
- Product launch films — hero shots, demo sequences and narrative cutaways in one day.
- Executive and founder content — CEO pieces, investor videos, manifesto spots with a properly cinematic backdrop.
- Customer story films — when the real customer site is classified, locked down or on another continent.
- Channel and partner enablement — product positioning films that slot into a partner's own brand treatment.
- Analyst and research films — data-rich presenter pieces where the visualisation animates behind the speaker.
- Live broadcast backdrops — virtual keynote environments that respond to camera moves in real time.
- Episodic series — brand shows with a consistent signature environment across multiple episodes.
How it actually works on the day
We build your environment in Unreal Engine during pre-production — a week or two before the shoot for custom builds. On the day, the environment plays back on the LED wall in real time and tracks to camera position via a motion-capture system, so perspective and parallax are correct. The director and DOP see the final frame in the monitor, not a best-guess composite. If the creative team wants to change the environment between takes — a different time of day, a different brand palette, a different product angle — it's a software adjustment on stage, not a reshoot next quarter.
Why we build for tech brands specifically
Generic corporate video studios struggle with technology subject matter. The brief mentions SASE, zero trust, model evaluation, lakehouse architectures, MLOps — and the production team is thirty minutes behind, asking questions that burn shoot time. Our crew has spent a decade on tech briefs. We know which side the router goes, what a partner tier actually looks like in a diagram, why you don't film "the cloud" as servers with cables. It shows in the final cut, and more importantly it shows in how fast the shoot day runs.
Recent examples
Clients we've run virtual production for include Lenovo, NetApp, TD SYNNEX, BCN, SnapLogic, Bell Integration and Greenpixie. Briefs have ranged from single hero films for a product launch to multi-episode brand series with a signature virtual environment across every piece. The split is roughly 60/40 enterprise vendors and their partner ecosystem.
Booking the stage
Custom environments need two to four weeks of pre-production. Stock environments can be booked inside a week. Retained series clients lock in stage days a quarter ahead to avoid the day-rate creep that happens with short-notice bookings. Pricing is transparent, day-rate led, with the environment build quoted separately so you can see exactly where the money goes.
Virtual production, answered.
What is virtual production and why would a tech company use it?
Virtual production replaces green screen and on-location shoots with an LED volume — a curved wall of broadcast-grade LED panels that displays your set in real time while the camera rolls. Talent see the environment they are performing against, reflections on glass and metal are real, and the shot is effectively finished in camera. For technology brands, it means you can place a CEO in a data centre, a developer in a server hall or an analyst on a mountaintop without travel, without a location release and without the compositing tax of post-production.
How big is the LED volume?
Our Southbank stage is a curved LED volume suited to mid-shot and two-shot compositions — the most commercially relevant use case for corporate content, explainer films and brand spots. We are not a feature-film-scale volume; we are the right size for ninety percent of tech-brand briefs and priced accordingly. Full specs (pixel pitch, brightness, ceiling, camera tracking) go out with every quote.
Can we bring our own environment or does Disruptive Live build it?
Both work. Most clients want us to build the virtual environment, which we do in Unreal Engine — typically one to three custom environments per project, priced per environment. If you already have 3D assets (product CAD, architectural renders, game engine scenes), we can take them in and adapt them to the stage. Stock environments are also available at short notice.
What does a virtual production day cost?
A single-day LED volume shoot with one environment, two cameras, standard lighting package and a crew of six starts at around £11,500. Multi-day productions with multiple environments, motion tracking and talent lands in the £25,000–£60,000 range depending on scope. The economics work because you collapse location, travel, per diems and compositing into one studio day.
When should we NOT use virtual production?
When the scene is outdoor-bright-daylight, wide-establishing-shot, or requires full-body movement across a large space. Those are still better shot on location. Virtual production excels at interiors, stylised environments, product hero shots, talent-to-camera pieces and anything where the brief calls for a location you cannot credibly access — a bank vault, a clean room, a futuristic cityscape, a customer site that is off-limits.
Can we use the stage for live streaming as well as recorded shoots?
Yes. The LED volume can serve as a broadcast backdrop for live keynotes and webcasts, with the environment responding in real time to camera moves. We have run virtual-production live keynotes where the executive appeared to walk through a product visualisation during the broadcast. Ask about the hybrid booking if that is the brief.
How far ahead do we need to book?
Two to four weeks for a standard single-environment shoot, six to eight weeks if we are building multiple custom environments in Unreal. Urgent briefs can be accommodated when environments already exist or when stock options work — typically within a week.