JCB - Case Study

Background

JCB are one of the world’s top three manufacturers of construction equipment, employing over 8,000 people in factories spread across four continents and with operations in over 150 countries. In the UK their name has become synonymous with engineering vehicles as a whole, to the point that the term can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Problem

Like any company, JCB spends a lot of money each year on marketing. A part of this marketing involves computer-rendered digital images of various JCB designs, created using LightWave 3D graphics program. However, JCB had only one computer on-site dedicated to rendering the images and this was also being used by the 3D designer for other purposes. The result was that image rendering would take several days, even a week, during which time the computer could not be used for anything else. Because of this it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a sufficient work rate and to meet deadlines.

What was needed was a solution that could achieve the following:

• Reduced rendering times to speed up turnover of images.
• The ability to be working on a machine while the rendering is occurring in the background.
• Maximum potential and minimum disturbance to the rest of the network through its own dedicated computers.
• Adherence to JCB’s existing security policies.

Solution

JCB consulted with Jigsaw about the best solution. Installing a render farm would provide the answer to JCB’s problems and various options were looked at before a decision was reached. It was decided that the best option was to install a Muster render farm with an edit station and six Xserve servers as render nodes, alongside six more nodes on Mac Pros that JCB already had and wished to use. During pre-installation testing Muster was found to be incompatible with the Mac-based Lightwave software so the render farm was switched to Screamernet instead.

This solution met all the requirements JCB had for the new system, offering a significant performance increase at a price within their budget.

Implementation

JCB already had some of the required equipment on-site, including the six Mac Pros and a rack mount for the servers. The rest of the equipment was delivered first to Jigsaw, where much of the set-up work on the Xserve servers and edit station was done before it was transported to the site for installation, thus speeding up the actual time needed on-site and minimising disruption caused by the installations.

It is also at this time that checks are run to ensure the equipment works and that the software is functioning and compatible. This allows unexpected problems to be spotted before installation has been completed and therefore makes corrections smoother and quicker.

The on-site installation itself took only two days, partly because JCB was able to set up the Mac Pros and install the necessary security software beforehand, preparing the way for the Jigsaw engineers.

Benefits

There were two primary benefits as a result. Primarily, the render farm means a lot more processing power is available to be used for rendering the designs, meaning shorter rendering times and higher quality. In addition, the presence of dedicated servers instead of a single overworked CPU means designers will no longer suffer from the downtime brought about while an image was being rendered, when they were previously unable to use their computer.

Beyond these, though, the decision to also install six Mac Pros as additional nodes allows for even greater processing power to be drawn upon when necessary by shifting these nodes to work with the servers. This can also easily be done during evenings and weekends when they would otherwise be idle. Finally these Mac Pros mean greater access to the rendering system, as now more than one workstation is connected to the rendering data and hardware.

Summary

JCB required a means to more efficiently render their digital design images and enhance their effectiveness through the use of a dedicated rendering system. Jigsaw was able to provide this through the installation of a full render farm with dedicated servers, providing them with a new system that met their requirements for performance and functionality while not exceeding their budget.

The possibility of upgrades to the render farm in the future remains, with changes from simple software upgrades to the expansion of the hardware itself (such as the addition of further servers to boost the power of the render farm) all being viable.

Deciding on the exact render farm for your needs isn’t a simple ‘compare the numbers’ exercise. It’s more often a matter of looking at the individual requirements and getting expert technical help for that particular case. One possible starting point is on the Jigsaw website itself – several articles on render farms can be found at http://www.jigsaw3d.com/render-farms.aspx.

Get in touch if you have any questions about your 3D workflow - call 03332 409 309 or email 3D@jigsaw24.com

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