As a marketer for the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League Football Club in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL), Scott Maxworthy noticed how powerful and effective social livestream video was becoming. Recognizing the business opportunity that livestreaming presented, Scott founded a company in 2019 called Max Media to take advantage of this new digital disruption. His business has only grown since and, as livestreaming technology has improved, Scott has upgraded his virtual studio accordingly. Below he shares his most recent investment – Rosco DigiComp HD Paint for a better green screen and an improved livestream experience.
Scott and his partners originally invested $25K to convert a backyard garage into a production studio for livestream video. A central part of that studio was a fabric chroma key backdrop and a floor painted with non-Rosco green paint. This allowed them to begin livestreaming The Naked Punt NRL Footy Show via Facebook Live.
They used the green screen to create a fixed virtual background that made it appear as if they were broadcasting from the stadium. This background gave their “weekly Livestream NRL Footy Show by fans for fans” an extra layer of professionalism, which helped them gain popularity and viewership.
Since then, Scott has made continual upgrades to his “Big Dog Studio” to create a better livestream. First was a Panasonic 4K camera with Blackmagic SDI capture, and then audio improvements like sound insulation, audio baffling, and VST audio processing using Cantabile software. Perhaps the most significant upgrade, however, was their multi-camera integration of Unreal Engine that enabled them to create live, 3D virtual backgrounds.
While the Unreal Engine technology enabled Scott and his team to create much more dynamic virtual backgrounds, some of the composites weren’t as clean as Scott would like. This led him to begin investigating ways to improve his key, which is how Scott discovered Rosco DigiComp HD paint. The DigiComp® HD color standards are precisely manufactured for crisp, clean separation of the foreground/background in digital compositing. This results in a better green screen that, in turn, provides improved compositing for a livestream environment.
When it comes to virtual production studios, Scott believes it's a process of constant improvement. "The aim is to keep production overheads low but production quality high.” According to Scott, the Rosco DigiComp HD paint not only increased the quality of the product they deliver to their customers and viewers, but it also dramatically reduced the time spent behind-the-scenes trying to improve the key. “Considering the investment of $350 for the paint and equipment and about 8 hours of painting – the upgrade to DigiComp HD has paid for itself already.”
Max Media is a digital marketing agency in Sydney, Australia. You can learn more about the services they offer by visiting their website maxys.com.au. You can also follow Max Media on LinkedIn and on Instagram – @maxyscomau – where you can keep up to date with Scott’s studio upgrades and The Naked Punt NRL Footy Show.
If you’d like to learn more about the solutions Scott used to create a better green screen inside his virtual production studio, please explore the DigiComp HD product page on the Rosco website.
