As robotic camera systems become standard on major productions, the question is no longer whether to automate — it’s how to do it without losing the human touch.

Chelsea Fearnley, Head of Marketing, Brand & Partnerships at Motion Impossible, will share how the company’s Emmy Award-winning AGITO system captured the kinetic energy of Harry Styles: One Night in Manchester — filmed live in front of 20,500 fans at Co-op Live and streaming globally on Netflix just two days later. The world’s first fully modular robotic dolly, AGITO combines the capabilities of many traditional camera systems into one compact, reconfigurable platform. Chelsea will also reveal how Motion Impossible’s automation software delivers programmable, repeatable camera movement in fast-moving live environments — crucial when a Friday night performance needs to feel like a polished cinematic release by Sunday.

Boyd Hobbs, founder of NODO Film Systems and award-winning cinematographer, brings the perspective of someone who both builds camera control systems and uses them. Rather than live production experience, Boyd contributes something equally valuable: a deep understanding of what operators need from the tools in their hands. Drawing on NODO’s Inertia Wheels MAX — winner of the 2025 Society of Camera Operators Technical Achievement Award — he’ll explore why haptic feedback, simulated inertia, and latency-free response are essential to preserving human instinct as automation advances, and where physical and virtual production are headed next.

This session is part of SMPTE’s new VIBE Conference, held April 18 in N259.