Key Takeaways:
- Media and entertainment pipelines must scale globally: Studios need infrastructure that supports high-resolution content, tight timelines, and secure collaboration.
- Dell technology accelerates creativity: Dell PowerScale, Dell PowerEdge, and Dell Precision workstations deliver predictable performance and AI-ready workflows.
- Customer success proves the model: Lightstorm Entertainment, Studio Ulster, KMM, Cosm and Texas Studios show how infrastructure drives storytelling and immersive experiences.
Lightstorm Entertainment’s Avatar: Fire and Ash called for a pipeline that could move immense assets at speed and keep creative teams in sync. The audience response matches the ambition: after 32 days in theaters, the film crossed $1.3 billion worldwide, with all but one of those days sitting at the coveted number one ranking.
The film’s momentum underscores a simple truth: modern, large-scale productions are data-first. In December, we looked inside Lightstorm’s pipeline and the infrastructure that makes this scale possible. If you missed it, start with our earlier piece.
Across the media and entertainment industry, expectations continue to demand higher resolutions, tighter windows, hybrid teams and secure collaboration that doesn’t slow the work. The common thread is infrastructure built for concurrency, resilience and growth.
What’s driving industry change
Studios operate across continents with shared timelines and evolving cuts. Their deadlines do not bend. Workflows span ingest, editorial, finishing and archive. Teams need steady throughput, low latency access and guardrails that protect IP without interrupting the craft. AI now assists with previsualization, QC, metadata and search while reliable infrastructure underpins all of it.
How Dell helps
Dell PowerScale for scale out network-attached storage, Dell PowerEdge for compute and Dell Precision workstations give teams a foundation they can trust—steady performance for editorial, predictable finishing, simpler asset reuse and secure collaboration. Customers use these building blocks to keep creativity moving and to prepare for new formats, from virtual production to “shared reality” venues.
Customer highlights
Our customer’s stories show that dependable storage, right‑sized compute and artist‑ready workstations are the baseline for modern production. Start with Lightstorm, then see how others apply similar principles in different settings.
Lightstorm Entertainment
Lightstorm’s work on Avatar: Fire and Ash demanded infrastructure that could handle unprecedented data volumes and global collaboration. Dell PowerScale delivered the throughput and reliability needed to keep artists connected and workflows steady across continents. A film that crossed $1.3 billion worldwide in fewer than four weeks proves that audiences still turn out for stories built on technical ambition. Behind the scenes, storage scaled without drama allows creative teams to focus on the craft.
Studio Ulster
In Belfast, Studio Ulster is building a virtual production facility designed for speed and flexibility. Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and PowerScale storage support LED volume rendering, motion capture and real-time scanning, while AI-ready infrastructure accelerates set building and model training. These capabilities allow directors to iterate faster and crews to work with confidence, knowing the pipeline can handle the load. It’s a foundation for storytelling that feels as dynamic as the worlds they create.
Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM)
The Australian studio behind Mad Max: Fury Road and Happy Feet needed a way to compress timelines without sacrificing quality. By combining Dell Precision workstations with PowerScale storage, KMM reduced previsualization from years to months, and achieved a 50-times acceleration in production workflows. That speed gives directors more room to experiment and teams more time to refine, turning ideas into finished sequences on schedule. For KMM, the infrastructure became a creative advantage.
Cosm
Cosm is redefining shared reality with dome venues that deliver 12K-resolution visuals to audiences in real time. Dell Precision rack workstations and PowerScale storage manage hundreds of terabytes of content, ensuring smooth playback and instant updates across massive screens. This performance makes immersive experiences feel effortless for viewers, even as the technical demands behind the scenes grow more complex. Cosm’s approach shows how infrastructure can scale with imagination.
Texas Studios
When the University of Texas joined the SEC, its broadcast goals expanded overnight. Texas Studios partnered with Dell to build a facility powered by PowerScale and PowerEdge, capable of producing more than 160 live events each year. The system handles real-time stats, instant replays and social content, all without missing a beat. It also serves as a training ground for students who want jobs in sports media or broadcasting. It’s a model for how technology can support both performance and education.
What you can do next
These stories share a pattern. They all map the pipeline, measure what matters, design for synchronous operation and then lock down security without slowing their work. Here’s how you can follow their successful lead.
- Map the pipeline from ingest to archive; fix bottlenecks that break creative flow.
- Benchmark real timelines, not synthetic tests; measure sustained performance.
- Design for concurrency so editors, colorists and VFX can work together.
- Make security invisible with policies, identity and encryption that don’t add friction.
- Plan for AI where it saves time today: QC, search and metadata enrichment.
The pressure on modern media pipelines isn’t letting up, and the teams that plan for concurrency, resilience and growth are the ones shipping on time. To see how others are doing it well, read more media and entertainment customer stories on our blog.
