HOW MODERN SERVER TECH BRIDGES DNEG'S DUNE AND THE ODYSSEY WORLDS
------------------------------------------------------------
DNEG's Will Lucas explains how modernised infrastructure gives the studio
the flexibility to collaborate globally on films such as The Odyssey,
Dune and The Last of Us.
------------------------------------------------------------
Filmmaking has outgrown the single studio floor. Today's biggest titles
are built by an interconnected web of talent spread across time zones,
working around the clock on shared assets.
That model comes with a cost. Building those assets in parallel creates
sprawling, complex environments that generate enormous datasets and
graphics-heavy workloads. The rendering demands involved push traditional
desktop machines well past what they can handle.
DNEG, the visual effects studio behind Academy Award-winning titles
including Dune and Interstellar, ran into exactly those technical
expectations on projects such as The Last of Us Season 2.
As the studio grew its international footprint, the legacy hardware setup
it had relied on became harder to scale, manage and maintain across
borders. Supporting a borderless creative workflow called for a new
technology foundation - one now built on modern server infrastructure and
flexible financing.
Working with its technology vendor, DNEG has connected its 19 global
studios so they operate as a single team, shifting processing workloads
into centralised data centres under a flexible framework.
DNEG'S FLEET OF AWARDS
----------------------
- 8 Academy Awards
- 8 BAFTA Awards
- 26 Visual Effects Society Awards
- 4 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
CENTRALISED COMPUTE TO THE RESCUE
---------------------------------
The studio has deployed ProLiant DL385 Gen11 servers built around AMD
EPYC 9475F processors, DDR5 smart memory and NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell
Server Edition GPUs. Together these give DNEG high-density rendering
capacity inside centralised data centres rather than under artists' desks.
The architecture supports both advanced air cooling and direct liquid
cooling, helping optimise power efficiency across the data centre floor.
Crucially, the setup lets artists connect remotely to virtualised
workspaces without giving up performance.
Will Lucas, Head of Technology Projects Europe at DNEG, says the studio's
latest infrastructure investment reflects how well the technology has
already supported its evolving visual effects needs, allowing productions
to become more ambitious. With the right foundation in place, he notes,
that ambition can be delivered by creative teams distributed around the
world.
He points out that artists have traditionally been tied to the physical
workstations sitting beneath their desks. That approach delivered
Oscar-winning effects work on films like Dune and Interstellar, but it
introduces practical problems as the business continues to scale.
Hardware is bulky, awkward to move and costly to maintain, and it anchors
artists to specific sites. As global teams collaborate more closely, he
argues, the case for a more flexible route to high-performance compute
becomes obvious.
Lucas explains that by moving compute into centralised data centres and
rolling out virtualised workstations, the studio has modernised its online
environment. The servers supply the processing power, memory and graphics
capability that demanding VFX workloads require, while virtualisation
gives artists far more choice over where and how they work.
The practical result is that artists can reach the resources they need
without a dedicated physical machine at every desk, and the studio can
manage and scale its estate more easily as production requirements shift.
For a global operation handling productions as complex as Namit Malhotra's
upcoming Ramayana and Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Three, Lucas says
modernisation has been about more than raw performance. Ultimately, he
adds, it is about building the flexibility to collaborate across locations
while handing artists the tools to realise every creative ambition.
ALIGNING IT INVESTMENT WITH STUDIO GROWTH
-----------------------------------------
Rolling out enterprise-grade infrastructure also demands careful financial
planning, especially for studios investing in ongoing rendering capacity at
the same time.
To protect balance-sheet discipline while accelerating its virtual desktop
rollout, DNEG used a 90/9 funding programme through its vendor's financial
services arm. The structure let the studio install and stabilise the server
hardware straight away while deferring the main financing costs for 90
days, followed by very low monthly payments over the next nine months.
Maeve Culloty, President and CEO of the financial services division, says
that in a period of continuous technological innovation, how and when a
business invests matters as much as what it deploys. The role of her team,
she explains, is to help customers such as DNEG act now while retaining the
flexibility to scale and adjust as value emerges and priorities change.
Sustainability and operational efficiency are also moving up the agenda
alongside performance. Modernising with energy-efficient technology and
running a global IT asset disposition programme supports responsible
retirement, reuse and recycling of older kit.
For DNEG, modern infrastructure is ultimately an investment in creativity -
combining hardware, financial flexibility and sustainable lifecycle
management so artists can collaborate without limits and turn ambitious
ideas into finished work.
KEY PARTNERS
------------
- Enterprise technology vendor: supplies ProLiant server hardware and
virtualised compute solutions.
- Financial services arm: provides IT investment and lifecycle management,
flexible financing structures, deferred payment plans and sustainable
asset disposition programmes.
- AMD: leading semiconductor designer supplying high-performance EPYC
server processors.
- NVIDIA: visual computing company providing server-grade RTX graphics
hardware for demanding animation and rendering workflows.