>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas, it's The Cube! Covering Dell EMC World 2017, brought to you by Dell EMC. >> Welcome back to Dell EMC World. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, Paul Gillin. We are joined by Tim Bicio. He is the CTO of Lightstorm, James Cameron's film production company. Tim, thanks so much for joining us. >> Tim: Thanks for having me. >> I think it would be great if you could just set the scene for our viewers a little bit and just explain what you do at Lightstorm, how Lightstorm works. >> Sure, so as I said, Lightstorm is James Cameron's film production company. We're presently preparing to go into production on the Avatar sequels. The Avatar film franchise is probably one of the most technically advanced and complicated film productions ever made. The prep time and technology involved in producing these films is incredible. >> So talk about what that means in terms of data. >> In terms of data, we have seen in the last 10 years, maybe 15 years, in the film industry, a transformation from 100% film or 90% film to 100% data. At the same time, our requirements around the actual film frame have gone up. Resolution's gone up, so think 2k 10 years ago and now we're looking at up to 8k in resolutions. Think about 2-D vs. 3-D, so you've got two streams of data instead of one stream of data. And then frame rate, so Mr. Cameron's been pushing for higher and higher frame rates, more realistic film experience with higher frame rate. So, you're looking at going from 24 to 48 or 60 frames a second. So, in terms of amount of storage, feeds and speeds, network bandwidth, everything has just blown up. >> So, can you describe your current environment? What kind of servers, what kind of storage configuration you have? >> So, we just went through a complete refresh of our data center ahead of the sequels, cause we're going into production as we speak. And we are now riding on Dell R730s for our virtual infrastructure, Vmware with vSAN and Brocade Switches and Isilon storage, both for our production clusters and our near-line clusters. >> Talk about the challenges that you deal with, in terms of what you're looking for. >> Oh, the challenges. Every day is a new challenge. We have to be careful about budget. We have to be careful about expend. As I said before, we've been preparing for about five years. Five years ago, our projections around data storage were different than our projections today. So, we have to be nimble with cash flow and and with how we purchase. Isilon's a perfect example. I could underestimate the amount of storage I needed five years ago, but because I can go Isilon in place, buying additional nodes helps me to solve that problem. >> How conscious do you have to be of storage capacity? Do you save basically everything or do you have certain rules, principals that govern what you save? >> Very conscious. We save everything. Nothing is lost. In fact, we have all of the content from the first Avatar is online on Isilon now. So, if our director asks us for a take from eight years ago, I have it, it's available to me. In fact, the artist can go and get it off Isilon directly. >> What does that do to your budget? You don't have an unlimited budget. How do you plan for something like that? >> Again, I think it's planning. One of the things that helps us is that the requirements for storage 10 years ago were much smaller. So it's actually fairly small amount of our current storage budget. Our future needs are much bigger than our past needs. >> One of the sub-themes of this conference is really about how digital transformation is changing the workforce. Can you talk a little bit about how it affects your team and the kinds of things you had to do as a leader to manage the team with these challenges? >> The interesting thing is our business, the film industry, the technology line item is relatively new to film-making. (audio drops out) across the board (audio drops out) resolution and frame rate, but we're working with a global partner in New Zealand. So, moving data to our partners in New Zealand seemlessly without days and days of wait time is critical. We're using VPLEX as part of that solution to move data to them. Communication is key. Video conferencing, voice, all these things are essential to bring two companies together that are 6000 miles apart. >> How much of your time is spent just keeping up? I mean, all of these innovations that are flowing out right now, how do you keep up with all this stuff? >> We just do. (laughs) And quite a bit of my time is... Every conference I come to this year, I'm looking at all sorts of new technology that I wish I had six months ago. But, as I said before, one of the reasons, going back to Isilon for instance, Isilon allows us to do rolling upgrades. So, while we're in production, I don't have an opportunity to do a shutdown or to move to a different platform. I could buy the new platform, put it in place, migrate my data and smart-fail my old, nodes out. So that's one of the things we look at when we look at technology. >> So for the rest of us who are not in the movie business, can you talk a little bit about what the future holds for us as movie-goers and what kinds of innovations that we'll be seeing on the silver screen a year from now, five years from now? Wow us. >> I can guess, but the reality is, and I've said this once before, technology and film have a certain romance and as technology-- >> Rebecca: You're not going to give it away? >> No, and as technology goes forward, film goes forward. Technology allows us to do new things. Avatar wasn't possible, I'm trying to remember it, 20 years ago, because we couldn't create that synthetic world for you and have you believe it. As technology came online to make the film, only then was it possible to make that film. So I think that you'll find that technology allows us to explore creative imagination deeper and deeper and deeper. >> What do you think is going to be the next leap in capability for film-makers inspired by technology? >> I don't know. (laughs) >> Just trying to keep up with today, aren't you? >> Yeah. >> Well, let me ask it in a different way. Is there a technology that's on the horizon right now that you look at that really excites you? >> Rather not discuss it. >> Do people in your position compete with each other over the infrastructure that you have and over the effects that you can create? >> Say that again. >> Do the movie companies compete with each other over the effects that they can create? >> Well, I wouldn't say compete. I think each film has its own vision and each film has to, >> I don't think we're competing with another studio or another production. Most of the time with the original films, they are creative enough and different enough where they stand their own ground. I think you've seen in the 80s, maybe a lot of the blockbusters sort of were a lot similar and that doesn't get you anything. It just splits your market share. Mr. Cameron's been, all of his films are hits. He's very creative and that's something you can't compete with. It just is, you have it or you don't. But again, the technology is the piece that allows us to hopefully help him to realize that. >> And talk a little bit about that founder mindset. Because we're here, at Dell EMC World. This is Michael Dell's brainchild. It started in his dorm room. And now here we all are, talking about the next wave of digital transformation. How much is it James Cameron and his vision? I guess I'm wondering how much other people can play into it and have an impact? >> Look, I think it's, again, Im just a technologist. I think it's 100% his vision. I think each one of us play a part in helping to realize that as close as possible. Jim and John expect 110% or 120% of us, period. Because they expect more than that of themselves. So, we all play a part in their world, but it's Jim's world. >> The IT world, particularly at the high end where you're working is incredibly competitive. You're down in L.A., you're competing with all of these other studios. How do you find the people, the skills that you need? >> You know, that's a good point. That is one piece that's tough because we are competing for skill-sets. Fortunately, our studio's run as a family and so we're able to pull people back from the last show. And then they hand-pick new folks and people that they know as well, so it works out. It is competitive, but as I said, we go back to bringing family back home. >> Tim Bicio, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. >> Thanks for having me. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, for Paul Gillin. We'll have more from Dell EMC world after this.