HP and Lucasfilm Ltd. announced a three-year, multi-million dollar technology and marketing agreement.
Lucasfilm will use HP Adaptive Enterprise solutions to generate new videogames, visual effects and animation as well as store and manage its business applications. The HP technology will be deployed at Lucasfilm's new Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco and at the company's Singapore operations.
"HP clearly understands the nature of the entertainment business, and the need to capitalize on and manage change," said Cliff Plumer, cto, Lucasfilm. "With this agreement we will continue expanding the quality of our entertainment offerings and meet the constantly rising expectations of consumers when it comes to movies and videogames."
Lucasfilm will roll out up to 1,000 high-performance HP workstations powered by Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors for the production of its visual effects and video games. The HP workstations put unprecedented power in the hands of artists and developers as they create videogames for the new generation of consoles. They will also be used to produce the visual effects, rendering, compositing and editing for which Lucasfilm is world renowned.
In addition, HP Services is working closely with Lucasfilm to deploy a storage environment to securely store and archive critical business information.
"Lucasfilm has become a leader of the digital revolution in entertainment by understanding how to use technology to push the limits of what is possible in filmmaking," said Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer, HP. "For decades, film and broadcast companies have selected HP for its ability to deliver solutions that address their unique business and creative challenges, and we are excited to partner with Lucasfilm to create the next generation of entertainment."
The HP xw9300 Workstation environment at Lucasfilm will run both Linux and Windows XP operating environments in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes, with in-house software applications for creation and editing.
Lucas visual effects and game development requires the most powerful workstation configurations available. On the cutting edge of performance and power, the 64-bit dual processor, dual-core and dual-graphics HP workstation is designed for customers with such intensive computing demands.
The HP xw9300 Workstation's market-leading performance and visualization capabilities are enabled by the processing power of two AMD Opteron processors and advanced 3D graphics capabilities made possible by NVIDIA's dual PCI Express x16 graphics.
Lucasfilm selected the latest HP StorageWorks offerings for its business applications. With a 35-terabyte capacity, the HP StorageWorks XP12000 Disk Array and Cisco MDS 9509 is arguably the industry's most powerful, high-end disk storage system delivering "zero downtime" for mission-critical environments.
The system incorporates HP software innovations for single-system management, remote copying and cross-continental disaster recovery. The HP StorageWorks XP12000 Disk Array offers Lucasfilm the most advanced solution available to ensure business continuity and asset protection.
HP (www.hp.com) is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2005, HP revenue totaled $85.2 billion.
Lucasfilm Ltd. is one of the worlds leading film and entertainment companies. Founded by George Lucas in 1971, it is a privately held, fully integrated entertainment company. In addition to its motion picture and television productions, the companys global businesses include Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound; LucasArts; Lucas Licensing; Lucasfilm Animation and Lucas Online. Lucasfilms feature films have won 19 Oscars and its television projects have won 12 Emmy Awards.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
