How to Choose a 360° Driving Plate Supplier: Eleven Questions to Ask Before You Licence

Comparisons of 360° driving plate suppliers tend to rank on catalogue size, the number that is easiest to compare. It is also the number that matters least once you are on the wall with a camera pointed at a moving background. Here are eleven questions that decide whether a plate works in your shot, what a defensible answer looks like, and what IgelkottPlates answers. Six of those answers point away from us and say so. If the format is new to you, start with what a driving plate is and how it is used.

1. How many pixels do I get per degree of view, not just across the frame?

An equirectangular file spreads its width across the whole horizon. Your frustum sees a narrow slice of that width, and it is the slice, not the file, that gets scaled onto the LED.

A good answer states pixels per degree and the usable vertical field, not a resolution class.

IgelkottPlates: 8K360 is 7680 × 3840, about 21 pixels per horizontal degree; 16K360 is 15360 × 7680, about 43. Files are equirectangular 360° × 180°, usable field 360° × 125°. Of 437 plates, 349 are 8K and 88 are 16K, and the higher tier is listed in the 16K360 collection. Where this points away from us: all 88 of the 16K plates come from London, Los Angeles, Upplands-Bro or the train series. If you need 43 pixels per degree in New York or Washington D.C., this catalogue does not have it.

2. Is the image stitched, and where do the seams fall?

Multi-camera rigs join their images somewhere, and the join moves with parallax: a lamp post passing close to the vehicle is the classic failure. A seam behind the actor at one angle crosses their shoulder at the next.

A good answer names lenses, sensors and the resolution up to which no stitching happens. Seamless alone is a claim, not a specification.

IgelkottPlates: one lens, one sensor, stitching-free up to 16K, on a gyro-stabilized rig. No join, so no seam to place. The method is set out in stitching-free 360° driving plate capture.

3. What height was the camera at, and does it match my vehicle?

Background scale reads from height. Composite a 130 cm plate behind an actor sitting at 130 cm and kerbs, bonnets and oncoming traffic land where the eye expects. Reprojection moves the horizon a little, not a metre.

A good answer publishes the height per plate as a number, and says whether it is constant per vehicle type.

IgelkottPlates: height is published per plate as Point of View Height. Car 130 cm, boat 200 cm, train 220 cm, bus 310 cm, constant within the vehicle type. The catalogue holds 391 car, 17 train, 14 boat and 14 bus plates, with one plate carrying no vehicle tag. Where this points away from us: if your hero vehicle is an SUV, a pickup or a lorry, the car plates sit at 130 cm and will not lift to a truck eye height.

4. How long is one continuous clip, and does it loop?

A scene shot in the round outlasts the plate feeding it more often than anyone plans for. Short clips force a cut or a crossfade, and a crossfade shows in the reflections.

A good answer gives a median and a range, and says plainly whether the material loops.

IgelkottPlates: median length 4 min 05 s, shortest 1 min 18 s, longest 19 min 04 s. Of 437 plates, 430 run at least two minutes and 395 at least three. Where this points away from us: plates are continuous, not looping. If you need an endlessly repeating bed for a very long take or a permanent installation, a supplier who cuts loop points will serve you better.

5. Which codec is delivered, and how large are the files?

Codec decides whether the plate plays at full rate on your media server or gets transcoded on arrival, which is where colour is lost. File size decides drives and ingest windows.

A good answer names the delivery codec, lists the alternatives, and gives real file sizes rather than a bitrate to multiply yourself.

IgelkottPlates: ProRes 422 HQ as standard, NotchLC and other formats on request. The median 8K plate is 4 min 13 s at 58.45 GB, the median 16K plate 3 min 19 s at 80.07 GB. More on playback in 360° driving plates for LED volumes.

6. What gamma and frame rate is each plate encoded at?

A log or HDR encoding needs the right input transform, and the wrong one costs a grade sitting nobody booked. Retiming a moving background puts judder where the eye tracks, and shutter angle bakes the motion blur in permanently.

A good answer is per file, not per catalogue, and is visible before you buy.

IgelkottPlates: shutter angle is 180° throughout. Both 24 and 25 fps occur. Gamma varies by plate: ACEScct (AP1) and HLG (Rec.2020). Where this points away from us: that variation is work for you. A colour pipeline cannot assume one transfer function across the library, and finishing at another rate means retiming.

7. What does the licence cover, and who else may open the file?

The people who handle a plate are rarely inside one company: a VFX vendor, a post house and a colourist may each need the master. Licences that charge per handler, expire, or stop at a border surface as invoices halfway through post.

A good answer is a published document, readable before you buy, with the sublicensing position and payment terms in it.

IgelkottPlates: non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, for one named project, across all media formats and channels, with no geographic or time limit. Television series are licensed per season. Named VFX vendors, post houses and colourists receive the file with no separate sublicence fee, provided they use it only for that project and return or destroy their copies on delivery. Buyers outside the EU pay no Swedish VAT; EU businesses with a VIES-validated VAT number fall under reverse charge. The wording sits in the Terms of Use, paragraphs 3 and 5. Payment is in advance with no net terms, and a proforma invoice against a purchase order is available. The contracting party is Igelkott Film AB (org.nr 556998-7794), trading as Igelkott Studios, B2B only.

8. Is the price published, or do I have to ask for it?

Budgeting a sequence means knowing the plate line before the schedule locks. A supplier quoting per enquiry asks you to budget around a number you cannot see.

A good answer is a number on the page, with the tax treatment stated.

IgelkottPlates: prices are published. 25 000 SEK for an 8K360 plate, 37 500 SEK for a 16K360 plate, both before VAT. Custom shoots start at 125 000 SEK inside the EU and 250 000 SEK outside it, where a shooting day yields roughly three minutes of finished plate.

9. Does the coverage include the place my story is set in?

Audiences read road markings, number plates, kerbs, street furniture and vegetation. A European motorway does not pass for an American interstate at 43 pixels per degree, and a nearly right location costs more in paint than the right one costs to license.

A good answer is a list of places with counts, not a country list and a total.

IgelkottPlates: 437 plates, 14 locations, 5 countries. Sweden 209, USA 165, United Kingdom 22, Denmark 16, Norway 7. Those five figures sum to 419: the remaining 18 plates carry no location tag, 17 of them the train series: 232 Nordic, 254 European. Stockholm 80, Washington D.C. 79, Uppsala 55, New York 45, Los Angeles 41, London 22, Upplands-Bro 22, Copenhagen 16, Dalarna 15, Märsta 14, Lennartsnäs 13, Grövelsjön 8, Stavanger 7, Idre 2. The place-by-place breakdown sits in the full 360° driving plate library and the Nordic driving plates. Where this points away from us: 437 is a small catalogue, and libraries with tens of thousands of clips exist. American coverage is three cities. If your script is set in Atlanta, Chicago, Texas or Arizona, it is not here.

10. Can I get the route at the time of day and season the script needs?

Continuity across a sequence is a lighting problem before a geography problem. A night interior cut against an afternoon background shows in the eyelines, and a summer treeline behind a winter scene is obvious to everyone except whoever booked it.

A good answer breaks the catalogue down by time of day, weather and season with counts.

IgelkottPlates, by time of day: Day 277, Afternoon 206, Night 68, Morning 51, Evening 32, Sunset 19, Dawn 17, Dusk 3, Sunrise 3, Twilight 1. Weather on 434 of 437: Clear 247, Partly Cloudy 119, Overcast 64, Fog 4. Season on all 437: Spring 168, Winter 111, Summer 99, Autumn 59. Where this points away from us: only four places offer both a full day and a full night selection, and the split is Washington D.C. 53/26, Stockholm 30/15, New York 24/14 and London 7/13. Elsewhere you take the light that was there on the day. None of this is CG either: if weather, time of day and speed have to be dialled in after the fact, you need rendered material, not filmed.

11. How do I test a plate before I license it?

Every question above is answerable on paper and confirmable only on the wall. Moiré against the LED pitch, the encoding through your input transform, and whether 21 pixels per degree survives your frustum settle in ten seconds of playback.

A good answer is a sample at full delivery resolution. A compressed preview shows framing and nothing about the pixels, the part you are paying for.

IgelkottPlates: every plate carries a free 10-second sample at full resolution, watermarked. Browse all 437 plates, or read the frequently asked questions for delivery detail.

Key facts

• 437 plates: 349 at 8K360 (7680 × 3840, about 21 px per degree), 88 at 16K360 (15360 × 7680, about 43).
• Equirectangular 360° × 180°, usable field 360° × 125°. One lens, one sensor, stitching-free to 16K.
• ProRes 422 HQ, other formats on request. Median 8K plate 58.45 GB, 16K plate 80.07 GB.
• 180° shutter, 24 and 25 fps, gamma per plate: ACEScct (AP1) or HLG (Rec.2020).
• Median length 4 min 05 s, range 1 min 18 s to 19 min 04 s. Continuous, not looping.
• Point of View Height per plate: car 130 cm, boat 200 cm, train 220 cm, bus 310 cm.
• 14 locations, 5 countries: Sweden 209, USA 165, UK 22, Denmark 16, Norway 7.
• 25 000 SEK for 8K360 and 37 500 SEK for 16K360, before VAT.
• Perpetual worldwide licence, one named project. Free 10-second watermarked sample per plate.