Authored by Samuel Carter, CEO & CTO of TrackIt, this blog showcases the innovative collaboration between Studio 4D and AWS to revolutionize architectural presentations. Traditionally, architects and urban planners relied on physical scale models to communicate their visions to clients and stakeholders. While these miniature representations offered valuable insights into structures and neighborhoods, they struggled to adapt to the digital landscape.
Recognizing the limitations of traditional methods, Studio 4D, an architectural visualization firm serving clients across the United States, embraced high-quality digital visualizations to effectively share projects with community stakeholders and potential investors. In 2016, the firm made a significant leap by leveraging Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to create and showcase its architectural designs digitally.
Originally intended for video game developers, Unreal Engine allows Studio 4D to craft immersive, three-dimensional walkthroughs of communities, enhancing viewer interaction. The design team utilizes Unreal Engine’s extensive toolkit to construct intricately detailed buildings and vibrant landscapes, complete with animated pedestrians, elevating the viewer’s experience of the future community.
As the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many clients towards remote operations in 2020, Studio 4D identified the need to scale its live video presentations to reach larger audiences. Rather than presenting to a select few project partners, it became essential to stream live demonstrations to hundreds of viewers while maintaining the real-time interactivity that makes their models captivating.
To address this challenge, Studio 4D partnered with TrackIt, an AWS Partner skilled in developing live streaming solutions. TrackIt identified that Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) could deliver a scalable and high-quality streaming solution tailored to Studio 4D’s needs.
After exploring various methods, including integrations with common video conferencing tools, TrackIt proposed a direct integration between Amazon IVS and Unreal Engine. This integration enabled Studio 4D to showcase its work with optimal resolution and frame rates, ensuring a top-notch viewing experience.
TrackIt customized the solution for Studio 4D by creating an intuitive React application, providing presenters with a straightforward web interface for managing their IVS streams. To transmit the WebRTC output streams from Unreal Engine to Amazon IVS, which accepts RTMP inputs, TrackIt configured a container on AWS Fargate. This container connects to the live output from Unreal Engine, utilizing FFmpeg to stream high-definition audio and video to the Amazon IVS RTMP endpoint.
During the development of this solution, Studio 4D was embarking on several large-scale architectural projects. The size of these developments and the number of stakeholders requiring walkthroughs necessitated a robust streaming solution to align with customer construction timelines. Once the final approach was established, the delivery was completed in just a few weeks and integrated into Studio 4D’s existing presentation system.
Studio 4D quickly put its new live streaming capabilities into action with its inaugural project—a real-time interactive experience showcasing National Landing. Situated just outside Washington, D.C., National Landing is a visionary mixed-use urban community being developed by JBG SMITH. Studio 4D’s virtual walkthrough allows audiences to explore the developer’s current and upcoming projects, including a planned 7.2 million-square-foot development pipeline in National Landing. Moving forward, Studio 4D intends to use this solution for all future community planning projects.
“Our mission is to convey the richness, complexity, and intricate details of meticulously designed urban landscapes to any audience on any screen,” remarked Laura Jennings, CEO of Studio 4D. “Still images and pre-recorded videos fall short of capturing the full scope of what our clients aim to showcase or what stakeholders need to understand. With TrackIt and AWS, viewers can genuinely explore these communities and grasp their potential fully.”
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