International creative design and VFX studio Pixomondo has evolved at the pace of the entertainment industry, bolstering its technology infrastructure and diversifying capabilities along the way. Founded in 2001 by CEO Thilo Kuther, the company spans six offices on three continents and offers a range of services starting from award-winning VFX for film, TV and commercials to interactive digital content, VR, live events, theme park entertainment and original IP. By sharing render resources across facilities, Pixomondo maximizes efficiencies; its globally dispersed farm runs 24/7 thanks to a proprietary process built on top of Thinkbox Softwares Deadline, on which the company standardized in 2010.
Part of what influenced us to integrate Deadline so deeply is its open architecture and usage of the Python programming language. With the source code for application integration available, we can constantly tweak the software to our own specifications; it's very extensible. Also, the Thinkbox crew has always been willing to grow with us and is quick to respond to our needs, shared Patrick Wolf, Pixomondo's Global Head of Pipeline.
Deadline high-volume compute management software is used to render, manage and process files locally and across the cloud. Pixomondo primarily leverages Deadline for remote rendering between branches. Wolf and his team customized Deadline's job submitters to allow users to select the branch(es) to render in; they also extended the Deadline GUI to allow render wranglers to split local jobs to render on one or more remote farms simultaneously, a feature that has been extremely helpful on tight deadlines.
When a remote job is sent to the farm, event scripts in Deadline automatically determine the job dependencies. Necessary file transfers are queued and then a replica job is created on the remote farm recreating the settings of the user that submitted the job locally as well as remapping job priorities, pools and group configurations. As soon as a frame is rendered remotely a Deadline after render event informs Pixomondo's Celery-based global queuing system. Celery then triggers the transfer of the rendered frame and also marks the task complete on the local side so that the remote render is transparent and seamless to the artists. After the remote render is complete and all frames were verifiably transferred back, a cleanup job removes the frames on the remote side to save storage space. Celery is then used to mark the job as completed locally, which allows dependent follow up jobs to run like a proxy image generator. Pixomondo's production management system, Autodesk's Shotgun Software, is also notified when the render finishes. Currently, the studio solely uses physical computing resources but Wolf is already investigating the integration of cloud rendering to the workflow.
One of the cool things about our remote rendering setup is that every step is a separate dependent Deadline job with automatic retry and failover. Since every job has log files attached, you can easily see and troubleshoot if a connection drops or there is some other issue. It's very easy to monitor how a job is performing, whether it's local or remote, Wolf explained.
Deadline jobs' associated log files provide a wealth of statistics that help Pixomondo optimize its render farm performance. For Furious 7 and Game of Thrones Season Five, supervisors concerned with RAM usage leveraged metrics from Deadline job log files to guide how they utilized various machines. Another appreciated Deadline feature is bracketing: for example, rather than waiting days for frames 1-100 to render, Pixomondo requests Deadline to render frames 1,100,50,25,75 first, then every 5th frame and only then the rest. This allows artists to quickly determine render issues before wasting resources on executing a complete pass.
In addition to remote rendering, Pixomondo taps Deadline for file transfer and its asset library. With file transfer, coordinators can select a playlist with hundreds of associated versions in Shotgun and queue them for transfer to another branch in Deadline. Deadline then automatically retries failed transfers, provides detailed logs and notifies users on completion. For asset archival, once a show finishes, Pixomondo selects the assets to archive in Shotgun and then a script generates Deadline jobs that asynchronously perform the actual archiving on the farm, allowing for hundreds of assets to be archived simultaneously, without blocking the computer. The archived assets are then automatically entered into an Asset Library project in Shotgun. The restore is again triggered from Shotgun and kicks of a custom Deadline asset restore jobs. In case an asset isn't yet available locally, a transfer job takes care of pulling it from a remote branch. On completion of the restore Deadline automatically notifies the user via email.
Deadline is incredibly fast. With its new database repository, I can connect to a remote branch easily from my desk and watch the jobs output as it occurs; I don't have to wait until a job is finished. To maintain consistency, weve committed all our repositories to a version control system so that we can change any of the plugins in one location and it will apply the changes across the other branches, said Wolf.
Further simplifying workflow customization, Deadline's event framework allows Wolf to hook into any stage of a job on Pixomondo's farm and tailor its execution. This allows for useful functions like the ability to customize jobs directly after submission in one central place, rather than being required to implement these code changes in every plug-in. Regarding applications, Wolf rarely encounters one not already supported by Deadline. Additionally, Deadline's pools groups and limits groups, make resource shar
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
International creative design and VFX studio Pixomondo has evolved at the pace of the entertainment industry, bolstering its technology infrastructure and diversifying capabilities along the way. Founded in 2001 by CEO Thilo Kuther, the company spans six offices on three continents and offers a range of services starting from award-winning VFX for film, TV and commercials to interactive digital content, VR, live events, theme park entertainment and original IP. By sharing render resources across facilities, Pixomondo maximizes efficiencies; its globally dispersed farm runs 24/7 thanks to a proprietary process built on top of Thinkbox Softwares Deadline, on which the company standardized in 2010.
