Star Trek: 10 Secrets About The USS Discovery-A You Need To Know

Season four of Discovery would make a significant change to the way in which it was filmed with the introduction of the video wall to allow for virtual production. Given that some of the season was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictions on filming outside North America were non-existent. 

One set that benefitted from the arrival of this new virtual technology was Discovery's shuttlebay. The set was unusual from the beginning of the series as it did not feature a hangar door. The advent of the technology that had been introduced in such series as The Mandalorian, it allowed the series to venture out to new worlds without leaving the quarantined quarters of the sound stage. It would mean that a great deal of the shots required for meeting the Ten-C for example, could be shot with a more realistic feel inside a studio and without having to add in the visual effects in post-production. The immediate benefit is that the actors can react to visuals rather than having to imagine what's out in the wilds of space beyond the final frontier.

Unreal Engine's YouTube channel gives a further insight into how this technology is deployed in one of their short highlight videos. According to the NAB Amplify website, the stage "includes an LED wall outfitted with 2,000 panels, with another 750 panels on the ceiling, and measures 72 x 85 x 24 feet. More than 60 OptiTrack cameras surround the stage to provide tracking, and it’s all run by over 40 high-end GPUs running Unreal Engine’s nDisplay to synchronize the 2,750+ panels."