The smart cameras then communicate with Unreal Engine, a video-game design software, to render the avatars in real time. “You have to go back to your five-year-old self, play pretend, and talk with your imaginary friend” Above our heads, thousands of Infrared Reflective (IR) markers - one-inch-by-one-inch silver squares that, essentially, create a map for these cameras - twinkle like a mini galaxy. “It’s not something that’s done in post,” creative producer Michael Zinman - who previously partnered with Fox on The Masked Singer - tells Rolling Stone on the still-empty studio floor. To film, Alter Ego relies on 14 cameras, eight of which use advanced camera-tracking technologies. The Best Audiophile Turntables for Your Home Audio System Moreover, the judges won’t learn the true identity of the winner until they’ve already won.

But the judges, along with host Rocsi Diaz and in-person audiences, watch the performances on eye-level monitors placed strategically around the room - so as to appear as if they’re looking centerstage.

In typical music-TV fashion, the winner will get a cash prize ($100,000), as well as mentorship opportunities from celebrity judges: willi.i.am, Grimes, Alanis Morissette, and Nick Lachey. On Alter Ego, which premieres this Wednesday night (September 22nd), the contestants don’t perform on stage, but rather behind a curtain whilst donning motion-capturing suits that control their own highly fantastical, augmented-reality avatars. I was skeptical, a few weeks ago, as I approached the doors to a taping of Alter Ego, Fox’s new singing competition with a high-tech twist, but it felt the same as entering any old sound stage - at least for the first minute or so.

Alter ego magazine