Another type of hardware keying isn't a compositor like the Ultimatte system; rather, it uses a reflective media background surface and a ring of colored LED lights around the camera's lens. Reflective media systems project a low-level but highly directional green or blue LED light that reflects off a background material made up of tiny glass beads; this background reflects only the LED light back into the lens of the camera. This pro ides a simple and clean key regardless of the surrounding lighting condi tions, and it doesn't produce any color spi ll onto the subject you're shooting.
This footage can then be composited in real time with a low-end Ultimatte hardware
solution such as the Ultimatte DV, or the footage can be recorded and composited like stan dard green screen or blue screen footage with a software keyer in post-production. Again, the resu lts will be determined by the position of the subject against the backdrop and the inten sity of the lighting you use with the ring lights. If you have too much intensity, you'll get a visual spill on the subject due to high-intensity light bouncing back into the lens-similar to shooting a figure against a very bright window or light source pointed directly at the camera.
A few companies manufacture this type of setup, including the LiteRing from Reflecmedia (www. refl ecmedi a. com) combined with its Chromatte backdrop material (see Figure 2.12). Reflecmedia also has a portable pop-out screen product called ChromaFlex that allows you to travel with the system and shoot close-ups for interviews, as I'll show in more detail in subsequent chapters throughout this book.