Thinkbox Software announces Deadline 5.0, the latest version of its render farm management solution for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX-based render farms.
Deadline is a hassle-free administration and rendering tool kit that offers a host of management options for render farms of all sizes, and the flexibility to run the software on the industry's widest range of platforms and rendering packages. Because Deadline enables studios to communicate seamlessly across locations, the tool is gaining popularity among visual effects companies boasting massive global render farms.
Global VFX studio Pixomondo recently standardized Deadline as their render farm tool-of-choice for their 10 facilities worldwide. Felix Fissel, Head of IT Los Angeles at Pixomondo, says, "We're an international company with literally a 24/7 production cycle, and Deadline 5.0's remote rendering feature allows us to control and manage our render farms across our entire operation. This means if our facility in Shanghai has a huge project to render, the work can be parsed out to another one of our locations that isn't as busy. This feature has resulted in incredible time savings."
Key new features in Deadline 5.0 include:
· Remote Mode: Allows companies to control and manage massive global render farms across multiple worldwide facilities, from one remote office.
· Deadline Mobile for iPhone and Android: Enables users to monitor their Deadline jobs from anywhere.
· Auto Configuration: Slaves can pull their configuration information such as repository and license server settings from Pulse each time they launch, improving system rollout times and repository relocations.
· Improved User Security: Prevent users from impersonating others by configuring Deadline to use the system user as the Deadline user.
· Monitor Interface Improvements: Save and load Monitor layouts, use the new Slave Availability Filter to diagnose job problems, and view job statistics and save them to disk using the improved Graphing controls.
"We're seeing many of our customers grow exponentially in recent years so it's becoming all the more crucial that these facilities have a rock-steady rendering pipeline," says Chris Bond, president of Thinkbox Software. "We've heard time and time again from users that Deadline has become a critical backbone that streamlines workflow and allows companies to be more efficient with their rendering resources and most importantly --their time. That's why our key goal in the ongoing evolution of Deadline is to continue to automate as many processes as possible and allow artists to use idle resources in the most efficient way, whether it's across the hall or in another continent."
During NAB, Thinkbox Software is hosting training sessions and demos in the Country Club Classic Suite #2987/89 in the Las Vegas Hilton, minutes from the NAB tradeshow floor.
· Deadline 5 Training Session: Mon/Tues/Wed 4:00 - 5:00pm; Thurs 2:00 - 3:00pm
· Production Workflow Demo: Beta-phase connectivity between Nuke, Deadline and Shotgun
· Deadline 5 Test-Drive: New features and integration