Framestore, the visual effects specialist, turned to the leading global Network as a Service (Naas) provider in order to tap into the power of public cloud providers, helping it to deliver on-demand visual effects projects and bring Hollywood hits to the big screen.
The award-winning creative studio, which has worked on film titles such as Avengers Endgame and Mulan as well as immersive media projects using VR, AR and MR technologies and theme park attractions, joined forces with Megaport because it was in need of extra computing power to streamline the rendering process.
Reliable, high-performance solution
Framestore is now using Megaport’s Software-Defined Network (SDN) to create on-demand, pay-as-you-go cloud connections, with low latency, high reliability and performance.
Megaport’s Software-Defined Network (SDN) allows Framestore to create on-demand, pay-as-you-go cloud connections, while supporting the compute power that animation and visual effects rendering requires, with low latency, high reliability and performance.
“The rendering process used to take hours, if not days to complete and we simply didn’t have that kind of time,” says Beren Lewis, Director of Global Systems & Infrastructure Technology, Framestore. “So, we needed a change. Working with Megaport, connectivity is so easy and consistent across all of our offices. The solution has significantly reduced connectivity costs while speeding up the process for our rendering artists.”
“Prior to working with Megaport, we had to make sure our creative work was done during the day with rendering scheduled overnight – and IT staff had to be on call around the clock in case something unexpectedly stopped working. This was not a sustainable solution for our artists or our IT team. Megaport has changed all of that.”
A modernised network
This partnership has allowed the company to modernise its network, swapping unreliable internet-based tunnels for private connectivity. Using the new portal, Framestore has been able to establish Virtual Cross Connects (VXCs) between its London office and Google Cloud as well as Microsoft Azure.
As a result, team members can scale up and down with a few clicks, meaning they can meet daily, weekly or monthly changes in demand. The company’s US offices are now connected via Megaport to AWS for rendering purposes, benefitting from the same connectivity.
“Creative studios like Framestore need technology that supports their free-flowing creativity. They can’t be constrained by rendering bottlenecks and technology failures,” says Eric Troyer, Chief Marketing Officer at Megaport.
“Framestore trusts Megaport to power their creative teams and deliver award-winning experiences. We are committed to providing them with the technology and services they need to meet the demands of creatives and audiences alike.”
The company will be able to use this technology to support their work on upcoming releases, like the latest instalment of Fantastic Beasts, Suicide Squad and The Little Mermaid.
Framestore also recently announced that it worked with HBO to develop the “His Dark Materials: My Daemon” Augmented Reality app for iOS.