Video courtesy of CBS | The Future Group, Wolf + Rothstein | Weta Digital | 2n, The Weather Channel | The Future Group, NEP | Ziggo Sport, Fox Sports, and EA | Bioware | The Mill

Steal the show

Broadcast & Live Events

Whether you’re broadcasting live to air or tape, or putting on a live event, Unreal Engine offers a robust creative environment that’s opening up new potential to entertain, inform, and inspire. With the highest-quality real-time rendering and the freedom to make changes on the fly, you can deliver stunning mixed-reality experiences that engage viewers and audiences like never before.
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And we’re live!

Proven over countless hours of live production, Unreal Engine has all the tools you need to create jaw-dropping live broadcasts and events out of the box, while free access to the complete source code lets you customize and extend it in any way you require. 

Best-in-class visuals at top speed

Unreal Engine offers the highest-quality 4K+ photorealistic experiences, seamlessly blending live action with CG elements in real time. With real-time compositing, green-screen keying, camera tracking, lens deformation, and advanced particles and effects built right in, Unreal Engine delivers picture-perfect pixels in the blink of an eye.
Image courtesy of The Future Group
Video courtesy of 2n / Weta Digital / Wolf + Rothstein

Out-of-the-box readiness

Using a real-time engine in live production has its own set of requirements. We’ve spent many development cycles on making sure we’re ready to address them. From larger-than-life multi-display rendering to support for SDI video I/O, genlock, and frame-accurate timing, Unreal Engine is locked, loaded, and ready for prime time.

Stability you can rely on

When you’re delivering content live, there’s no room for errors; “fix it in post” doesn’t apply here. That’s why it’s critical that you work with a robust, predictable platform that won’t let you down. At Epic, we’re keenly aware of the importance of stability in live production, and we make it a focus of our efforts.
Image courtesy of Sky Sports

Leading players in broadcast and live events work with Unreal Engine

Live production demands a platform you can trust to deliver performance, stability, and the highest-quality graphics—every time. That’s why the industry’s top solution providers, TV networks, and production houses turn to Unreal Engine.
Image courtesy of Moment Factory

DMX sample project for live event previs

Designed and created by Moment Factory, this free sample project showcases a fully animated digital light show featuring the newly released DMX plugin in Unreal Engine, as well as the latest proxy fixtures and effects provided in the context of live event previs.
You can download it from the Learn tab of the Epic Games launcher, or from the link below.
Find out moreGet the sample

Case studies

Image courtesy of The Weather Channel and The Future Group

Floods and fires: how The Weather Channel uses Unreal Engine to keep you safe

The Weather Channel continues to break new ground with immersive mixed-reality segments on storm surge and wildfires. By plugging behavioral weather data into Unreal Engine, the broadcaster gives viewers an unprecedented true-to-life visual experience of these dangerous weather phenomena. 
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Image courtesy of Zero Density

Zero Density brings post-production workflows to live broadcast

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Image courtesy of 2n, Weta Digital, and Wolf + Rothstein 2018

Childish Gambino mesmerizes fans with real-time animation

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Image courtesy of ESPN

NFL Redzone: on set in real time with Unreal Engine

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See more case studies

Key features

Full support for
the live production ecosystem

Live production depends on a marriage of hardware and software, and the surrounding ecosystem of formats and protocols. That’s why Unreal Engine’s Live Link plugin works with all of the most popular 3D tracking systems, while support for protocols such as OSC offers the ability to control and communicate with various devices. Industry-standard media I/O formats like HAP, Apple ProRes, and Avid DNxHD are also supported.

Comprehensive
real-time compositing toolset

Composure, Unreal Engine’s built-in compositor, facilitates real-time compositing directly in the Unreal Editor, enabling real-time VFX  to be delivered in camera. Powerful tools include an advanced green-screen keyer, support for virtual cameras, and a wide range of post-process effects including, color grading and Filmic tonemapping, Open Color IO, depth-of-field, lens flare, lens distortion, light wrap, bloom, and vignetting.

Efficient
multi-display rendering

Unreal Engine’s production-proven nDisplay system enables you to render real-time content at any resolution, and to display it on multiple physical or projected screens such as powerwalls, domes, CAVEs, and LED walls. Scenes can be rendered from multiple networked workstations, or from multiple instances of Unreal Engine running on a single workstation; nDisplay ensures that content remains exactly in sync.

Advanced particles, effects,
and physics

Create film-quality levels of VFX polish in real time with completely customizable particle systems in the built-in Niagara and Cascade visual effects editors; impact your scene with particle lights and create complex particle motion with vector fields. You can also fracture, shatter, and demolish massive-scale scenes with the Chaos physics and destruction system.

Get the world’s most open and advanced creation platform

No matter which licensing option you choose, there is only one Unreal Engine. With no need for additional plugins or purchases, Unreal Engine comes production-ready out of the box.
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