HP Leads Workstation Industry with Solutions for Creative Professionals

Fusion-io’s Steve Wozniak selects HP Workstations to advance computing architectures

LAS VEGAS — This week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, HP is demonstrating its leadership and market expansion in the media and entertainment industry with solutions that drive innovation and performance for some of the world’s most demanding customers.

HP Workstations deliver top performance to creative professionals in deadline-driven segments of media and entertainment doing everything from creating visual effects for the next epic blockbuster film, to the Oscar-winning editor who works from his basement.

“Our customers are continually pushing the limits of their creativity and requiring consistent technology performance improvements from one project to the next,” said Jeff Wood, vice president, Worldwide Product Management, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. “As the workstation industry leader,(1) HP continues to look for innovative partners, new solutions and demanding customers that drive results for the creative professional.”

Today’s announcement that HP is working with Fusion-io to integrate the Fusion ioFX memory tier into the award-winning line of HP Z Workstations is the latest example of HP’s commitment to developing innovative solutions and performance improvements specifically for the media and entertainment segment.

“I consider HP one of the best engineering companies in the world, so I’m thrilled to see HP and Fusion-io working together to advance workstation computing architectures,” said Steve Wozniak, chief scientist, Fusion-io. “The Fusion ioFX brings the intelligence of the Fusion-io approach to HP’s incredible workstations, adding even more powerful application performance to the precision engineering HP is known for around the world.”

HP recently expanded its reach in media and entertainment by collaborating with industry-leading reseller ALT Systems to develop two high-performance game development packages—the ALT Systems Game Developer Edition for Autodesk Users and the ALT Systems Game Developer Edition for Unreal Engine Users.

“As a systems integrator serving the media and entertainment industry for over 18 years, we have profound understanding and extensive experience supporting the technology needs of professionals working on high-end visual and immersive experiences for end users,” said Jon Guess, president, ALT Systems. “We are a long-time, authorized Autodesk and HP integrator. This collaboration is a natural evolution for us to leverage our experience with these leading technology companies to support game developers and artists.”

As one of HP’s most demanding customers, DreamWorks Animation pushes the boundaries of digital animation. To create everything from exotic lush landscapes to terrifying prehistoric creatures, DreamWorks used HP Z Workstations to develop its latest blockbuster, The Croods.

“Cutting-edge digital manufacturing requires a huge amount of compute power and orchestrated collaboration across our studios,” said Derek Chan, head of Technology Global Operations, DreamWorks Animation. “HP ensures that our filmmakers have the technical resources they require to bring their creative vision to life and deliver amazing films to our audiences.”

The first and only workstation provider to integrate the RED Camera workflow into a desktop, HP worked with leading resellers to offer professionals who handle RED Camera footage a custom RED Edition Z820 Workstation that maximizes post-production workflow.

“A big part of our focus at RED is ensuring that those shooting our cameras have a smooth and logical workflow for all stages of post production,” said Ted Schilowitz, RED’s first employee. “This HP/Red Rocket/Adobe configuration with our built-in RED SSD readers is super powerful and perfectly suited for RED work on jobs from commercials and music videos all the way up to the biggest movies in the world.”

Additional information about HP Workstations is available at NAB in booth SL 9605 and at www.hp.com/zworkstations.

(1) Industry research firm IDC reported in the 4Q 2012 Workstation Tracker that HP remains the leader in workstation market share with an all-time high of 49.5 percent of the worldwide desktop market share.

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