SK Telecom goes into special effects business

SK Telecom started a special effects studio named TEAM Studio with two large light-emitting diode (LED) screens in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [SK TELECOM]

SK Telecom opened a special effects studio with two large light-emitting diode (LED) screens for use by local moviemakers, the telecom company said Tuesday.

The studio in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, is called Tech-driven Entertainment for Asian Movement (TEAM). Its two sound stages have LED walls that can display any kind of background for a scene.

One screen is 21 meters (69 feet) by five meters, and the smaller is five meters by three meters. The larger one will be appropriate for films, music videos and advertisements and the smaller one for content that needs fewer effects, like live commerce.

LED walls help actors see the backgrounds they're playing in, as opposed to the green screen process, where images are added in later. They can cut time and costs of shooting.

The studio is a part of SK Telecom’s move into video tech.

The company signed an agreement last April with French media security company Verimatrix to market its video remastering technology Supernova in overseas markets. Supernova is an artificial intelligence (AI) program created by SK that uses machine learning to increase the resolution of old video or audio files.

“TEAM Studio will use SK Telecom’s latest technologies in AI and the cloud to lead the media content industry,” said Kim Hyuk, head of SK Telecom’s Global Media Support unit.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]