PipelineFX has just announce Qube! v6.5, a new version of their render-farm management software. New in this version is the usual general improvements, but also some new Cost Analysis tools as part of their “Smart Farm” product.
“With Qube! 6.5’s new features, we will be able to track our farm utilization down to the shot level,” said Tony Pelle, Director of Production Technology for Rainmaker Entertainment. “Insightful data on job efficiency is what our artists and supervisors need to keep our productions on track. And with less maintenance downtime to look forward to, we’ll have more time to refine the render farm to meet the ever-changing demands of our productions.”
Full release after the break.
PipelineFX Releases Qube! 6.5
Biggest Expansion to Reporting and Performance Capabilities Yet; Detailed Cost Tracking For VFX Studios Working Across Multiple Shows and Clients
Los Angeles, CA (June 11, 2013) – Today PipelineFX, creator of the leading render farm management software for digital media creation, announces the release of Qube! 6.5. New tools for job tagging, configuration, and reporting round out Qube!’s most feature-rich offering to date; while improvements to Smart Farming functionality promote a simpler path to pipeline intelligence.
During this development cycle, PipelineFX tackled two areas that will bring immediate results to their customers. The first: detailed cost reporting for firms that manage rendering across multiple shows and clients. The second: an increased ability for larger studios to minimize supervisor downtime and easily re-configure their render farm as situations and usage rates shift.
“In this time of industry turmoil, understanding the real economics of visual effects has become more important than ever,” stated Richard Lewis, CEO of PipelineFX. “Tools like cost accounting and the ability to Smart Farm actionable intelligence from your render pipeline offer proven methods for accurately assessing and correcting inefficiencies.”
“With Qube! 6.5’s new features, we will be able to track our farm utilization down to the shot level,” said Tony Pelle, Director of Production Technology for Rainmaker Entertainment. “Insightful data on job efficiency is what our artists and supervisors need to keep our productions on track. And with less maintenance downtime to look forward to, we’ll have more time to refine the render farm to meet the ever-changing demands of our productions.”
New Qube! 6.5 Features:
- “Show, Shot, Sequence” and user-definable job tags – provides detailed insight into how farm usage rates are mapped to projects and/or clients
- Supervisor configuration re-read – global resources, configurations and more can occur without a supervisor reload, leading to an increase in uptime
- App-Finder – allows a job to be distributed across mixed OS farms simultaneously
- Cumulative time tracking – total job time spent on the farm in CPU-seconds can be revealed by jobs, frames, and retries (even across varying numbers of CPUs)
- Updated application support – Qube! 6.5 now works with Autodesk 2014 products, and supports Maxwell Cooperative Rendering with “resume rendering” support
“Show me inefficiency and I’ll show you a cost center,” added Lewis. “With Qube! 6.5, organizations of all types and sizes can trade their money faucet for a pipeline that is clean and responsive.”
Pricing and Availability
Customers currently on subscription can download version 6.5 immediately from the PipelineFX ftp site. Please contact support@pipelinefx to request a 6.5 license.
About Qube!™ and Smart Farming™
Qube! is an intelligent, mature and highly scalable render management solution that can be quickly integrated into any production workflow, and is backed by world-class technical support. Smart Farming delivers intelligence to production pipelines by providing business-critical insight into render pipelines, maximizing investment in rendering infrastructure and automating manual processes. Qube! works out of the box with all leading content creation applications and is truly cross-platform with all software components available on Windows®, Linux®, and Mac OS®X operating systems.
About PipelineFX
As the leading provider of intelligent render farm management solutions for digital content creation, PipelineFX provides software, support, consulting and training services worldwide. Over 25,000 render nodes at more than 600 customers across film and visual effects, post production, broadcast, design, games and education include Arc Productions, BaseFX, BBC, Cinesite, Deluxe, Digital Domain, Dyson, Efilm, Electronic Arts, Google, HBO, Hasbro, L.M.U., Laika Studios, Lockheed Martin, Method Studios, NBC Sports, Nvidia, NHK, Original Force, Prana Studios, Pratt University, Procter & Gamble, ReelFX, South Park Studios, Target, Technicolor, and Telemundo. PipelineFX is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, and has offices in London, Honolulu, Portland, Las Vegas, and Vancouver.
