(click) >> Well welcome to the special Cube conversation. I'm John Furrier with The Cube. We're here at Sundance Film Festival, Sundance, 2018, special coverage. All the top stories are obviously in the Intel Tech Lounge. All week's been our home base. We've been out on the streets getting the best stories, but one of the most biggest, compelling tech stories is the VR revolution is here. And the impact artist, the new creative. My next guest here is Michael Smit, who is the Chief Commercial Officer of Ziva. Welcome, to The Cube conversation. >> Thanks John, thanks, it's a pleasure to be here. >> You guys have a very impressive company. You're here at the Intel Tech Lounge. You're displaying Ziva. I saw a demo over there. You guys are bringing, I mean, really studio grade quality of animation, and integrated into storytelling. And this is not new for you. But one of the themes of democratization. So, you guys are a key tell sign in my opinion of where the developer, the creative developer market's going. Talk about what you guys are doing. And some of the big things you've done. I know you had some big films. Share a little bit about Ziva, and then we can have a conversation. >> Sure, sure. You know, we like to say, I mean, truly we believe in characters. And at the heart of our technology is character simulation technology. So, here at Sundance, you know, and Intel, we've been working with Intel for a while. They gave us an opportunity to be here. You know, when you think about stories. Stories kind of are driven by characters. And great characters make great stories. So, in our world, great characters are characters that are simulated through physics, and anatomical simulation to achieve levels of plausibility and reality. That previously maybe was only accessible to the very top, you know, budgeted productions. Or the very top VFX studios of the world. >> And what have you worked on? Just share some of the films that you've worked on. And some of the tech. >> Yeah, I'll give a background of the, where I guess the previous kind of, legacy of the technology comes from. But it's actually my partners, who are here with me, have a story record. They actually co-authored the software. You know, 10 years ago or so, that drove characters in titles like, Avatar, and Apes, and the Hobbit. James and Simon, I think they're on a, floating around back there. They've also got a Sci-Tek at home for the engineering work. And the vision here is that, you know, they did that work, and they were really motivated and enthused to do amazing work, amazing results, provide amazing results. They want to enable that same, and provide that same kind of functionality to small studios, big studios, game studios, independents, anyone who wants to tell a great story. >> And there's a huge tsunami. We've been talking at The Cube for the folks watching. Know that, I've been on this narrative around a renaissance in software development. Now we're seeing a renaissance in creative development. And we call that the new creative. Because an organic trend is brewing pretty fast. And used to be, not just Indie filmmakers, we're talking about kids, adults, creatives who are doing filmmaking things, in like virtual reality. And some of the successes that we're seeing, like Baobab Studios is one. They're having the hits around the characters. So, there's a thirst and a demand for technology for characters, but it's hard to build. This is an opportunity for you guys. What's your view on, on that trend? Are you guys going to be a supplier? Can I just use your technology to get characters? And where does this fit into the evolution of say, VR? >> Sure, I mean I touch on that concept of the new creative, because those who want to build and create amazing characters, to tell rich stories, tell immersive experiences. They don't want be, you know, like anything else in our life these days, like anything else that Intel is powering in our life these days. Automation of the simpler tasks should be a given. You don't want creatives to get hung up on, you know, trying to make your cheek look exactly the way it needs to look over 500 frames. When you want them to be making, bringing the story to life. So, our software basically automates a lot of the nuance of organic characters and properties. And the things that make us realistic. And I think it empowers and enables those creatives to tell the stories. >> And how can they tap into Ziva? Because I believe that you guys are on the cusp of something really big. A big trend that no-one's really talking about. And we come at it from a tech angle. So, we can see historically what happened with open source software. I mean 10% of the notional property in most big breakthroughs is the unique IP. 90% of it is reused software. >> Yeah. >> So, you can almost see these dots connecting in this new creative world. You guys seem to be at the forefront of that. Is that part of how people can engage with you? Is that a role you guys see yourselves playing? And, you know, how does someone get a hold of your technology? Do they buy it? Do you license it? How does it work? >> Great question, I mean yeah, we focus on software to make characters. And that's what our customers license from us. We license to studios, we license to Indies. We license to academics. We license to people who want to try it out for free. So, if there's a plug opportunity the url for the website is zivadynamics.com you'll learn a lot more about the company, about some of the work-- >> How expensive is it? I mean, just give a, can you talk about the number? Is it expensive, is it affordable? How does someone who's experimenting, might have their art and their storytelling vision coming to life, and might not have a big budget. >> Yeah so, the Indie licenses basically work out to about 50 bucks a month, per user to leverage the software. Which when you think about previous, maybe less robust implementations of this kind of thinking. We're limited, and we're at the tail end of multi-million dollar investments by huge studios. So, we think that's a pretty good value equation. >> Where are you guys located? Talk about your company, and culture. And what drives you guys. >> Yeah, we're located in Vancouver. You know, we're in one of the epicenters of a lot of creative work, and a lot of filmmaking. In fact, I mean, within a short radius of our studio, the number of game, and visual effects studios, it's amazing. So, you know, but our team's international, in fact, one of our team members is kind of mostly based in Wellington. Another one is actually working in Norway these days. We've got somebody in Los Angeles. So, we're kind of all over the place. And our customer footprint, we've got users in every continent, but Antarctica. >> I wish you could have come on the panel. But we were kind of sold out, we've got a small footprint here at the Intel Tech Lounge in Sundance. And the real theme is, new creative. So, I've got to ask you, in your view what is the new creative mean to you? >> The new creative is somebody who's curious, and they're not scared. They're not concerned with necessarily what it is that they're going to be making, or the media format they're going to be making. They're curious about what story they're going to be telling. And they're going to pursue anything. And they're not going to be shackled by artificial constraints. They're not going to be shackled by budgets that stop them. That make them take creative ideas off the table. They're going to pursue what they can do themselves. They're going to leverage technology in unique ways. And we're going to see some pretty amazing stuff happening. >> Yeah, and it's always, give them more time to work on their art, not worry about the scaffolding in the software to do it. >> That's exactly it. >> What's your take on Sundance this year? Obviously the theme, obviously VR here in the studio. But AI has been the Intel theme as well. We see AI as a critical part of automation. The role of automation in software to assist and augment, and give more opportunities for developers. >> Yeah, yeah I think it, again, it's people that have developed expertise. And we shouldn't look at AI and automation as something to be concerned about. We need to look at it as a tool. And it's to say well, how do I do the last mile? How do I the last 10% of what I do really good, and have all the other stuff kind of taken care of for me. >> Michael what's the hallway conversation, as you know, there's no hallway here in Sundance, it's more of this sidewalk. When you're out at dinner, when you're done here at Intel. When you're out on the streets with your peers, and colleagues, and meeting new people. What's the conversation like this year at Sundance 2018? >> The conversation at Sundance, I mean, it's a conversation that to me, just goes beyond where Sundance has been before. In that, and I think we heard it in some of the panels. But some of the emerging technology used to be like, the additive thing, like now let's go see what's next. Now it's just a part of the big story. And certainly the filmmaking has legacy. Has more experience. Has a lot of amazing stuff. There's so many amazing filmmakers. And amazing content coming out of this place this year. But it's just the variety, the diversity of everything that's happening is just blowing me away. >> Michael Smit with zivadynamics.com check out the website. I think this is a trend that you guys are on. I think the sooner we get to ease of use of the creative developer. Whether it's a filmmaker, VR, and, or, content and digital. They need characters. I want my avatars (laughs) >> That's right. >> Thanks for spending the time, appreciate it. >> Thanks John. >> I'm John Furrier here for The Cube conversation, Sundance Film Festival 2018. We are covering it on the streets. And also here, ground zero for us is the Intel Tech Lounge. It's been buzzing all week with immersive media, not just VR, really showing creative developers a new way to reimagine storytelling. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> Announcer: Live from Midtown Manhattan it's theCUBE. Covering Big Data New York City 2017 brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media and its ecosystem sponsors. >> Hey, welcome back everyone live here in New York City it's theCUBE's special presentation Big Data NYC. This is our fifth year doing our own event here in New York City, our eighth year covering the Hadoop World ecosystem from the beginning. Through eight years, it's had a lot evolutions, Hadoop World, Strata Conference, Strata Hadoop, now it's called Strata Data happening right around the corner. We run our own event here, talk about thought leaders and the expert CEO's, entrepreneurs. Getting the data for you, sharing that with you. I'm John Furrier co-host theCUBE with my co-host here Jim Kobielus who's the Lead Analyst at Wikibon Big Data. And Chuck Yarbough who's the Vice President at Pentaho Solutions part of Hitachi's new Vantara. A new company created just announced last week. Hitachi in a variety of their portfolio technologies into a new company, out to bring in a lot of those integrated solutions. Chuck great to see you again, theCUBE alumni. We chatted multiple times at Pentaho World, going back 2015. >> Always he always great to be at theCUBE. >> What a couple of years it's been. Give us quickly hard news, it's pretty awesome you guys have a variety of things at Pentaho you know with Hitachi, that happened, now the market's evolved, what's this new entity, this new company they're bringing together? >> Yes, so the big news Hitachi Vantara. So what that is, two years ago Hitachi Data Systems acquired Pentaho and so fast forward two years. A new company gets created from Hitachi Data Systems. Pentaho, in a third organization at Hitachi called the Insight Group so Hitachi Insight Group. Those three groups come together to form Hitachi Vantara >> What's the motivation behind that. I mean, I go connect the dots but I want to hear your perspective because it really is about pulling things together. The trend this year the show is as Jim calls it, hybrid data, integrated data. Things seem to be coming together, is that part the purpose? What's the reason behind pulling this together? >> Yeah, I think there's a lot of reasons. One of them is what we're seeing not just in our own business, but in our customers business, and that is digital transformation. Right, this this need to evolve So Hitachi Vantara is all about data and analytics. And a big focus of what we do is what Pentaho's been doing for years which is driving in all kinds of data, big data, all data. I think we're getting on the cusp of closing out the big data term, but you know, it's all data right. >> Data everywhere, every application. >> And applying analytics across the board. One of the big initiatives, part of why Pentaho was originally acquired we were actually Hitachi Data Systems was a customer of Pentaho when we got acquired, so we we knew each other pretty well. And part of the reason for that acquisition was to drive analytics in around internet of things. The IoT space, which is something that Hitachi being a very large IT and operational technology, OT, company probably does as well as anybody if not better. >> So going back couple of years, I'm just looking at my notes here from our our video index. You visited theCUBE in 2015, but really the concepts have evolved significantly. I want to just highlight a few of them. What data warehouse optimizations, we talk about that. Data refinery concepts, 360 view as applied to big data. Again that was foundational concepts that all are in play right now. >> Absolutely. >> What is the update in those areas? Because refinery, everyone talks about data refinery, you know, oil, the easy oil example but I mean, come on, data is everywhere it is most important, you can use it multiple times unlike oil, as you were pointing out. >> So interesting you bring that up. So to me data refinery in a digital transformation really in an IoT world where lots of data is is streaming through in fact, yesterday I read something by IDC that 95% of all data in the future and the data growth is dramatic it's 10x what it is today in just a few years. 95% of the that growth of data's IoT related. The question is how are you using most of that, right, and what what are you going to do with it. So that data's is streaming through, there's a lot happening, we can do things at the edge, we can apply analytics and filtering and do things. But ultimately that data is going to land somewhere and that's where that refinery, think of it as the big data center refinery, right, where I'm going to take that large amount of data and do the things that Jim does, you know and apply machine learning and deep algorithms too really. >> I had some thoughts on the IoT Jim and I were arguing, not arguing, discussing, with others in theCube about the role. >> We were bickering. >> The role of the edge because I was saying the refiner of the data can come back depending on what kind of data or you push compute to the edge, kind of known concepts, people been discussing that. But the issue is been, how do you view the edge? I'd love to get your reaction to that question because a lot of people are saying you have to think of IoT as a completely different category, than just cloud, than just data center, because the way some people are looking at IoT I know this can be semantics whether it's industrial or just straight internet of things device, or person, that is a different animal when it comes to like what you call it and how it gets put into a bucket. I mean most people put a lot of the IT bucket but. Some are saying IT edge should be completely different category of how you look at those problems. Your thoughts on how that IoT conversation shape. >> The question I always ask when I'm talking to somebody about the edge is, well what do you mean? Because it is something that can be defined a little bit differently but in an industrial IoT context I think, you know we look at it as one, you you have to know what those things are you have to really understand them. And part of understanding those things is having a digital representation of what those things are. >> A digital twin? >> A digital twin. Right, or asset avatar, as we call it at Hitachi. >> Oh I like that. >> So this idea of really managing those assets, understanding what they are and then being able to know what the current state, what the previous state, things are like that are. And then that refinery we just talked about is sort of where that information goes to so you can do other kinds of analytics right. But when you're talking about the edge, typically what we're seeing is the kinds of analytics might happen at the edge, are probably more around filtering you know, it's not quite as complex of analytics that's what we're seeing today. Now, the future I don't know. >> Sort of tiered analytics from the edge on in with more minimal, I mean, not minimal that's the wrong term, with a more narrowly scoped inference. Like predictions and so forth being handled at the edge with larger more complex models being like deep learning whatever being processed in the cloud is that it? >> Yeah that's exactly the way that I see it. Now the other thing about the edge, depends on who you're talking to, again, but what is an edge device or the the gateways or the compute right, so part of IoT is in my mind, it's not cloud, it's not on-prem or it's not, I mean it's a little bit of everything right, it depends on the use case and what you're operating. We have a customer who does trains as a service in England, in Europe, and so they don't sell the trains anymore they actually manufacture trains, and they sell the service of getting a passenger from here to there. But for them, edge is everything that happens on those trains. And tracking, as a digital representation, the train and then being able to drill down deeper and deeper, and you, know one of the things that I understand is one of the major delays for train service is doors opening and closing or being delayed, so maybe that comes down to a small part and the vibration of it and tracking that. So you've got to be able to track that appropriately. Now, on a train you might have a lot of extra space so you could put compute devices that have a lot of power. >> What's interesting you said the edge, in this context, is everything that happens on that train. In other words, it sounds like all the real world outcomes that are enabled, perhaps optimized, by embedding of the analytics in those physical devices or in that entire vehicle that is essentially. One way that you're describing the edge which is not a single device but as a complete assembly of devices that play together. Amongst themselves and in with the services in the cloud. Is that a logical sort of framework? >> That's why I said I usually ask what do we mean by edge. If you've got millions, thousands, whatever, devices out there feeding sensors whatever feeding this data, collecting, processing you know there's some some level of edge computing gateways, processes that are going to happen. >> Well, my question for ya, I'd like to get your thoughts, as we, again we're having a, we love the hyperbio we think its completely legit and it's going to be continued to be hyped because it's obvious what you see with IoT standing on the edge. But lot of customers we talked to are like, look I got a lot going on I got application development I got to break out my security got to build that up. I've got data governance issues, and now you throw in IoT over the top. They're like, I'm choking in projects. So they they come down to one of a selection criteria. How do they define a working IoT project? And the trend that we're seeing is that it has to do with their industrial equipment or something related to their business. Call it industrial IoT, because if they have something in their business, say trains, as a critical part of what they do, that's easy to say let's justify this. Everything else then tends to go on the back burner, if they don't have clear visibility of what their instrumenting. That's kind of weird do you agree with that? Do you see a pattern as well as what customers are doing by saying I'm going to bring this project in and were going to connect our IoT. >> That's exactly what I see. Industrial internet of things is where I see the biggest value today when you have trains or mining equipment or you know whatever. >> John: Whatever your business runs. >> Your manufacturing line right. and being able to a fine tune those lines to either predicts failures, maybe improve quality. Those are those are impactful and they can be done right now today and that's what we're seeing is kind of the big emerging thing. IoT's interesting to talk about, the reality is it's really digital transformation that we're seeing. Companies transforming into new business models, doing things significantly different to grow into the future. And IoT is an enabler of that. So you're not going to see IoT everywhere today. >> The low hanging fruit is where it gets to the real business. >> Yeah, but it's going to go across all verticals, right, no doubt. >> So what solutions does Pentaho have for digital twins, or managing digital twins, the objects, the data itself, within and IoT context, is this something you're engaged in already? >> So within the Hitachi Vantara, the larger company. Bigger company, we have, we have what we call our Lumada IoT Platform and in that there is this asset avatar technology that that does exactly what you're describing. Now I'm going to throw quick plug out if you don't mind. Pentaho World in a couple, in about a month. >> John: theCUBE will be there. >> theCUBE will be there, and we're excited to have theCUBE and we're going to we're going to give you complete information about asset avatar with all the right people. >> There's a movie in there somewhere I could feel it, Avatar two. There's a lot of great representations of data I want to get your thoughts on how the new firm's going to solve customer problems. Because now as the customer see this new entity from you guys, Vantara's been doing real well, we covered the acquisition and you were kind of left alone Pentaho was integrating in, but it wasn't like a radical shift. Now there's some movement, what does it mean to the customer, what's the story to the customer. >> You know I think it's great news for the customer because Pentaho's always been very customer focused. But when you look at Hitachi Vantara the wealth of technology and expertise. Everything from all of the the great IT oriented stuff that Hitachi Data Systems has done and been well known for in the past still exists. But this broader focus of taking data and processing it in a variety of ways to solve real business problems. All the way to orchestrating machine learning in applying algorithms and then with the Hitachi. >> What specifically in Hitachi is coming into this? Because again this is again a focused solution company now with data, so Hitachi Data Centers, >> Yeah, so Hitachi Data Systems, think of it as the the infrastructure company. Hitachi Insight was the really focused largely on the IoT platform development, with some Pentaho assets and then the Pentaho business. But here's the thing about Hitachi, very large company, builds everything. Mining equipment and and all kinds of stuff. So nobody understands how all those things fit together better, I believe, than Hitachi. But some of the things that we have at that organization is this idea of the Hitachi labs. And data scientists that are really doing interesting things Jim you'd love to get more embedded into what some of those things are, and making that available to customers is a huge opportunity for customers to now be able to embrace a lot of the technologies we've been talking about. I said last year that this year was going to be the year of machine learning. And if you look through the expo hall that's what everybody's talking about. Right, it's AI or machine learning. >> I'm wondering if you're commercializing R&D that's coming straight out of Hitachi labs already or whether the Vantara combination will enable that. In other words, more innovation straight out of the labs, into into the commercial arena. >> That's something that we are absolutely trying to to, right because there's great things that these lab organizations and at Hitachi they're big labs. They're really legit, I kind of joke about that. The kinds of stuff that they're able to bring about now, Pentaho is part of the engine to help actually commercialize those things. >> Chuck I know you're looking forward to Pentaho World I'll give you the final word here in this segment how you see the big data worlds evolve. Take your Pentaho hat off and put your industry guru hat on. What's happening, I mean this AI watch, that's pretty obvious, not a lot of blockchain discussion which is going to completely open up some things we getting on the decentralized application market which is going to compliment the distributed nature of how we see a date analytics flow and certainly the immutability of it's interesting. But that's kind of down the road. But here you're starting to see the swim lanes in the industry, you've seen people who've been successful and the ones who have fallen by the wayside. But now the customers, they want real solutions. They don't want more hype, they don't want another eighth year of hype, they want OK let's get into the real meat and potatoes of data impact to my organization, call it digital transformation. What's happening, what is going on the landscape. >> So you know I mentioned before and to me it's digital transformation which is a big huge thing. But that's what companies are interested in that's what they're beginning to think. If they're not thinking about those things they're falling behind, five or six, seven years ago we talked about the same exact thing with big data. It's like a big data is really you know it's a big opportunity and they're like well I don't know those that didn't adopt it aren't necessarily in a position now to transform digitally and to do some of the things that they're going to need to evolve into new business opportunities. >> And the big data examples of winner is the ones who actually made it valuable. Whether it's insight that converted to a new customer or change an outcome in a positive way, they go that wouldn't have been possible without data. The proof points kind of hit the table. >> That's right the other thing is you know, who's going to win, who's going to lose. I think people that are implementing technology for technology's sake are going to lose. People that are focused on the outcomes are going to win. That's what it is, technology enables all that but you've really got to be focused on. I want to get your quick, one more quick thing, before we go I know we got we're tight on time but I want to get thoughts on the open ecosystem. Open source going to whole other level. The projections are code will be shipping at an exponential rate, it's be a lot of onboarding of new stuff, so open obviously works, community models work, partnering is critical. So we're seeing that good partnerships, not fake deals or optical deals or Barney deals, whatever you want to call it. But real partnerships. You starting to see technology partnerships. What's your view on that, how is the new Vantara going to go forward, are you going to continue to do partnerships and what's the strategy? >> Yeah I think the opportunity with one, Hitachi Vantara is we have a breadth that can touch many different aspects. So as Pentaho we had great partnerships, very meaningful but it always comes down to what we doing for the customer. How are we changing things for customer. So I'm not a believer in those Barney kind of relationships those are nice but let's talk about what we're doing for customers. >> Yeah, real proof points. >> You guys will continue to parner. >> Yes, we will continue to do that. >> Okay great, Chuck, thank you so much. CUBE coverage Live in New York City in Manhattan it's theCUBE with Big Data NYC, out fifth year doing our own event in conjunction with Strata Data. Now bless the new name of the show. It was Strata Hadoop, Hadoop World before that. But we're still theCUBE covering eight years of the action here back with more after this short break.

>> 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.

>> Narrator: Live, from Las Vegas. It's the Cube! Covering NAB 2017, brought to you by HGST. (electronic music) >> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCube. We're here at NAB 2017 in Las Vegas Convention Center, 100,000 people, place has got a buzz, last year was all about AR and VR, this year it's all about machine learning and AI, platforms and storage and cloud, kind of sounds familiar with most of the other events that we go to. So we're really excited to have industry veteran, Roger Sherwood, he is the global strategy media and entertainment lead at Cisco, welcome Roger. >> Thank you very much. >> So first off, you've been coming to this show for a little while, first impressions? >> This is my seventh year, we've been super relevant for the last two or three years, we used to be buried away in the hole, in a dirty corner. Yeah, what a fantastic show! I think it's bigger than ever. More exhibitors than ever. Which amazes me in this space, but it's pretty fascinating to see what's going on right now. >> Now, you guys are doing big things, you basically took over cisco.com. >> Yes, we have. We get to do that for two weeks a year. >> For two weeks, so tell us about what's going on with Cisco and media. >> Well, for the show itself, NAB has become one of our major events. We used to do INTX and SCT and very cable, you know, Telco, and all that shows. Strong recognition within the company that a lot is changing on the content side, the production side. And we've had these customers for many, many years, very much selling into the IT side of these places, and two years ago, we really took an approach of, we're really becoming quite relevant on the broadcast side. The technology has changed, the technology has moved frpm from very traditional SDI technology, to IP. And that's Cisco's wheelhouse. Virtualization, UCS, orchestration, security. For the first time, we're very, very relevant on the content acquisition, distribution, production side. So yeah, we get to take over the Cisco homepage, because for the next two weeks, a lot of people want to talk about media and entertainment. Brand new website, brand new customer testimonials and everything else. It's nice to get that recognition from the company that this is a big thing. >> Right. And there's a solution behind the takeover, right, it's not just for publicity. >> Oh, no, no, no. It's all real. We're absolutely doing things. The big thing for us is this transition to IP. We're an IP company, 30-35 years ago, the company was founded on the premise of IP. This industry is one of the last ones to go from a legacy protocol. I mean, broadcast has been broadcast, it's been the same for 30-35 years. >> It's your classic kind of opportunity meets capability. >> It is in transition. And Cisco loves to go into transition, and what Cisco also loves to do, is take out legacy network protocols. So, SDIs, are exactly that. IP is here, I will say that only in 12, 18 months however, have we actually had the compute capacity, the bandwidth capacity, to take what is essentially, you know, I'm being filmed in uncompressed video right now. >> Right. >> You know, the routers and switchers that we sell, have not been able to process that amount of information. The last 12, 18 months, Moore's Law on everything else, and some software optimizations. Uncompressed video is flowing at high speed, across data networks, that Cisco provides. That's a great place to be, as this industry recognizes. >> It's funny, the Moore's Law thing, because people like to poo-poo on it, you know, but no, Moore's Law is an attitude. >> Roger: It absolutely is. >> It's a way to attack problems, with just massive increases in capability, whether it's networking, storage, or compute, and the combination of the three together, it's crazy. >> And that's exactly where we found ourselves two years ago, and so, we have very good timing. But we are a company that likes to step into those, you know, and say, "We've got this!" We understand, we've seen so many transitions in other industries, from legacy to IP. And hey, this one is just high cashe for the company, I mean the brands, and the names, and the companies that we get to work with right now, from Disney to NBC, to the BBC, these are fabulous companies that have global recognition. Like Cisco. >> Right. And it's interesting with the UCS comparison, not so much that it's Apple's origins, but the fact that Cisco is taking more of a solutions approach, and not just for the routers and the switchers, you know, kind of the IP backbone, but an integrated solution, where you can pull and compute, and you can pull and store, and oh by the way, it also has the networking stuff, so now you're offering customers a really interesting package. A cloud-based application solution, if you will, and then, as you mentioned, still partnering with best of breed applications across the country. >> And that's been key. This industry demands, in some cases, immediate solutions, I have a problem, I need to solve it. And I'm not so interested in an architecture, in a road map, and tell me where you're going over the next 12, 18 months. I need something now. So yeah, we absolutely have been very focused on, I mean everything on our booth is available to buy. Sometimes we show up to shows, and it's all futuristic stuff that maybe we don't even develop at some point. It's all in our price list. The partner side of this, is absolutely key. So we would not be here without Grass Valley, without Everts, Sony, Evias, big, big, traditional broadcaster vendors that have validated our solution, and turned around to the industry and said, "These guys get it." >> The other interesting part is that you guys are doing so much in the space, you've got the solutions base, and that you are doing the partnering, and that it's a great move for Cisco, right? You've got so much better-- >> I mean, it's really very few companies that can do the IP side of things. When you add in security, compute, orchestration, professional services, training. Like, just training broadcast engineers that have been so steeped in high-quality video, and they've known SDI, and they're now coming to us and saying, "Help me get trained in IP, "I recognize this transition is coming, "but I've got a legacy skillset, help me transition." There aren't many companies that can offer that range of solutions and services. And we're doing this with-- >> Real security, over and over again. The last couple of days, I mean, it's a huge to-do. >> So I try to move that from the last thing we talk about, to the first thing that we talk about. You move to an IP network, you can add an IP network to a data center, that center is connected to the internet, and these guys would actually be free. >> But the other cool thing for you guys, is that the primary distribution method, the SDI, or some of these other old-school broadcast methods are now no longer an important piece of the puzzle. But there's now all this stuff that's going out on all different types of applications, and all that stuff's IP at the core, right? Those are all IP applications at the core. Whether it's Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Those were never going to broadcast medium. >> And you know, 2009, 2010, this industry was saying, "We're going to go IP," but it was always, "Well, you know, it's out there in the future." You're exactly right. The ability to now, the barrier to entry, to get this type of content onto an IP network, and down to every single device on the internet, It's never been so low. And so that's where you're seeing this high-value, premium content creation, acquisition, editing process. It's been recognized that they've got to move as well, they've got to move to a far more flexible infrastructure, automation, machine-learning of how things work, analytics, you know, the whole caboodle. And we're right there to support this industry to do that. >> And it's such an easy fit, right, because this industry is built on temporary projects, and the temporary assembly of a team, and they come, and they produce, and they create, and then there's a lot of derivative assets-- >> And tear the whole thing down. >> It's perfect for-- >> Absolutely. We've been talking about that with some of the Hollywood clients, and that's exactly what, they stand on a massive amount of infrastructure, for the latest Avatar movie, for instance. And then they tear it all down, and it's all written off, and then they go build a new one somewhere else. We think the industry can be a lot smarter about that. There is a way to truly repurpose. Hey, what you just built? You no longer need to throw it all away. >> So I want to shift gears a little bit, we have a lot of opensource shows, opensource is big, and you're part of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions, so there's always this question between now, the kind of opensource deriving standards in adoption, versus the old-school, standard's body. What role has AIMS played, give us a little bit more color, as to their role, and how that's kind of shaping things. >> So I say the old-school standards are absolutely alive and kicking. SIM, TVSF, Amwar, these guys have been around for years. What they are very focused on, however, is really making sure there is technical, inter-operability between ourselves, and all the vendors in this industry, as this move to IP takes place. So, we want a utopia where you can plug in a Cisco infrastructure, or a Reaster, or an Everts, and it's all going to work. That's what those standard bodies do for the industry. AIMS has basically said, "That's great, but it's a very, very technical thing." And there's some very, very technical people, that like to talk technical things To truly drive an industry forward, we've got to sort of go up the stack, and become much more relevant from a marketing perspective. And AIMS has basically said, "Look, we support all the adoption of IP, "but let's actually go push out news cases, "let's push out public references of customers "that are doing this today." We need to drive the industry forward at that level. So, very much rather the promotion of open standards, inter-operability, but really looking at how we market that, and foster the adoption of these standards. >> Okay, so last question before I let you go, priorities for 2017, it's hard to believe we're a third of the way through the year, but I'm still asking the question, because we still have a ways to go. What's kind of your top of mind awareness, what are you working on, obviously a big launch here for the next couple weeks, but looking down a little bit further down the road, what's your top of mind? >> Virtualization. We've been looking at virtualization, we've been telling the industry that they need to move to virtualization, that all these applications that are currently hardware, software, a lot today, that hardware piece is going to disappear, and we're all going to move into software. It's all going to move into VM ware, you need an IP foundation before you can do that, and that's what we're seeing take place right now. 12 months from now, the main headline for Cisco is going to be how we're helping every application vendor, and our customers move truly into a virtualized data center model. And then again, back to our little thing about Avatar and the tear down, that just becomes a thing of the past. Now it's about reusing all of that data center, over, and over, and over again. For all of the other Avatar sequels. >> It's so funny right, it's a recurring theme we see all over the place. It's just a little bit late here in the ME space. Alright, well Roger, thanks again for taking a few minutes of your day. And I'll see you around, and go Warriors. >> Absolutely. >> Alright, that's Roger Sherwood, I'm Jeff Frick, you're watching theCube from NAB 2017. We'll be right back after this short break, thanks for watching. (electronic music)