NASCAR brings race day energy to fans all year round with Disguise-powered studios

Overview

After recognising that video was rapidly becoming one of the stickiest ways to engage racing fans, NASCAR wanted to use this to their advantage. So they decided to rebuild their content strategy from the ground up.

Together with the experts at Provost Studio and the Disguise Services team, NASCAR set out to build two new film studios for its dedicated 58,000-square-foot Productions facility, including an LED video production studio and a full XR stage. Created in just six months, these two studios would need to extend race-day energy into year-round storytelling for fans, delivering everything from drivers' stories and rivalry insights, to live broadcasts and behind-the-scenes clips. 

The challenge

For Provost’s Founder and CEO, Peter Provost, the most challenging part of the project involved creating two studios from scratch within an incredibly tight timeline. “Deadlines were non-negotiable. We had six months to do the full job, from design to launch, which was very aggressive,” he reveals.

On top of that, this was NASCAR’s first foray into virtual production, and they needed a team around them that would make the transition seamless. "We needed to design everything in a way that could work in very little time, and we needed to have the right partners on our team to make that happen” explains Peter. “We were building an XR stage in a limited, predefined space that we needed to optimise - the NASCAR team needed to easily be able to fit real cars in the space for instance, and easily manage the stage themselves once the studio went live. We were fully committed to sourcing the right technical solutions and support to allow that to happen.”

The solution

To bring NASCAR’s vision to life, Provost Studio worked with the Disguise Services team, who supplied, installed, and commissioned all media server infrastructure across both NASCAR’s LED studio and XR stage. This included installing Disguise VX 3, VX 3+, EX 3+, and RX III hardware, with complete rack builds, internal cabling, power distribution, routing, networking, genlock and camera tracking integration.

“To fit a car into the XR studio, we actually ended up mounting LED panels directly onto the wall to buy an extra two feet,” Peter reveals. “Max Spielbichler from Disguise’s Tech Solutions team then also recommended an AUX wall on a cart, which could be moved and reconfigured for additional flexibility.”

Alongside the hardware deployment, Disguise’s team also implemented Porta production control with the system, which would help the NASCAR team manage live graphics, Unreal Engine content and playlist-driven broadcast workflows. Disguise also provided on-site training for NASCAR’s in-house studio team, which expanded to hire a studio operator, content specialist and Unreal technician to help produce video.

The results

Following the build, install and training process, NASCAR successfully launched both new studios, which its team can now use to centralise live shows, digital content, remote broadcasts and commercial production, all in one place. 

“The largest studio is Studio 43, which anchors the operation with a 23M+ pixel wrapped LED volume,” Peter explains. “This is used for more cinematic XR broadcasts, virtual sets, commercial shoots and remote race coverage.” Studio 43 is complemented by the smaller 900-square-foot Studio 3, a traditional broadcast environment built for interviews, stand-ups, digital content, and other quick-turnaround productions that don’t require full XR.

“Even though the client initially wanted to only use both studios for pre-recorded content, they felt at ease knowing that if they ever wanted to try live production in the future, Disguise’s workflow could handle it smoothly,” Peter concludes. “From the start, we knew that Disguise was a premium offering, as the chosen provider for other leading broadcasters like ESPN. By using a Disguise workflow, NASCAR would be in safe hands.”