For the past five weeks, ITV have been broadcasting all of their studio content for the FIFA World Cup from a rooftop loft apartment in Brooklyn, NY. What most viewers haven’t realised is that while the location – with its incredible views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge – is entirely real, the loft apartment itself is a virtual extension created by Lightwell from their design studio in Nottingham, U.K.
The video reel highlights these carefully crafted virtual extensions in isolation from the physical set, illustrating the full scope of the build and its impact on the final on‑screen result. Within the studio, a small greenscreen area to the left of the main desk allows presenters to deliver segments in front of virtual screens featuring AR and graphics content. The remainder of the real/virtual blend is achieved through detailed masking, enabling cameras, operators and floor monitors to work freely at the rear of the studio without additional greenscreen, without the lighting such a setup would require, and without unwanted green spill affecting the final picture.
The virtual extensions were built using a combination of software. Geometry was created in 3ds Max – our mainstay 3D package for almost 25 years. Textures were developed in Photoshop and Substance Designer, with the latter proving especially powerful for the brick materials and the cast‑iron columns and beams. These assets were then brought into Unreal Engine 5.6, where lighting was crafted using GPU Lightmass alongside Lumen reflections. This was our first production using that combination, and it proved highly successful, delivering high performance with high‑quality lighting and reflection results.
On site in Brooklyn, we worked closely with the camera and lighting departments to finesse a sequence of lighting scenarios for different times of day – day, evening, dusk and night. This final stage was crucial in ensuring the virtual elements integrated seamlessly with the real‑world components to deliver a unified whole.
You can read the full case study for this project on the Lightwell website: : ITV World Cup Studio Case Study
