NEP Launches New Virtual Production Business Segment, Acquires Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment to Accelerate Market Footprint

NEP Group today announced the launch of a new virtual production business segment, to be called NEP Virtual Studios, bringing on board industry leaders in real-time production with the acquisition of Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment. As part of this new venture, NEP welcomes a group of experts and world-class talent, including entertainment industry veteran Cliff Plumer to lead this new segment, Jeff Ruggels as SVP of Finance and Operations, Phil Galler and Zach Alexander as co-Presidents of the Lux Machina NEP Business Unit, and Daniel Gregoire and Chris Ferriter as Executive Creative Director and President, respectively, of the Halon NEP Business Unit.

With the rise in streaming services and consumers demanding content at a faster pace than ever before, producers are under significant time and cost pressure to deliver. Virtual production processes enable directors and creative staff to “see” an entire scene complete with visual effects and CG enhancements live on set, and to restage, revise digital sets, make lighting changes, adjust camera angles, and more on the spot. This ability to iterate shots interactively has transformed the way movies and shows are made, speeding-up collaboration and production and opening new creative options and solutions, all while reducing costs and often even the carbon footprint by cutting travel and physical set construction.

At the same time NEP was targeting opportunities to expand its existing virtual production business, Plumer was building a coalition of creative production and technology specialists to deliver a streamlined virtual production solution. Prysm Collective partnered with pioneers Lux Machina, and visualization leader Halon Entertainment, in that effort, and by now joining forces with NEP enables an accelerated path to realizing both the NEP and Prysm strategic visions within the industry, and across the globe.

“The vision for NEP Virtual Studios is the same as we have for our Broadcast Services and Live Events businesses: to be the world leader in helping clients and creators bring their content to life,” said Brian Sullivan, CEO, NEP Group. “When we first started talking to Prysm Collective we were amazed at how closely they were aligned with one of NEP’s newest strategic objectives of building out the leading global virtual production business. It was clear that joining forces would accelerate the path forward for NEP, Prysm, Lux Machina and Halon together.

“We’ve worked closely with many of the people in the new group before and know just how good they are. Having Cliff and the teams from Lux Machina and Halon on board adds some of the most experienced talent in the business to our existing world-class people, leading this charge into the future.”

Plumer is well-known and respected industry wide, with more than 30 years of experience on the cutting edge of entertainment technology. He has served as CEO of visual effects studio Digital Domain, and as CTO of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. Plumer also served as the President of Jaunt Studios and CEO of THE VOID and has contributed to more than 100 Hollywood feature films and television series, including the Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Transformers franchises.

“I was looking for a partner to help scale the vision for Prysm Collective, and could not have found a more ideal match than NEP. One of the biggest hurdles to accelerating growth in the virtual production sector is that demand, both for stages and the hardware required to build them, is far exceeding supply, and joining forces with NEP gives us immediate access to a massive footprint and one of the strongest global production teams and set of resources in the industry,” said Plumer.

Prysm Collective, Lux Machina, Halon Entertainment and NEP all share significant experience with Unreal Engine integration. Prysm Collective is an Epic MegaGrant recipient for development of virtual production cloud workflows; Lux Machina has built multiple LED stages for Epic Games, consulting closely with Unreal Engine developers on new virtual production features; Halon is one of the earliest adopters of Unreal Engine for real-time film and television content creation; and NEP has been using Unreal Engine to service broadcast clients with real-time graphics for several years.

About NEP
NEP Group is the leading technology partner for content creators around the globe. For more than 35 years, we have been delivering innovative products and services that enable our clients to make, manage and show the world their content—anywhere, anytime, on any platform. As a trusted partner working on some of the largest productions in the world, NEP offers a complete set of end-to-end solutions, from content capture to distribution—including a growing portfolio of transformational cloud-based, software-based and virtualized technologies. Our Live Production solutions range from AV services and live audience enhancements to traditional outside broadcast and cutting-edge centralized and cloud production. NEP’s Virtual Production solutions start at the creative stage and end with exceptional execution across ICVFX, augmented reality, LED stages and more. And, our Media Processing solutions provide the tools and products our clients need to ingest, edit, store, search, manage and distribute their digital assets to rights holders across multiple platforms.