ACADEMIA

Maximum Throughput, developers of ultra high performance software-based solutions for networked storage infrastructure and media management, announced that USL-WOA in India, the post-production and visual effects division of UTV – one of the leading integrated media and entertainment companies in Asia – has purchased a Sledgehammer system to tightly integrate their film scanning and digital color grading processes at their Mumbai facility. Commenting on the purchase was Indranil Ghosh, USL’s Vice President of Post-Production. “UTV is involved in a lot of high-end visual effects and post-production work, however what differentiates us from our competitors is our focus on efficiency, and the underlying fabric of our facility. The Max-T Sledgehammer is core to these efficiencies, especially with regards to its interaction with our Lustre DI color grading system from Autodesk. We were the first in India to implement such a combined solution, and it has helped us to capture tremendous market share purely by virtue of allowing us to cut our time to project completion by 30-40%.” The Sledgehammer system was installed at USL-UTV by Autodesk Media and Entertainment as part of a complete facility solution, and Pankaj Kedia, the Regional Manager for South East Asia and India, added the following observation. “Sledgehammer is the perfect storage and infrastructure upgrade for any facility, and an excellent compliment to all our other products. It supports network clients running any operating system, delivers amazing performance, and is very simple to install and maintain.” “UTV are very well known in India and further a field for both the quality of their work and their adoption of leading edge production solutions to streamline their processes. We are delighted that they became the first in India to purchase a Sledgehammer at the end of 2005, and that they are now reaping such significant financial benefits from their investment. We eagerly look forward to supporting USL’s evolving infrastructure requirements over the coming years,” commented Peter Steel, Maximum Throughput’s Sales Manager for the Asia Pacific region.