Dell Hardware Powers Digital Effects at Spin VFX

Visual effects studio Spin VFX has selected Dell to supply IT infrastructure for its new location in Toronto. Spin VFX's portfolio includes more than 70 feature films and 13 television series, such as Game of Thrones (HBO), Showtime’s The Borgias, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 (Summit/Lionsgate).

Dell worked closely with third-party industry specialist Island Digital to design the updated technology infrastructure at Spin VFX’s new studio space and ensure the hardware was tested and ready to go as soon as the move was complete. The studio often has several shows under production simultaneously, with some generating upwards of 20 terabytes of data.

To handle this workload, Spin VFX selected six compact, energy-efficient Dell PowerEdge R420 rack servers with powerful Intel Xeon E5 processors, 48GB of memory and 600GB hard drives. These space-saving servers allow for substantial energy savings, take up less space in the studio’s server room and create an efficient hub that allows the artists to share their work and collaborate across the 10GbE network.

On the artists’ desks, Spin VFX installed Dell Precision T5600 workstations with Intel Xeon quad-core processors, NVIDIA Quadro 4000 video cards, 32GB of memory and 500GB SATA hard drives. These are paired with Dell UltraSharp U2413 PremierColor monitors - 24-inch diagonal display monitors that feature Widescreen Ultra Extended Graphics Array (WUXGA) technology, and offer both 1920x1200 pixel resolution with a 16:10 screen ratio, and 1920x1080 pixel resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio.

“When the time came to move our studio we were able to minimize our production disruptions because Dell and Island Digital had everything staged and setup in advance," said Neishaw Ali, president and executive producer at Spin VFX. "I’ve never seen such urgency and attentiveness in all my decades of working with technology suppliers. They were truly partners in our success and we’re so thankful to them.”

“Over the years Dell has built up a large portfolio of clients in the film and entertainment sector," said David Miketinac, vice president and general manager, commercial sales at Dell Canada. "We understand this incredibly dynamic and competitive business and take pride in delivering powerful and reliable technology solutions that allow our customers to push the boundaries of creativity and produce award-winning material. Our role is to ensure the hardware works seamlessly and flawlessly enabling the creative talent to work its magic - on time and on budget.”