Molinare Tames Workflow Complexity with Ngenea® Software From pixitmedia, a Kalray Company

By minimizing complexity, Molinare deploys Ngenea to gain efficiency and remove barriers to expansion; effective storage frees teams to innovate, boost creativity, and push the boundaries of post-production

pixitmedia, a subsidiary of Kalray (Euronext Growth Paris: ALKAL) specializing in storage and data management solutions for the media & entertainment industry, announced that it assisted legendary UK post-production firm Molinare in taming production workflow complexity by deploying Ngenea®, pixitmedia’s flagship data acceleration platform. With Ngenea as the centerpiece of its technology infrastructure, Molinare is unlocking new realms of creativity in long-form production.

pixitmedia will showcase Molinare’s deployment and its innovative data storage solution at IBC 2024 Amsterdam, September 13 – 16, in Hall 5.H79.

“pixitmedia has so massively improved how our systems work together, with added reliability and new powers to handle complex, high-resolution projects to extremely tight deadlines,” said Darren Woolfson, chief technology officer of Molinare. “Backed by the infrastructure that pixitmedia helped us build around its Ngenea software, we gained control over our workflows and can continue to exceed client expectations well into the future.”

Founded in 1973 and now the largest independent post-production house in the United Kingdom, Molinare specializes in long-form content and end-to-end finishing services for major clients like Netflix and the BBC, on award-winning titles such as Peaky Blinders, Sexy Beast and Beckham. The company built its reputation on creative excellence born out of delivering high-quality work, quickly. As business grew, Molinare’s 15 high-end digital grading and finishing suites for AutoDesk Flame and Filmlight BaseLight work became even busier with high-framerate 4K projects. The workflow required passing content from one station to the next, leading to a proliferation of copies, and major strain on the infrastructure. With instances of operator frustration on the rise, Molinare saw an opportunity for a change.

Together pixitmedia and Molinare designed and delivered a unified central storage solution built around pixitmedia’s Ngenea intelligent tiering system for optimized media placement.

"Fast storage can provide the level of raw performance for video to play back, but we needed even more - including a storage solution that could deliver all levels of performance required to underpin our entire operation," Woolfson continued. "With Ngenea, our team now can routinely handle complex, high-resolution projects without bottlenecks or delays. We know we can meet even the tightest of deadlines, and continue to exceed client expectations, " Woolfson said.

Molinare’s enhanced infrastructure uses Ngenea to consolidate storage islands, creating a cohesive ecosystem via an intelligent tiering system where media was readily available. A leading data acceleration platform for M&E professionals, Ngenea enables customers to accelerate the processing of their data and to streamline complex workflows. Ngenea's single namespace provided transparency and file access across storage tiers and remote locations, enhancing flexibility for global expansion. In addition to Ngenea, Molinare’s unified central storage solution includes Nvidia Mellanox backend networking for seamless data flow ; Seagate NL-SAS storage for additional capacity ; and lightning-fast NVMe storage for Molinare’s Flame stations and high-speed online work. This approach gave Molinare transparent file access across storage tiers and remote locations, reducing scheduling conflicts and enhancing workflow efficiency. As a result, Molinare improved its infrastructure reliability, eliminated bottlenecks, and gaining control of their complex and data intensive workflows, setting the stage for future growth and innovation.

As Molinare team members moved more projects to the new system, longstanding scheduling conflicts disappeared. With technical hurdles cleared, Molinare found new time to innovate and push creative boundaries. The company launched Molinare Creative Group, a collective of 5 specialized brands, and is expanding into new markets with facilities planned in Malta and Liverpool. They're also exploring short-form digital content to reach wider audiences.

“Technology sets the stage for business success, and we are delighted that our sister company pixitmedia, leveraging our Ngenea data acceleration platform, has been able to help Molinare take its business to the next level,” said Eric Baissus, CEO of Kalray, parent to pixitmedia.

ABOUT KALRAY

Kalray is a technology innovator specializing in software and hardware solutions to accelerate data-intensive workflows in Media & Entertainment, High-Performance Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. Our comprehensive product range features Ngenea, a leading data acceleration platform, and accelerated data processing cards for storage and compute.

With Kalray solutions, customers can scale their infrastructures to efficiently meet performance and capacity needs for data-intensive tasks, all without being tied to specific data formats or vendors.

Founded in 2008 as a spin-off from the French CEA research lab, Kalray has corporate and financial backing from notable investors such as Alliance Venture (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi), NXP Semiconductors, and Bpifrance. Committed to innovation and excellence, we strive to deliver value to our customers, developers, and the planet through technology and expertise.

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