Pixl Family Founder and Executive Producer, John Lundberg has a lot on his plate. With over 40 global brands and agencies trusting the company to promote them including, Samsung, Red Bull, Nike ACG, Oakley, Peak Performance, Grow, Great Works and more, Pixl Family has quickly become one of Europe’s leading creative production houses. So when it came time to update their production pipeline, they needed something that would live up to the highest level of quality, SNS EVO delivered.
Lundberg is an established producer/director who found early success producing extreme sports commercial and editorial productions specifically for the Scandinavian Skiing market. Lundberg saw a niche opportunity with local Swedish and European brands looking for high stakes production value but still wanting to work with a boutique agency. He teamed up with veteran marketing and advertising agent Mats Olofsson, and producer/director Henrik Rostrup and they formed Pixl Family. “We wanted to establish a creative production house that was able to take an active role in the entire process of designing a communicative solution as well carrying out all the technical aspects of a full production,” stated Lundberg.
The four-year old company has just fewer than 10 full time staff members. Focusing on smaller European brands, Pixl Family has been able to approach their client’s projects like small movie productions. They provide everything from creative concept through to all aspects of the technical production raising the bar on the level of service clients receive. “We found that in Sweden, companies spend their budgets primarily on trailers or commercials,” explained Lundberg.
“So with every client we find new and creative ways to, not just promote them, but tell their story visually.” The stories Pixl Family tells are some of the most visually rich productions produced today taking you on a journey from mountain peaks to underwater oases. Everything Pixl Family does is approached with the careful eye of visionaries who are able to understand the value of brand promotion as well as the realities of how to produce it. In order to create these small movies, Pixl Family depends entirely on a rock solid, reliable production workflow.
Over 70% of Pixl Family’s projects are digitally shot on a variety of digital cinema cameras including RED, ARRI, Canon, and Sony. The post production workflow is entirely Mac based comprised of a combination of iMacs, Macbook Pro laptops and Mac tower workstations. To keep costs down, Pixl Family looked to SNS to deliver a complete solution that would be robust enough to help them handle multiple file formats yet still allow them to use their existing studio equipment. “EVO was the perfect fit for us,” said Lundberg. “Because we are small, we need the flexibility to connect multiple workstations via Ethernet so we can all access the same project file. EVO gave us that ability to use all our existing technology instead of spending our clients’ budgets on new equipment.”
The EVO Shared Storage Server is a complete SAN and NAS solution
with the most extensive connectivity options available in a single production including, up to 8 Gb/s Fibre Channel and up to 10 Gb/s iSCSI/Ethernet and NAS. EVO’s ability to bridge technology gaps from the low end to the very high end enables project sharing on multiple workstations. “While one of our technicians is laying down graphics on an offline machine using Adobe After Effects,” explained Lundberg “Another can be color correcting on our online station with Blackmagic Design Da Vinci Resolve, and still another can be editing offline using Final Cut Pro–all sharing the same project file.”
Since revamping its pipeline, Pixl Family has seen an increase in productivity allowing them to take on more challenging projects including a top rated Swedish reality TV show co-produced by premiere Swedish production Company, Stockholm-Copenhagen and commercial projects for Samsung, Absolut Vodka and others. Pixl Family’s specialty, producing high-end graphics content often includes file formats in native HD. This presents another common issue for editors accessing the same footage on multiple workstations–lagging. EVO’s speed allows for a fast and reliable production workflow single handedly taking care of any concerns over lag issues giving them total peace of mind that their projects will be delivered fast, and at the highest production quality.
Lundberg concluded, “We’ve been very happy with the overall performance of EVO; we got it as a cost saving solution, and ended up with a total increase in performance and productivity.”
Visit http://www.pixlfamily.com to learn more about Pixl Family’s services and view projects.
About EVO
EVO is a complete, shared storage solution for video and audio workgroups. EVO has extensive connectivity options including up 8 Gb/s Fibre Channel and up to 10 Gb/s iSCSI/Ethernet and NAS. Serving as a SAN, NAS, or both at the same time and compatible with leading applications such as Final Cut Pro/FCP X, Avid, Smoke, Scratch, Adobe Premiere Pro and Pro Tools.
About SNS
Studio Network Solutions (SNS) specializes in the development of shared storage hardware and software solutions for the Media and Entertainment industry. Since day one we’ve applied unmatched ingenuity and experience to create outstanding products that exceed industry expectations while providing outstanding support to our customers.
Our customers range in size from individual freelance engineers to multinational media powerhouses. Our solutions are used to produce everything from books on tape to full track scoring for major Hollywood films. Our products have been at the technical core of the music you listen to, the games you play, the shows you watch and the movies you see.
We have a valued network of resellers located throughout the United States… and the world. Whether you have a product question or you’re ready to place an order, we encourage you to contact us today.