Muppits (Multi-User Post-Production IT Services) links Southampton University's GRIA software (Grid Resources for Industrial Applications) with Soho in a project that aims to help post houses share highly expensive rendering resources.
The current scale, complexity and turnaround time of post-production work, especially at high resolutions, means that post facilities must make huge investments in in-house infrastructure to maintain the high resource capacity needed.
According to Southampton University's IT Innovation business manager Paul Walland, “The result is high costs, wasted power and organisational inefficiency - a situation that is rapidly becoming unworkable.”
By contrast the Muppits approach will allow the secure buying or selling of rendering resources between companies, with most of the management and billing done automatically. Effectively this means the creation of an independently monitored marketplace for the grunt power of PCs located either in existing facilities or at data farms outside London.
“The project enables companies to work in new ways, in partnership, by trading resources,” explained Walland. “Muppits allows short term leasing of central resources and also provides the post house with security for transferring or backing up assets as well as improving their workflows.”
Partners in the project are Pinewood Studios, Smoke and Mirrors, Molinare and Sohonet, storage solutions supplier Innovation Data, digital cinema forum HDDC and the BBC, which is contributing its Dirac compression scheme. The BBC is also examining the project's potential as a wider backbone media management system for end to end tapeless production.
“In the past companies have been fearful of outsourcing because of commercial confidentiality,” said Walland. “If they use the GIRA middleware they can outsource to another facility or to data farms outside London in confidence. Ultimately this will make UK post production a lot more competitive internationally and it means smaller houses can take on larger jobs rather than be limited by resource.”
The 30-month project completes at IBC in 2010 with various demonstrations and business models being worked on until then.
The Technology Strategy Board is an executive non-departmental public body established by the Government in 2007 and sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
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