AI production intelligence
for live cinema.
Chroma Pulp Live is a real-time AI production intelligence platform for virtual production, broadcast, and on-set workflows. Four integrated systems — keying, colour, VFX validation, and background generation — running in a single GPU pipeline on Blackmagic DeckLink SDI.
Four systems. One pipeline.
Each intelligence module operates on the same GPU frame — no copy, no hand-off. The pipeline runs from SDI ingestion through AI inference, colour, and generation to SDI output in a single pass.
Neural AI Keying
ONNX Runtime GPU inference on every frame. Clean mattes on green, blue, and spill — no per-shot tuning required.
Colour Matching
Scene-adaptive colour integration between foreground and background. Camera colour science aware — reads DeckLink signal metadata to correct in-line.
VFX Validation
Per-frame matte analysis: edge quality score, spill residual, motion-blur confidence, and compositing readiness — output as metadata alongside the SDI signal.
AI Background Generation
Generate background plates from a live text prompt or scene descriptor. Frames are synthesised, colour-matched, and served into the composite in real time.
Blackmagic DeckLink SDI
Native 3G / 6G / 12G-SDI via DeckLink. 1080p, UHD, 4K DCI at up to 60fps. Zero-copy GPU-direct frame path.
On-set Preview
NDI confidence monitor output with burned-in slate, scene, take, and VFX validation score overlay. Director and VFX supervisor feeds simultaneously.
Signal architecture
GPU-direct from SDI ingestion through all four AI modules to SDI output. Frame data stays on VRAM — no PCIe round-trips between modules.
Appliance. Ready to key.
The Chroma Pulp Box ships with all four AI modules pre-installed, tuned, and certified. Connect SDI in, SDI out, power — operational within 90 seconds.
Software & documentation
All releases are signed and notarised. Chroma Pulp Box units update automatically — manual download required for standalone installs only.
Release history
- AI Background Generation — text-prompt plate synthesis, colour-matched and served into composite in real time
- VFX Validation module — per-frame edge score, spill residual, and compositing confidence metadata
- Neural keyer v2 — retrained on 4K data, edge quality improved ~40% on fine hair and motion blur
- DeckLink 8K Pro support — native 12G-SDI quad-link
- NDI output — confidence monitor with VFX score overlay
- Colour Matching module — scene-adaptive foreground/background integration with camera colour science
- Spill suppression — per-channel suppression with hue-angle control
- IPC architecture refactored — UI event latency reduced 60%
- ONNX Runtime 1.18 — CUDA 12.x support
Technical reference
Complete documentation for Chroma Pulp Live v1.2. Covers installation, SDI configuration, all four AI modules, and system integration.
Installation
Chroma Pulp Live requires Blackmagic Desktop Video (minimum 12.4) to be installed before the application. The installer checks for this dependency and halts with an error if not found.
SDI configuration
SDI input and output are configured via the application preferences or a JSON config file at ~/.chromapulp/config.json. All parameters are hot-reloadable — no restart required.
| Parameter | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| input.format | 1080i, 1080p, UHD, 4K DCI | 1080p |
| input.framerate | 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60 | 25 |
| input.bitDepth | 8, 10 | 10 |
| output.sdiStandard | 3G, 6G, 12G-SDI | Auto |
| output.ndi | true, false | false |
GPU requirements
All four AI modules run GPU-direct on VRAM. Minimum requirements depend on resolution and whether background generation is active.
| Resolution | Min VRAM | Recommended GPU |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p 60fps | 8GB | NVIDIA RTX 4070 |
| UHD 30fps | 12GB | NVIDIA RTX 4080 |
| 4K DCI 60fps | 16GB | RTX 4000 Ada / RTX 4090 |
AI keying
The neural keyer loads its ONNX model once at startup into VRAM and runs inference on every incoming frame. No per-shot tuning is required — the model handles green, blue, and mixed-spill screens automatically.
Spill suppression is applied as a post-inference pass on the same GPU, before the compositor receives the matte.
Colour matching
The colour matching module reads the foreground's colour temperature, exposure, and contrast from the live frame and computes a real-time transform to integrate it with the background plate. In adaptive mode the transform updates every frame.
"auto" for DeckLink to read metadata from the signal.Background generation
Background plates are synthesised from a text prompt or a scene descriptor JSON. Generated frames are colour-matched to the live foreground and composited in the same GPU pass — no separate render or file I/O involved.
When motionLink is enabled, camera movement detected on the SDI input drives parallax on the generated plate.
VFX validation
The validation module outputs per-frame quality metrics as a JSON metadata sidecar on a UDP broadcast alongside the SDI signal. Integrate with on-set logging systems or display on a supervisor's monitor via the NDI feed.
IPC API
The Node backend exposes a Unix socket (macOS / Linux) and named pipe (Windows) for real-time control from external tools, automation scripts, or show-control systems. Commands are newline-delimited JSON.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| keyer.set | Update keyer parameters. All keys optional. |
| colour.set | Update colour matching parameters. |
| bggen.prompt | Change the background generation prompt. Applies on next frame. |
| bggen.freeze | Freeze the current generated plate. Useful between takes. |
| pipeline.status | Returns current pipeline state as JSON. |
Chroma Pulp Box — administration
The Box exposes a web admin interface and SSH access on the local network. mDNS hostname is chromapulpbox.local by default — configurable from the web UI.