HeadQ Studio Produces Professional Virtual Video with Datavideo 4K Chromakeyer
Jun 19 2020
Dutch virtual studio company HeadQ specializes in creating high-end virtual studio environments using the Unreal engine and camera tracking. This technology uses a standalone chromakeyer for creating the key/fill signals that are being manipulated by the PC running the virtual studio software. HeadQ upgraded their studio with the DVK-400 after testing and comparing with BMD’s Ultimatte. According to their experience, the DVK-400 produces a similar or better key than the Ultimatte, for 20% of the price.
Peter Stoel from HeadQ: “The beauty of the system is that it all happens in real-time, which offers a lot of creative freedom. We don’t have to wait until post production to we see what we get. But you need a quality hardware keyer to get the best experience.
We use the Datavideo DVK-400 for our on-set real time compositing because it’s easy to set up, has all the features we need and offers a high quality key.
The DVK-400 has 444/10 bit internal processing, supports video up to UHD, offers SDI and HDMI inputs for foreground and background as well as SDI and HDMI outputs for preview and program output. It has a reference input and an ethernet connection to a laptop running the control software.
Pulling a key is easy, with adjustable black and white levels for a high precision matte. We can adjust transparency, but still preserve shadow detail. This allows us to work with traditionally difficult elements such as blond hair, water bottles, or glass. Smoke and reflections can be easily keyed out by the DVK-400. It also offers post-processing, which means we can adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation of the foreground after keying to help it blend with the background better.
With these possibilities and at that price, I don’t think there’s anything out there that’s more suitable for what we do.”
