CCTV over the moon with new 4K VFX production studio from Ross Video

In 2019, Chinese broadcaster CCTV created the Mission to The Moon series of documentaries, which was commissioned to coincide with China’s lunar exploration mission that saw the Chang’e 4 spacecraft land on the far side of the moon.

To beam images to audiences in China, CCTV created what they call the world’s first 4K UHD Immersive Mixed Reality (IMR) production environment for broadcast. For series two, China Media Group (CMG) turned to Ross Video to build a 4K mixed reality, real-time digital VFX production studio. 

Besides creating a number of original 3D productions that underpinned the series, the new studio also helped to create the innovative AI astronaut character who was a regular feature of the series and guided the audience around the lunar environment. The bulk of the visuals for the series were rendered using Ross Video’s Voyager graphics platform.

Wang Zijian, CMG’s Senior Engineer and Director of Programme Packaging Technology for Mission To The Moon, commented, “[Ross Video] has an extremely mature range of 12G SDI solutions but also helped us a great deal with other elements such as IP streaming.

“This second series was a huge endeavour that took over a year to plan and create. It saw us tackle new technologies and work with cutting-edge image capture methods. Highly complex workflows like these depend on expert, reliable technology partners, and we have received invaluable support from the team at Ross.

“The key to the success of both series one and two has been the combination of strong educational content married with amazing visuals, and Ross solutions have been the backbone of the latter.”