Universal Filmed Entertainment Group has its head in the cloud – and now it’s going to push its production teams there.
The company has embarked on a major multi-year strategy to move its studio’s film and TV production from its own servers to the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. The goal is to make ads more easily and efficiently collaborate across geographic regions and with outside vendors, said Michael Wise, CTO of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.
“It will unlock a new way of making movies in a way we could not before,” Wise said.
Universal is working with a Microsoft Azure team to expand DreamWorks Animation’s proprietary animation production platform to live action content, which will eventually be housed in the cloud. With those workflows running on Microsoft Azure, according to Wise, Universal’s ecosystem of partners can connect with them in open, standards-based ways.
The COVID-19 crisis has been an “impetus” for Universal’s Cloud Migration, even though the company has been in the planning stages for the move since late 2019, Wise said. He pointed out that it is a near-term solution to accelerate a return to industrial production during the global pandemic by having remote production teams work with a wide range of industry partners.
“COVID is certainly an accelerator … but we knew this was the way we had to go in the long run,” Wise said.
The first order of business is to take DWA’s existing production platform and expand it into Azure, which will take about a year. Wise noted that animation projects currently in production will not be moved to the cloud: “Our production cycle takes a few years, and it does not make much sense to move in the middle stream.”
Together, Universal and Microsoft will launch layers of live action production capabilities in the cloud with visual effects. Wise sees a big profit with VFX, which could involve dozens of third-party partners on a big movie. “This saves an extraordinary amount of time,” he suggested.
NBCUniversal’s Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, chaired by Donna Langley, includes Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and DreamWorks Animation.
One major reason Universal Filmed Entertainment took over Microsoft Azure is the call from the industry partners it has drafted. In the three years since the Azure Group began concentrating on the media and entertainment sector, it has included Avid Technology, Adobe Systems, Technicolor, Bebop Technology, StratusCore and Teradici.
By moving production process to Microsoft Azure, Wise said, Universal can benefit from the cloud platform’s global ‘hyperscale’ storage and computing platform, allowing studio teams to apply additional storage and processing power based on emergencies.
“You use calculation – and pay for it – only when you need it,” said Hanno Basse, CTO of Microsoft Azure. Basse was once chief technology officer of 20th Century Fox Film (prior to his acquisition of Disney) and joined Microsoft last March.
According to Wise, Universal, in partnership with Microsoft, will develop and shift standards for cloud-based manufacturing in two main areas: application program interfaces (APIs) for third-party tools to access databases in a common way; and an industry-standard ontology for asset management systems.
“We will use this as a focal point to reach the sector behind standards and interoperability,” Wise said.
The promise of cloud computing is that it will increase operational efficiency, and by extension free up creative professionals to be even more innovative in their craft, Basse said. “Together with customers like Universal and DreamWorks, we prioritize cloud and edge technologies to transform workflows, increase production output, and reduce friction for advertising,” he said.
