
The DARK BAY Virtual Production Stage was built to provide film and television series productions with a state-of-the-art LED environment for virtual backdrops. It is currently one of Europe's largest, permanently installed LED studios for mixed reality film productions. Located on the lot of the prestigious Studio Babelsberg AG, the DARK BAY is embedded in a large production facility with multiple studios and an extensive film infrastructure. The stage is outfitted with a total of 1470 ROE RUBY 2.3 LED panels, ARRI lighting and camera equipment such as SkyPanel, Orbiter, and ALEXA Mini LF, Vicon and TrackMen tracking, as well as NVIDIA graphics cards. Its elliptical shape, with a diameter of 23 m (75 ft) and a height of 7 m (23 ft), allows for very wide camera angles and totals. In addition, the LED panels have a smaller pixel pitch than other LED volumes, making image artifacts, occurring between the camera and LED wall, easier to handle. The LED volume has also been built around a 21 m (69 ft), motor-driven revolving stage, which significantly enhances the creative possibilities of the stage, allows for much higher efficiency in shooting, and is unique in the world.
As one of ARRI's first mixed reality studio reference projects, the ARRI Solutions Group provided consultant services for the overall technical planning as well as the installation, coordination, and oversight for all the components of the DARK BAY Virtual Production Stage. In the future, art and technology will merge in the DARK BAY. For productions of the highest quality, state-of-the-art hardware was combined with engineering services to create an innovative overall system in close coordination with the client and business partners, explains Markus Zeiler, ARRI Executive Board member. To make this lighthouse project possible, all ARRI business units-Camera Systems, Lighting, and Rental-worked together intensively under the project management of the ARRI Solutions Group. As a result, the customers benefited from an international team of experienced engineers and project managers in combination with ARRI products, highly regarded for their high quality and user-friendliness, along with a worldwide network.
Watch the DARK BAY being built in the video below
The idea for the DARK BAY stage came from the creators of the successful Netflix show Dark, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. With the space, they intended to realize the vision of their next production and, at the same time, create one of Europe's biggest and most advanced mixed reality studios. To meet these lofty goals, their production company DARK WAYS GmbH partnered with Studio Babelsberg AG and founded the DARK BAY GmbH in 2020. Supported by funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Energy of the State of Brandenburg, they built the studio and are in charge if its operation. The investment was made possible by a long-term booking commitment from Netflix for their local content productions. At the same time, the infrastructure remains open for bookings of the volume by all filmmakers, independent of Netflix.
ARRI had been a long-term partner for the creators, working closely on the Netflix series Dark through rental and postproduction services. In the initial phase of the studio planning, ARRI joined DARK BAY and provided to support with the broad range of competencies ARRI possesses across its business units. ARRI cameras, such as ALEXA LF, had been the centerpiece of virtual productions since The Mandalorian, and ARRI has decades of experience in color management, image science, optics, lighting technology, and integration into modern workflows. The ARRI Solutions Group has designed, planned, and implemented high-end film, TV, and broadcast studios around the world for years. ARRI also has the experience and human resources to support pioneering production workflows with hard and software and quickly supply all kinds of necessary studio equipment.
DARK BAY meets ARRI (left to right): Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar, Philipp Klausing (all DARK BAY), Nik Summerer (DP on 1899 ), Christina Caspers-R mer (DARK BAY), Dr. Michael Neuhaeuser, Dr. Johannes Steurer, Stefan Soellner, Stephan Schenk, Elfi Kerscher, and David Bermbach (all ARRI) Photo: Alex Forge/Netflix
For DARK BAYS' landmark project, ARRI Camera Systems experts delivered an ARRI Mini LF set and a UMC-4. They also helped with the programming of Unreal Engine Plug-Ins to handle metadata and offered their expertise in color calibration, moir testing, and simulation. ARRI Rental supplied the lighting, grip, and camera equipment as well as custom-designed ALFA lenses used for Netflix's 1899, DARK BAY's first hosted production, tailored not only to the individual look requirements but also optimized for shootings in the LED studio. Initially, ARRI Lighting supplied more than 70 SkyPanels S60-Cs. In the meantime, over 50 Orbiter lampheads as powerful direct lights, versatile in their application for different mixed reality set environments, were added and integrated.
More than 70 ARRI SkyPanels (pictured) and over 50 ARRI Orbiter lampheads were installed at the DARK BAY Photo: Alex Forge/Netflix
The ARRI Solutions Group was responsible for integrating all subsections and coordinating partners on-site and served as the general contractor for the DARK BAY's technical outfit. Together, all departments have also been involved in building a reference studio in Munich that mirrors the technology used in Berlin and is being used to develop tools, evaluate technology, and test the integration.
ARRI Solutions Group was commissioned with the overall planning. In spring 2021, we built our high-end LED studio in a record time of three months on the premises Studio Babelsberg AG. The team from the ARRI Solutions Group, one of the few vertically int
Europe Stories
10/11/2025
10 Nov 2025
VEON Raises 2025 Outlook, Robust Revenue and EBITDA Momentum, Direc...
10/11/2025
Monday 10 November 2025
Sky News partners with Arc XP to power the future of digital journalism
Today, Sky News can announce that it has partnered with Arc XP...
10/11/2025
Rohde and Schwarz Cybersecurity to develop solutions for VS laptops
Munich, 10th of November 2025 - Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity has developed a specialized...
10/11/2025
Satellite Payload and Components Testing with instruments from Rohde & Schwarz a...
10/11/2025
76 animals. Six locations. Two Irish stars. One Pet Mobile.
From surfing dogs t...
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
07/11/2025
Word of mouth has always been at the heart of the Spotify experience, with people sharing music, podcasts, and audiobooks with friends and family millions of ti...
07/11/2025
SLEIGH BELLS RING ARE YOU WINNING?
THE LATE LATE TOY SHOW BIG BIG TICKET GIVEAWAY EXCLUSIVE ACROSS RT CHANNELS
On Friday 21 November, listeners across all R...
07/11/2025
X-Rite to Acquire Select Assets of Rutherford Graphic Products (RGP), LLC (USA) ...
07/11/2025
Friday 7 November 2025
Alessia Russo inspires 180 girls at inaugural Alessia Cu...
07/11/2025
-- Building on last year's success at COP29, the three initiator organizati...
06/11/2025
Media organisations from across the globe are uniting to promote media and information literacy (MIL) to help ensure their future survival and win back the trus...
06/11/2025
At Spotify, we're always finding new ways to bring you closer to the music that moves you, turning sound into something personal. From the playlists that ma...
06/11/2025
O mundo est ouvindo a Am rica Latina. Os artistas da regi o est o constantement...
06/11/2025
The world is listening to Latin America. The region's artists are consistent...
06/11/2025
El mundo est escuchando a Latinoam rica. Los artistas de la regi n marcan const...
06/11/2025
After nine months of fiscal year 2025, SGL Carbon generated sales of 652.9 million, down 16.5% on the previous year (9M 2024: 781.9 million). This is attribut...
06/11/2025
Contact information:
Miriam Johnson, Website Lead, Fotoware Group
miriam.johnson@fotoware.com
Oslo, October 2025: As part of our brand unification, the Pic...
06/11/2025
Calrec's 36-fader Argo M in Steiger Media's newly equipped OB truck parked outside the venue will showcase a live remote workflow connected to the Calre...
06/11/2025
06 Nov 2025
VEON Appoints Sebastian Rice as General Counsel Vitaly Shmakov promoted to the newly created Chief Investment Officer role
Dubai, November 6, 2025...
06/11/2025
The prequel to the Sky Original mob crime saga is a six-part drama tracking the ...
06/11/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
06/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz at productronica 2025: Innovation and production - hand in hand As a trusted partner for electronics manufacturing, Rohde & Schwarz will prese...
06/11/2025
Red Seat Ventures Announces Partnership with Renowned Entrepreneur, Author and M...
06/11/2025
We're delighted to announce the appointment of Max Mehta and Mark Fannon as Junior Systems Engineers, further strengthening our growing Technology team.
Ma...
06/11/2025
RT Announces Alex Walden as General Manager of the
RTE Concert Orchestra
Alex Walden, renowned orchestra manager, most recently for the BBC Concert Orche...
06/11/2025
Actors Steve Coogan and anna Hardwicke will be on the Late Late Show this week ...
06/11/2025
In the third episode of The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In actor Danny O'Carr...
05/11/2025
On Monday night, Ed Sheeran and Spotify lit up The Royal Dublin Society in Dublin for a one-night-only performance. The occasion? The third installment of Billi...
05/11/2025
Cumbia has long been woven into daily life in Argentina, and its popularity on S...
05/11/2025
La cumbia forma parte del d a a d a de los argentinos desde siempre, y su popula...
05/11/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
05/11/2025
Wednesday 5 November 2025
Brits urged to turn off' bad phone behaviour as ...
05/11/2025
Wednesday 5 November 2025
Watch the official trailer: Battle of the Irish Dance...
05/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz Mobile Test Summit 2025 on the future of wireless communications...
05/11/2025
Wuppertal November 5, 2025
Riedel RefCam and Easy5G to Make Handball Debut at the Men's EHF EURO 2026The European Handball Federation (EHF) will introduce...
05/11/2025
Comscore and Polaris I/O Partner to Automate Audience Insights in MarketView for...
05/11/2025
New schedule will be live on-air Monday 10 November
Brand-new Today with David McCullagh from 9am
Oliver Callan in all-new extended show from 11am to 1pm
Kie...
05/11/2025
Explore the future with Science Week on RT
Dive into a week of innovative, themed programming and content across RT television, radio and online
Includes a ...
05/11/2025
Get ready for six weeks of United FC, a brand-new, feel-good teen docuseries kic...
04/11/2025
Today, we announced our third quarter 2025 earnings, marking strong momentum as we surpassed 700 million Monthly Active Users and achieved double-digit subscrib...
04/11/2025
Idag rapporterar vi v rt resultat f r det tredje kvartalet 2025, vilket markerar en stark och fortsatt tillv xt d vi passerade 700 miljoner m natliga aktiva an...
04/11/2025
Comscore Reports Third Quarter 2025 ResultsRESTON, Va., November 4, 2025 Comscore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evalu...
04/11/2025
Damien Moloney as Jim Bergerac
As filming wraps on the highly anticipated second series of Bergerac (6x60'), UKTV today unveils a selection of first look i...
04/11/2025
Tuesday 4 November 2025
Matt Smith stars in Sky Original limited event series T...
04/11/2025
From the recent SMPTE Media Technology Summit in Pasadena, with FilmLight Image Engineer, Daniele Siragusano, and Research Engineer, Julius Tschannerl.
Matchin...
04/11/2025
Begins Thursday November 6 on RT One and RT Player at 10:15pm
Camogie: Inside...
03/11/2025
Harmonic's cOS Virtualized Broadband Platform Will Further Enhance Broadband...
03/11/2025
Monday 3 November 2025
Trailer & poster unveiled for Sky Original festive famil...
03/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz acquires open source intelligence specialist Munich Innovation L...