Microsoft’s Surface Studio unveil dazzled with a dramatic cover of "Pure Imagination" last week, leading many to claim the software giant’s video was far more exciting than Apple’s MacBook introduction. Behind the scenes, Microsoft used a robotic camera arm to capture the ad. The Beat reports that Microsoft made use of Motorized Precision’s KIRA, one of the latest robotic camera arms that can be controlled from a Windows app.

Microsoft even used an Xbox One Elite controller to control the KIRA and jog the robot’s arm into place for key shots. The Windows app also supports control over the focus, iris, and zoom for every shot. It sounds like a camera nerd’s ideal robot overlord, and the results of using this technology are played out in some stunning shots in Microsoft’s Surface Studio ad.

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Microsoft’s Surface design team spends hours creating concept videos for existing and future products. "In my team the videos that we showed, they’re done with six people in my team, they design videos," explained Ralf Groene, Microsoft's head of industrial design, in an interview with The Verge last week at Microsoft’s launch event. "When we first do new products they do videos with us to simulate what the experience should be, most of their work is on very raw prototypes."