Academy Award-Winning Visual Effects Studio Installs Utah Scientific Routers

Rhythm & Hues Studios, a leading producer of visual effects and animation, is in the process of implementing digital signal routing based on two Utah Scientific UTAH-400 routers and on its UTAH-100 series equipment. The Utah Scientific technology is being deployed as part of a facility expansion to two buildings on a new site, and an infrastructure upgrade to 3G HD-SDI from SD-SDI.

“Knowing we wanted a routing system with open, IP-based control, we considered solutions from several different vendors,” says Will McCown, Rhythm & Hues chief engineer. “Ultimately, Utah Scientific offered us the most bang for the buck by a pretty good margin. As for implementation, Utah Scientific’s team has been great, even helping us to link the new system to an ancient router made by another company. We are depending on the capabilities of the Utah control system to make this expanded routing system even easier for us to support than our old, simple system.”

Rhythm & Hues’ new system comprises a UTAH-400 64-frame router, a UTAH-100 16×16 analog video router, and a 16×16 timecode router, which replaces an aging system from another vendor. A second UTAH-400 64-frame router is being deployed in one of two buildings on Rhythm & Hues’ new site to link digital projection, three Avid editing suites, and four video servers. Rhythm & Hues is also using an 8×8 fiber I/O option on each of the two UTAH-400 routers for tie lines between the buildings, primarily to link editing with the VTRs and to enable videotape playback in the screening rooms.

Based in Southern California, Rhythm & Hues provides character animation, visual effects, live-action, and design for entertainment and advertising. The studio has received two Academy Awards for Achievement in Visual Effects (“The Golden Compass,” 2007, and “Babe,” 1995) as well as three Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.

“When we developed the UTAH-100 series, we had installations exactly like Rhythm & Hues in mind,” says Tom Harmon, president and CEO of Utah Scientific. “Our traditional customer is a broadcaster, but today’s routing systems support streamlined, system-wide efficiency in a wide variety of applications. As is obvious from its work, Rhythm & Hues is the kind of company that knows the value of top-quality equipment to produce a top-quality product.”