In Southern California, the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) is a major research institution and ranked among the top 15 best public universities in the nation. On UC Riverside’s 1,200-acre campus, the Exploration Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (XCITE) provides a hub for faculty interaction, student engagement and campus collaboration. The XCITE program empowers UC Riverside’s educators to engage with cutting-edge tools and techniques to enhance learning in traditional and non-traditional classrooms.
As part of this mission, XCITE has partnered with UC Riverside Professor of Physics Dr. Bahram Mobasher and the university’s Information Technology Solutions research computing team to create the Classroom of the Future Exploration Center. The centerpiece of the new space—made possible by a grant from NASA—is a 24-foot-wide, 5-foot-high (6×2) Clarity® Matrix® G3 LCD Video Wall System.
Installed by Integrated Media Technologies, the video wall features ThinkHub interactive technology from visual collaboration software company T1V.
Integrated Media Technologies, Inc. (IMT), AV systems integrator worked closely with UCR to fully understand and vet their applications, requirements, and budget. Once the decision had been made to move forward with the Planar and T1V solution, IMT coordinated and supported the complete implementation of the project.
To view the full case study, download it below or watch the video: UC Riverside Video
Executive Summary
The Seattle Kraken (Kraken) envisioned a modern media supply chain, so they engaged AWS Partner Integrated Media Technologies Inc. (IMT) to implement the framework for a hybrid work environment. The Kraken are the newest National Hockey League (NHL) franchise team, and as they prepared for the first season at Climate Pledge Arena from 2021–22, the organization saw an opportunity to launch with excellent data infrastructure. IMT recommended Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and Amazon EC2 for the initiative. Together, the Kraken and IMT implemented these services and deployed a high-performing system in time for the first puck drop.
Creating a Scalable and Flexible Modern Data System
When the Kraken brand was unveiled for the newest NHL expansion franchise in July 2020, the organization knew that it needed a modern media supply chain that would scale as the team’s fanbase grew. In addition to scale, data flexibility was a core need. “I’ve seen environments where you have to go through decades of tape footage and archived data to create content for the fan community,” says Erik Jones, vice president of technology at the Seattle Kraken and the Kraken Community Iceplex. “We wanted to avoid that and do this the right way from the outset.” The team committed to building their offering on Amazon Web Services (AWS) because they wanted a service that could adapt to meet evolving fan needs.
The Kraken engaged AWS Partner IMT for advice and assistance in building their new infrastructure. In addition to being scalable, the new infrastructure needed to be sturdy so that it could support hybrid work for teams across multiple facilities and global regions. IMT and the Kraken collaborated to document requirements and use cases and deploy an immense offering in time for the first puck drop of the 2021–22 NHL season. The team saw it as a greenfield opportunity to create a robust and scalable technology offering for both the Kraken and the community. “We set out to unlock fan engagement for decades to come by building the system on AWS,” says Jason Kranitz, president of systems integration at IMT.
Atomic Cartoons brings to life animated tales with creatives scattered across multiple locations, including Vancouver, Ottawa, and Los Angeles. Since 1999, when the studio was founded, rendering was done using its own co-located infrastructure, scaling up with rented nodes from local vendors during production peaks. However, with demand for content booming, the studio’s increased needs often extend beyond the resources of its traditional rendering technology. But in the wake of old technology comes new. Unimaginable advances in cloud-based rendering are turning the tables on the entire production pipeline. To optimize and embrace the “cloud,” the studio has tapped IMT for custom cloud integration solutions to help scale its pipeline on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“If my local vendor doesn’t have nodes when I need them, I’m stuck, and not being able to scale puts our productions at risk,” shared Atomic Cartoons Director of IT Hanoz Elavia. “AWS provides us the flexibility to spin up in the cloud, use instances, and turn them back down. Regardless of what we need, chances are that AWS will have the instances available because of its high capacity.”
After evaluating cloud providers, Elavia opted to move forward with AWS. Looking to get the studio’s cloud implementation up and running as soon as possible, he enlisted solutions integrator IMT to create a custom interface between AWS and Pixar Tractor, which the studio uses for renderfarm management. The setup allowed the studio to leverage Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) without a major overhaul.
Gamestar+ saw an opportunity to deliver live social game experiences on demand to any device that uses a streaming service. With few high-quality social game solutions in the marketplace, the startup sought to create its own offering on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
To gain the technical expertise necessary to make its dream a reality, Gamestar+ engaged AWS Partner Integrated Media Technologies, Inc. (IMT) to build the streaming service.
To view the full case study, download below!
The Los Angeles Chargers organization has a rich history of over 60 years, relying heavily on video content captured from games, practices, and interviews. As they transitioned to producing 4K and 8K video content, their legacy storage infrastructure became inadequate, unable to support the performance and petabyte-scale requirements necessary for their production workflows.
To address these challenges, IMT’s Advanced Consulting team conducted a comprehensive assessment of the Chargers’ current and desired future states and developed a phased Media Supply Chain project that integrated storage, compute, transcode, MAM, and MSP services.
For a detailed project scope and benefits achieved, download the case study below!
CASE STUDY
The Miami Dolphins select VxRail and Dell EMC Isilon to enhance their game-day experience
For the Miami Dolphins, video is a powerful asset. The number one NFL team for Facebook video views over the last three years and owner of world-class Hard Rock Stadium, the Miami Dolphins have experienced a tidal wave of infrastructure growth. The organization’s smart use of video for fan engagement, safety and security has driven much of this growth. The team’s prior IT infrastructure was running out of steam and storage capacity. In addition, IT was finding it more complex to manage. Located in hurricane-prone Florida, the organization also needed more robust disaster recovery.
As Hard Rock Stadium and the Miami Dolphins looked toward hosting Super Bowl LIV, the leadership team engaged Integrated Media Technologies Inc. (IMT) to assess IT systems and
workflows. The Miami Dolphins approved IMT’s recommendation to standardize on Dell Technologies solutions for all applications, media asset management (MAM), video safety and security, disaster recovery, data backup, and virtualization. Kim Rometo, Vice President, Chief Information Officer, the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, says, “IMT has done an amazing job assessing and modernizing our workflows and systems. Their fluency in unstructured data, media asset management, video safety and security, disaster recovery and project management set them apart from other vendors. IMT’s relationship with Dell Technologies is also incredibly meaningful because of my trust in Dell technologies and engineers from past experiences.”
The infrastructure includes Dell EMC VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure, Dell EMC Isilon scale-out data storage, Dell EMC Isilon SyncIQ for replication, VMware Site Recovery Manager, and Dell EMC Data Domain for data backup. The 3-petabyte infrastructure runs the stadium and training camp data centers in Florida and a new colocation disaster recovery facility in Texas.
Jason Kranitz, President, Systems Integration, IMT, states, “The foundation to the overall project with the Miami Dolphins was based on IMT’s Advanced Consulting engagements which delivered a Media Asset Management and Workflow Assessment, IT Optimization Assessment, and a Disaster Recovery Plan with Run Books. By having the right plan in place and the right technology partner in Dell Technologies, IMT was able to focus on project execution with our world-class Project Management, Professional Services, and Managed Services teams.”
Tribal Imaging virtualized its VFX workstations on AWS. Artists now connect to virtual machines running on Elastic Compute Cloud to help scale the team and avoid upfront hardware costs.
The work of artists at creative studio Tribal Imaging in Alberta, Canada often seems invisible to the untrained eyes of cinema and TV audiences – but that’s by design. From previs and matte painting to compositing and 3D tracking, the studio’s visual effects support the stories of feature films and episodic television series, most recently ‘Superman & Lois’ for CW, ‘Van Helsing’ on Syfy/Netflix, ‘The Order’, ‘Wu-Assassins’ and ‘I-Land’ for Netflix, and ‘Hell on Wheels’ on AMC. Tribal also carries out full post production services for short-form advertising and indie films.
The studio’s eight-person core team is frequently augmented to double that size as projects ebb and flow, adding freelance artists in-studio or connecting to remote talent as needed. Facing increased demand for their services amid the global content boom and aware that their on-premises workstations were nearing end of life, Tribal Imaging recently shifted their creative pipeline to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Systems provider IMT’s Cloud Services team were hired to help with the transition.
Cloud and Connectivity
“We’d been looking at the cloud for a while, but now the internet connectivity requirements and costs have come down to a point that made it a viable move for us,” said Tribal Imaging Managing Partner Darren Bierman. “We chose AWS because it gives the studio the flexibility to expand rapidly when the schedule get busy, to work with artists outside our immediate area in a unified environment and to reduce overhead during quiet periods. At the same time, we’re not paying for hardware upfront. Since all client assets go into a secured private network on AWS and nothing is local, we are also able to comply with industry standard security requirements.”
Working with IMT Cloud Services, Tribal Imaging virtualised all of its VFX workstations. Instead, artists now connect to Windows-based virtual workstations running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) G4dn instances or G5 instances via NICE DCV, a remote display protocol that delivers remote desktops and application streaming from a cloud or data centre to devices over varying network conditions.
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is used for storage and archiving, and the Amazon FSx for Windows File Server manages shared storage built on Windows Server, combined with data access, management and administration capabilities, and accelerates file throughput. Further virtual workstations handle the rendering load. IMT and Tribal Imaging optimised this setup to meet the studio’s specific requirements and support its creative applications, including Adobe After Effects, Foundry Nuke, Blender, Autodesk Maya and a library of plug-ins.
To describe the transition, Darren said, “The IMT Cloud Services team laid out how everything would work and how we’d get there. They built the studio a new cloud-based pipeline on AWS from the ground up in a few weeks, including all our plug-ins, and have been quick to support us anytime we’ve encountered a hurdle.
An international law firm with offices in the world’s largest financial hubs recently relocated their New York global headquarters from Wall Street to one of Midtown New York’s newest neighborhoods and the largest private real estate development in the United States. When the firm embarked on the selection of an audio visual collaboration partner, they were looking for a provider experienced in implementing enterprise solutions meeting the intricate needs for collaboration and video conferencing at their new base of operations. They would also require multi-tool collaboration rooms to accommodate the way employees grew accustomed to working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrated Media Technologies Inc. (IMT), a trusted systems integration partner and advisor, was selected for the task.
Greenhill Financial’s need for seamless, reliable video communication technology in their new NYC corporate headquarters was vital to maintaining their relationships with clients around the globe. IMT’s proven experience in the financial market and dedication to connecting people through state-of-the-art technologies and work flows naturally qualified them to take on the complex build-out of Greenhill’s New York City headquarters. Most importantly, after developing a strong relationship over the years, Greenhill was certain that IMT had the skill set necessary to design and build video, audio and presentation technologies that would perform seamlessly while also being easy to use and maintain.
Greenhill CIO, John Shaffer, stated, “When considering upgrades to our New York City and other US and international offices, traditional AV integrators continued to design and quote expensive rooms that were difficult to use and simply did not meet Greenhill’s needs. The IMT team had not only the necessary AV integration experience, but also a strong understanding of the video collaboration market, the variety of tools available, how these tools interact together, and how these solutions could effectively be integrated into our conference rooms. The team made the design-build process for our new headquarters straightforward, not only taking Greenhill’s substantial technology needs into consideration, but also working with our architectural and construction teams to design and implement a highly effective strategy from start to finish.”
Greenhill’s top priority for the new global headquarters was to have state of the art, multi-tool video collaboration rooms that would be easy to use, with a common user interface across all conference rooms. When offices around the world closed due to the pandemic, employees working from home had to develop their own individual work flow, which included choosing a collaboration tool based on personal choice and client preference, and one they never imagined would be needed for long term productivity.
IMT deployed both Poly X50 and G7500 solutions, not only addressing reliability, but also providing the capability to support native Zoom Room and Teams functionality. In addition, the IMT design includes BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) readiness planning, which will allow employees to leverage their video collaboration tool of choice in any room while incorporating existing conference room speakers, microphones, and displays.
IMT was able to design and build eighteen return-to-office ready, platform independent, state of the art multi-tool collaboration rooms to Greenhill’s satisfaction, despite COVID-19 restrictions and construction delays.
Shaffer said, “The technology is so simple to use that we barely needed training. We use multiple collaboration platforms throughout the day and in several different rooms. I haven’t had a single issue since we started; it’s been spectacular.”
