EMIL, the European Media and Immersion Lab, is a joint effort of four major European academic institutions (Aalto University, Filmakademie Baden Württemberg, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and University of Bath) to form a Pan-European XR Lab network to accelerate development of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies, content, services and applications for the media. EMIL will establish a physical and virtual infrastructure (EMIL Nodes), supported by research excellence, technological, creative expertise and wide contact networks to bring together interdisciplinary actors in the XR-field; engineers, designers, journalists, filmmakers, game developpers, programmers, artists, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors, from start-ups, SME’s and global corporations. EMIL will launch and coordinate FSTP projects and support this interdisciplinary community to accelerate XR-development all across Europe. The projects will be prototyping advanced solutions for the creation, distribution and consumption of new immersive and innovative products for media and related creative industries. FSTP projects can tap into the latest scientific research knowledge demonstrated in the EMIL nodes’ Lighthouse projects that exhibit excellence in Narrative Media Production, Smart Garments, Animation, VFX, Embodied Interaction, Digital Cultural Heritage, Digital Health, Motion Capture/Analysis, and technological XR-development. The FSTP projects and Lighthouse projects will quickly provide concrete cutting-edge products and services for the benefit of the European Media industry. However, EMIL’s true ambition and impact lie beyond the limitations of these projects and in the establishment of a permanent Pan-European XR network and community that will continue bringing new innovations in media, virtualization, computational design, interactive AI, resilient cities, manufacturing, and healthcare technologies and help Europe to be at the forefront of the next digital development revolution.

MAX-R is a 30-month IA that will define, develop and demonstrate a complete pipeline of tools for making, processing and delivering maximum-quality XR content in real time. The pipeline will be based on open APIs, open file and data transfer formats to encourage development and support the integration of new open source and proprietary tools. MAX-R builds on recent research and advances in Virtual Production technologies to develop real-time processes to deliver better quality, greater efficiency, enhanced interactivity, and novel content based on XR media data. The interdisciplinary Consortium of eleven partners from five countries covers the chain from technology development and product innovation to creative experiment and demonstration, and from XR media creation to delivery to the final consumer. It is built around Europe’s leading media technology developers, together with creative organisations operating in AR/VR/MR, Virtual Production, interactive games, new media, TV, video and news, multimedia and immersive performance.

SAUCE will research, develop, pilot and demonstrate a set of professional tools and techniques for making content ‘smarter’, so that it is fully adaptive in a broad, unprecedented manner: adaptive to context (which facilitates re-use), to purpose (among or within industries), to the user (improving the viewing experience), and to the production environment (so that it is ‘future-proof’). The approach is based on research into light-field technology; automated classification and tagging using deep learning and semantic labeling to describe and draw inferences; and the development of tools for automated asset transformation, smart animation, storage and retrieval. These new technologies and tools will show that a vast reduction of costs and increases in efficiency are possible, facilitating the production of more content, of higher quality and creativity, for the benefit of the competitiveness of the European creative industries. Specifically, SAUCE will research and develop: • Methods of generating smart world-views by capturing and processing light-fields, augmenting them with semantics and making them usable for media production pipelines. • A framework and tools for automatically classifying, validating and finding smart assets, using deep learning and semantic labeling techniques on 2D and 3D data. • A framework and tools for the automatic transformation and adaptation of smart assets to new contexts, purposes, users and environments, and for the synthesis of new smart assets from existing ones. • Real-time control systems for authoring animated content using smart assets, automatically synthesizing new scenes from existing ones and integrating smart assets into virtual production scenarios. • A storage system for smart assets that combines local and cloud storage so that assets can be delivered irrespective of the user or asset location. SAUCE will also demonstrate and promote its results, for industry approval, adoption and development by third parties.

The rapid technology-driven development of both production and distribution of animation, films, XR and games is challenging the creators and artists on their skillset, the industry on their innovation abilities, and the HEIs and VETs on their ability to adapt new technologies, knowledge, and work practices. What used to be artistic works to be made by the chosen few are now a giant growing global industry of visually based storytelling, employing the artistic minds and skillset to produce a stream of visual commodities, not only to entertain, but also enabling efficient learning and communication, promoting discussions, and defining societal values.The proposed PANEURAMA project aims to address the mismatches between the output of HEI/VETs and the needs of the industry in the fields of animation, computer games and VFX, and to build a network of HEIs and VETs in Europe as well as field relevant industry partners with support of strong associated partners, in the hope of better preparing students and graduates for the emerging needs of their prospective careers, and in doing so building resilience into the European animation, gaming and media arts sectors. By connecting relevant educations and industry partners, the project teams aim to establish a baseline for needs in the market and identify where the teaching and training in attendant fields is discordant, using this knowledge to develop and implement new teaching methods and goals for a variety of professions in the visual industries and their associated educations.The project aims to foster creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, employability, international collaboration and better prepare students and graduates for the challenges in the audio-visual market through readiness, resilience and capacity, supporting digital and green capabilities, and clearly identifying and communicating both opportunities and challenges to European HEIs and VETs, industry organizations and decision makers.