NEP Acquires Lux Machina, Halon, Prysm Collective to Launch Virtual Production Business

Cliff Plumer will lead the new venture.

Broadcast and live events company NEP Group — which is U.S. headquartered and maintains operations in 25 countries — has acquired Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment.

The combined new entity will form a new business venture, NEP Virtual Studios. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Entertainment industry veteran Cliff Plumer, who joined NEP as part of the Prysm acquisition, will lead the venture. Plumer has served as CEO of VFX studio Digital Domain, CTO of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, and president of the former VR venture Jaunt Studios.

Rounding out the executive team are Jeff Ruggels (who also joins from Prysm) as senior vp finance and operations. Phil Galler and Zach Alexander will continue to lead Lux Machina, as co-presidents of that business unit; and Daniel Gregoire and Chris Ferriter will continue to lead Halon, as that business unit’s executive creative director and president, respectively.

With the deal, the new venture’s offing will include LED stages and Unreal Engine, a virtual art department, pre-visualization, virtual production supervision and creative and technical consulting. Lux Machina will continue to maintain its location in downtown Los Angeles, and additional stages are being planned.

Said NEP CEO Brian Sullivan: “When we first started talking to Prysm Collective we were amazed at how closely they were aligned with one of NEP’s newest strategic objectives of building out the leading global virtual production business. It was clear that joining forces would accelerate the path forward for NEP, Prysm, Lux Machina and Halon together.”