IICT, JioStar launch joint research initiative on photogrammetry, 8K production pipeline
Mumbai, August 13
The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies and JioStar have launched a joint research programme on Photogrammetry and the 8K Production Pipeline, marking a step towards deeper industry-academia collaboration in India's animation, VFX, gaming, comics and extended reality ecosystem.
The programme draws on JioStar's industry experience and IICT's academic, technological, infrastructure and research capabilities to explore high-resolution content creation, digital asset capture, image processing, data management and 8K pipeline integration. It is designed as an industry-focused effort. Solutions will be tested and refined in real production environments instead of remaining theoretical exercises, as per the press release.
"The AVGC-XR industry is evolving rapidly, and many of its biggest challenges today are technological. Managing high-resolution production pipelines and building efficient digital workflows require close collaboration between industry and academia. This initiative with JioStar is an important step in developing research that addresses real production needs and creates solutions that can benefit the wider industry. We hope this is the first of many such collaborations at IICT," said Dr Vishwas Deoskar, CEO, Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT).
"Photogrammetry and 8K production pipelines represent an exciting step in the evolution of content creation in India, reflecting how the craft is expanding beyond traditional boundaries. At JioStar, we're continually exploring how emerging technologies can create richer, more immersive experiences for audiences. By combining JioStar's innovation-led approach with IICT's academic and research strengths, we can turn emerging technologies into practical solutions that benefit the wider industry. We look forward to working together to help advance India's AVGC-XR ecosystem," said Prashant Khanna, Head - Sports: Rights, Innovation, JioStar.
Photogrammetry creates detailed digital representations of real-world objects, people and environments, with applications across VFX, gaming, virtual production, digital humans and immersive media. 8K production brings additional requirements around capture quality, storage, data transfer, rendering, colour management and delivery.
The initiative will study how to integrate both into efficient and scalable production workflows, potentially leading to technical frameworks, proofs of concept, prototypes and specialised tools that address both immediate and broader industry needs.
The collaboration reflects IICT's ambition to grow beyond skilling and training into a research and innovation platform for the AVGC-XR industry. Through partnerships with leading organisations, IICT aims to create an environment where companies can bring forward complex technological, creative and production challenges and work with researchers, faculty, students, technologists and domain specialists to develop practical solutions.
Many of these challenges, including digital capture, rendering, optimisation and pipeline integration, are shared across the industry rather than unique to one company. A solution developed for a specific need can therefore evolve into a broader framework, tool or product for the wider ecosystem, with the potential to generate intellectual property, best practices and market-ready technologies, as per the press relaese.
Photogrammetry and the 8K production pipeline are the first of several planned research areas between JioStar and IICT. Further initiatives will be announced as they take shape.
The JioStar-IICT collaboration sends a clear message to organisations across the AVGC-XR ecosystem. IICT is open to working with industry partners on complex research, technology and production challenges, not only for talent development but also as a research partner in solving industry problems.
— ANI
Reader Comments
While this sounds promising on paper, I hope it's not just another MoU that gets signed with great fanfare and then quietly fades away. Indian institutions and corporate partnerships have a history of launching initiatives that don't translate into actual work on the ground. Would love to see tangible timelines, student involvement, and real output in the next 12 months. Let's see if this breaks the pattern.
As someone working in the VFX industry in Hyderabad, I can say this is genuinely exciting news. The 8K pipeline is a huge challenge, especially with India's bandwidth and infrastructure constraints. Having IICT's research muscle behind JioStar's production experience could lead to solutions that are actually usable in our context, not just copied from the West. This is how we build Atmanirbhar Bharat in tech! 💪
Good to see India investing in such high-end production technologies. The collaboration between IICT and JioStar shows the ecosystem is maturing quickly. Photogrammetry is indeed critical for virtual production and digital humans. Curious to see how this develops and what kind of IP they generate. This could be a significant step for India's AVGC sector.
Finally, some serious push for AVGC-XR research in India! We've been talking about becoming a global hub for animation and VFX, but without proper industry-academia collaboration, we were just outsourcing work. This initiative could actually help us create original content and tools. Hope they include skill development for students as part of this programme—that's where the real impact will be. 🌟
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