FAQ

Convergent Screen Technologies and performance in Realtime, or CoSTAR for short, is a £75.6 million investment by the UKRI Infrastructure Fund, delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).   

The CoSTAR Network will provide support the growth of our gaming, TV, film, performance, and digital entertainment sectors by providing:  

• A launch pad for small and medium sized businesses to experiment and scale their innovations.   

• Access to different academic and industry partnerships  

• An infrastructure that is agile and labs that are responsive to the communities they serve. 

Labs

The CoSTAR Network is made up of five R&D Labs. 

• National Lab, Pinewood 

• Realtime Lab, Dundee 

• Screen Lab, Belfast 

• Live Lab, Wakefield 

• Foresight Lab, London 

To find out more visit our website.

Futures Studio was opened in Nov 2024 and it is a unique combination of a virtual production facilities and a next generation audio system, including ambisonics and object-based audio. 

Jointly funded mostly by and Surrey County Council and Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL). 

The space is used for teaching and offers creative technology businesses a space to innovate, showcase their work and collaborate with industry experts and world-class researchers. 

The studio also currently houses the CoSTAR- National Lab Research and Development team/s with expertise across content creation, software design & engineering, UX, virtual production and next generation audio.  

For more information click here.

CoSTAR runs a number of programmes through the year. You can find out what opportunities are available on our website, signing up to our newsletter or following us on LinkedIn or Instagram.

If your Expression of Interest form has been approved or you are part of a CoSTAR programme, you can find the steps of the booking process here. If you have any questions you can email us (Futuresstudio@rhul.ac.uk).

As we're a grant-funded research facility, all external bookings from companies outside our own programmes need to be approved by a member of our leadership team first, since they have to meet certain criteria and for reporting back to our funders. 

You can fill out our Expression of Interest form on submittable which will provide you with updates about your status. 

If you have any enquiry you can drop us an email (costar@rhul.ac.uk) with the details of what you're looking to do, and we can take it from there. 

LED Walls 

LED Virtual Production wall (Processor: Brompton) 

• 10.2m x 3.5m with 2.5mm pixel pitch.  

• Resolution 4200 x 1400px 

• Absen PL 2.5 Pro panels 

• A total of 21 columns of LED are curved at 2.5º increments. 

• Max Brightness:1833nits 

LED Wild Wall (Processor: NovaStar) 

• 1.2m x 2.4m with a 5mm pixel pitch 

• Resolution 216x432px

• Absen AT5 Pro panels 

• The Wild Wall features a winch to adjust display height as well as rotation and tilt adjustment.

Hardware  

• Brompton LED processors Tessera SX40 x2 (LED Main Wall) 

• Novastar VX6s (LED Wild Wall) 

• Megapixel Helios (Mimik lights) 

• Disguise Servers RX3  

• Disguise VX4+ 

• nDisplay nodes x2 

• Small flight case x1 PC  

  • 5090 RTX GPUs 

  • Capture card Blackmagic DeckLink Pro 8K 

• Large flight case x2 PCs 

  • 5090 RTX GPUs 

Software

• Disguise Designer with a Renderstream license 

• Unreal Engine 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7

Camera Package

• Arri Alexa Mini LF 

• ARRI Hi-5 Hand Unit

• Mo-sys camera tracking with a SmallHD Ultra 5 display

• Egripment camera dolly and jib arm. 

Lens

• Angenieux EZ-1 45-135mm and 22-60mm lens 

• Arri Enzõ 18mm, 24mm, 32mm, 47mm, 75mm and 105mm (not currently calibrated with Mo-sys)

• 13A domestic sockets 

• C-form connectors (limited to 10A) 

• 32A a single 3 phase (red)  

Please note that we don’t have additional power distribution units.  

Fixtures 

• KinoFlo Mimiks x4 

• Arri Orbiter x3 

• Arri L5-C x4 

• Arri S60-C x6 

• Arri S360-C x2 

• KinoFlo FreeStyle T24 x2  

Lighting Desk

• Avolites Quartz

Modifiers 

• Honeycombs for S60s and S360 

• Snapgrid (40deg) for S60s 

• Snapbag small for Orbiters 

• Snapbag Octo 4 for Orbiters 

• Snapgrid (40deg) for Orbiter Octo 4s 

Grip 

• C-Stands x4 

• Avenger stands A4050CS x4 

• Avenger B7047CS-1 Strato Safe Stand x2 

• Drop bars 

• Scaff bars & Clamps 

• 24”x36” Flags x2 

• Doughty Nipper Stands x4 

• 7.1.4 multichannel audio playback and up to 16.2.5.4 

• 27-channel immersive Genelec loudspeaker system  

• Multichannel Audio reproduction - Currently up to 27, but extensible 

• 16 x Line Audio CM4 microphones 

• Acoustically treated studio  

• AES67 (Dante/Ravenna) Audio networking 

• Allen&Heath SQ-5 mixing desk (with Dante module) 

• Allen&Heath DT168 16 in / 8 out interface 

• 4x AOIP 22 MkII A-D/D-A converter 

• 5x SM57 mic instrument mic 

• 3x SM58 mic vocal mic 

• Mic stands 

• 2x Active Speaker & stands 

• 2x subwoofer 

• Inside the Studio: 48 port 100M/1G edge switch with capacity for 4 SFP+ up to 10G each.  

• To/From Studio: dedicated single mode Fiber link at 10Gb via Janet link to the outside world (contended 10Gb). 

• Wi-Fi is available (CampusNet). Click here for more information.

• TV Logic LUM-430M2 (Studio monitor)

• Samsung TV 50” x2 

• SmallHD Cine 18 

• SmallHD Cine 13 

• SmallHD Ultra 5 (on Camera) 

• Small HD Ultra 7 Bolt 6 RX 

Wireless video transmitter/receiver

• Bolt 6 LT 750 Video Rx x6

• Bolt 6 LT 750 Video Tx x2 (one on camera)

• Disguise Designer with a Renderstream license 

• Unreal Engine 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7

• TouchDesigner 

• Max9  

See Futures Studio full equipment list here.

Futures Studio, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX

What3words location: //dozen.taking.author  

Trains 

The nearest railway station to Royal Holloway is Egham. Egham is on the Reading to Waterloo train line, managed by Southwestern Railway.  The campus is a 20-minute walk from the station, or you can take a bus. 

Buses 

RHUL shuttle Bus 

The University shuttle bus is £1 a journey (contactless available) from Egham station to the main campus. 

Click here to view timetable  

Local Buses 

There are two local bus services operated by White Bus run outside of Royal Holloway and serve the bus stops on the A30. They are as follows: 

441: Staines – Egham – Englefield Green 

500: Staines – Egham – Sunningdale – Windlesham – Camberley – Frimley Park Hospital 

Cash, contactless or tickets bought on the White Bus app are all acceptable on the services. 

Click here to see more information about transport to Royal Holloway.

Yes, parking is available on our campus. 

Please ensure you fill out the Visitor Sign In Form, so we can register your car details.  Failure to register your car may result in a fine. 

Car park 4 is the closest parking lot to Futures Studio. 

For more information: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/more/how-to-find-us/parking-on-campus/