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Recent turmoil in the halls of entertainment studios and platform providersinvolved in creating and distributing entertainment content, from cinemas to small screens and everything in between, means 2025, like 2024, will see companies within Media & Entertainment (M&E) aggressively lookingforways to stay competitive, cut costs, and deliver experiences that meet the needs and expectations of increasingly sophisticated audiences and consumers.In discussion with Rob Hoffman, Senior Worldwide Manager for Media & Entertainment Vertical, Lenovo, at this past Octobers VIEW Conference in Turin, as well as at early Decembers SIGGRAPH Asia conference in Tokyo, his take on the future growth of entertainment content creation is quite optimistic.There is an insatiable appetite for fresh, new entertainment experiences spanning film, television, and OTT content, as well as game development, live and interactive experiences - sporting events, art installations, etc. - and more, he notes. With consumer demand continuing to grow, artists and studios are carrying the burden to deliver a larger quantity of higher fidelity entertainment experiences. Working alongside partners such as AMD, growth in our business can be tied to the infrastructure requirements, such as greater compute capabilities, to deliver the larger quantity of higher fidelity content.According to Hoffman, part of his role, and the companys, is not just to supply equipment and related services, but to support clients with their critical production pipelines and workflow system integration they rely on to stay competitive and deliver the best, highest quality content. We work closely with our client studios and integrate them into the development process - from a clean sheet design and technology integration to prerelease testing and deployment within their production pipelines, he says. In addition, ISV partners are also part of this program, and we collaborate with them directly on prerelease testing, qualifications and performance tuning. As for products, we prioritize partnering with the best solution providers to effortlessly tackle even the most complex visual workflows, he continues. ThinkStation P8 enables power-users to create revolutionary products, better, smarter and faster than ever before with the professional power of AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors. Partnering with solution providers dedicated to smarter innovation allows everyone to make the needs of our power-users a top priority.No current discussion of M&E can avoid running head first into the growing and often contentious use of AI; some describe AI as the defining tech of our era, while others are not so charitable. And while its easy to see how technology companies - already some of the largest businesses in the world - are quite bullish on AI, more and more, companies within M&E are calling for and embracing Ethical AI that respects, and adheres, to well-defined ethical guidelines regarding fundamental values, including such things as individual rights, privacy, non-discrimination, and non-manipulation.Hoffman notes that its of growing importance that companies commit to Ethical AI and support efforts to increase compliance. There have been a lot of discussions and concern about AI replacing artists and the IP in which models are trained on. The industry as a whole, including artists, studios and those that create the tools and hardware used within production, has been working to understand the impacts of AI and push for policies on its ethical use. I envision AI as being an assistant to the artist and freeing the artist from the more technical and mundane tasks of production so they can focus more on the art itself. AIs core advantage lies in providing seamless and intuitive user experiences. This means your device becomes more intuitive over time, anticipating artist needs and adapting to their style of working.Hegoes on to explain that Lenovo is exploring all aspects of AI and how it relates to the technology found within the companys workstations, as well as how those workstations are being deployed where AI is being leveraged. We are working with those within the industry to better understand what artist and studio requirements will be, along with how software solutions will be integrating AI and the requirements of it on the hardware its running on so we can account for these requirements and bring solutions to market to address them.Remarking on the increased reliance on, and technological support for, cloud computing, including pay-as-you-go rendering, Hoffman says, The impacts [on Lenovo] are minimal as, for years, studios have had dedicated render farms and utilized workstations as supplemental compute when they were sitting idle. How studios are leveraging cloud is evolving, as there is a reverse cloud migration under way with many studios to reduce costs and have more control over their hardware infrastructure and IP.Additionally, he concludes, creative studios often deal with sensitive content and proprietary intellectual property. By keeping data on-premises, they maintain greater control over security protocols and reduce the risks associated with data breaches or unauthorized access in cloud environments. Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
