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Brompton Technology empowers S4 Studios’ virtual production workflow for Discovery’s “Expedition Files”

S4 Studios, a creative design and production studio specialising in Virtual Production, Visual FX and Motion Graphics, has partnered with Brompton Technology to deliver a virtual production workflow for Ping Pong Productions’ “Expedition Files”, a new series from the Discovery Channel. With the support of Brompton Technology’s Tessera LED video processors, S4 Studios achieved an ambitious production pace, completing up to 25 shots per day, while maintaining real time control across their LED stage.

Filmed at Brandon Studios in Burbank, California, “Expedition Files” follows host Josh Gates as he investigates historical enigmas and unsolved mysteries from around the world. The shoot required constant environment changes, rapid turnaround, and seamless coordination between physical and virtual elements, a perfect challenge for S4 Studios’ real time production pipeline.

“On most shoots, LED processors only control brightness and color temp”, explains Geoffrey Kater, Owner and Senior Creative Director at S4 Studios. “Brompton’s color science gives us more - input switching, NIT levels, ShutterSync, phase, fade-to-black, freeze functions, all mapped to a Stream Deck for real-time changes. That kind of flexibility became a vital part of our on-set workflow.”

The S4 Studios’ production team includes Lead Unreal Engineer Macario Alvarez, a seasoned developer with years of experience across top-tier game studios, and Supervising Engineer Ben Betts, a specialist in LED wall systems with more than thirty years of on-set playback engineering for motion pictures. Together, they support a creative-to-delivery pipeline for film, television, and commercial content. “None of this could have been achieved without the creative team at Ping Pong Productions that brought this project to S4 and had the vision to utilize complex Virtual Production technology for this show”, says Kater.

The studio’s client portfolio includes Discovery Channel, History Channel, EA Sports, Paramount, Warner Brothers, BBC Worldwide, NBC Universal, Walt Disney Television, Lionsgate, PlayStation, along with a wide range of advertising agencies and music labels.

For “Expedition Files”, S4 Studios deployed Assimilate Live FX instead of Unreal Engine, opting for layered 2.5D environments with camera tracking to maximize speed and responsiveness. The LED volume, featuring ROE Visual BPv2 (Black Pearl) panels and driven by Brompton’s 4K Tessera SX40 LED video processors, enabled fast setup changes without sacrificing creative flexibility.

“This show required us to move fast, with six or more setups per day, for up to 25 shots”, explains Kater. “There’s no room for technical downtime. With Brompton, we could instantly shift between setups, freeze frames using Frame Store, adjust brightness, color temperature, LUTs, mapping or switch inputs with zero disruption. It’s a game-changer.”

Brompton’s SDI/HDMI multiple input capabilities also played a key role. “We had one system running Live FX with camera tracking and another for standalone video playback”, says Kater. “With Brompton, we could prep new scenes on a second machine, and switch inputs instantly when ready, with no repatching and no lag.” Working closely with their stage partner Brandon Studios, who invested in Brompton Tessera hardware, S4 Studios built a custom Stream Deck interface for managing the processors during live shoots.

“We created layouts that let our engineers control the processors directly, switching sources, toggling profiles, applying screen effects, all at the push of a button”, continues Kater. “We also built profiles for different setups within the Tessera software, so loading a new scene was just one click. That kind of repeatability is massive when you are doing shot after shot.”

This level of real-time responsiveness allowed S4 to choreograph entire scenes, from Arctic shipwrecks and jungle expeditions to the fog-filled streets of 19th-century London, using physical props, layered media, and camera tracking.

(Photos: Brompton Technology/S4 Studios)

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