
“If you have a job right now and you’re continuing to work and get paid, that’s a bit of a luxury in today’s world and we should be happy for it” – Jason Fotter, CTO, FuseFX“People have actually been adapting very positively at FuseFX because everybody realises that if you have a job right now and you’re continuing to work and get paid, that’s a bit of a luxury in today’s world and we should be happy for it.” Now that remote working is the crux of their business, one of the services that Jason’s team is relying heavily on is ClearView Flex, a remote collaboration tool from Sohonet – renowned as the media and entertainment industry’s leading provider of secure networking and seamlessly connected cloud services. “ClearView is a critical system for VFX reviews,” Jason explains. “When we were all in the office, we would schedule reviews in a screening room and you’d have the shots up on the screen to comment and approve. That was initially the biggest hurdle in going to a remote workflow because we knew we could do remote and secure access and run the software we needed but real-time, high-quality reviews were the main issue.”

“We’re trying to be as responsive as we can to help keep people employed” – Chuck Parker, CEO, SohonetSohonet originally created it’s networking services to allow secure and high-speed transfer of critical content in a manner that had not been possible before. Today, hundreds of media and entertainment leaders count on them to keep redefining what you can get from your network. For a major feature film today, an average 42% of the budget is spent on VFX. Productions are using globally distributed VFX resources, and need efficient tools for real-time remote review of VFX shots as they’re developed. Artists will need to share their work across the wider VFX team, senior production crew and execs and potentially external clients. For a quick review between team members, Sohonet’s ClearView Flex’s HDMI desktop sharing option provides an ideal way to view shots remotely without having to render the content and export your work prior to sharing. This can save hours of render time across a project as well as reducing your compute requirement.

“I’d encourage everyone in the industry to only use tools with ’gold standard’ level of security in the most vulnerable moments like this. At the end of the day, you’re responsible for your end-customer’s intellectual property.” – Chuck ParkerThe company has also introduced a useful series on how to Flex from home, sharing their best practises and tips. Chuck describes that “there was some urgent buying to begin with where we saw a surge of orders on VPN to securely and remotely access offices. The majority of our customers use more private networks than they do the internet because they are talking to other industry members. No surprise when all their employees go to work from home they have an opposite problem – everyone needs the internet to access the office from home. So we also had a surge on internet bursts where we can push up capacity for a limited amount of time.”

“It all comes down to communication – this is a collaborative environment and we all need to be on the same page.” – Jason FotterWhen the pandemic first hit, many thought that this would be a short-term problem. Now, as we begin to come to terms with the fact that this is more of a marathon than a sprint, businesses across the globe are having to come up with more long-term solutions to the crisis. Chuck advises that now is the time to “ensure that you have reviewed your security measures and get set up with all the gear you need to fix anything that is slowing your workflow down. Figure out your rhythm and find the best ways to stay efficient.” For Jason, it all comes down to communication. “The tech is there but you have to be able to communicate – this is a collaborative environment and we all need to be on the same page. Nothing is better than all standing together in a room and talking about something. While technically you can do that remotely, there are disadvantages to doing that. It’s about recognising that and doing everything you can to overcome the gap there.” He continues: “Planning and anticipating contingency plans is now more important than ever. If you would have asked me a few years ago whether I had a pandemic plan, I would have shrugged it off and thought, why does a VFX company need a pandemic plan when we’re not in the hospital industry? But fast forward to now and our pandemic plan is working, we’re in business and we’re rolling along.”
