Alex Timbs is not your regular business executive from Dell Technologies. The Ozzie Brisbane-based gent takes a keen interest in everything right from sport to tech when he is not in his day job at Dell Technologies as a media industry expert.
He likes to tinker around with almost every new tech that comes up, apart from having a creative bent of mind. He spent a good decade and a half at an animation studio working on some of the well-known animation and VFX franchises like Matrix and HappyFeet before switching to the vendor side at Dell.
Because of his understanding of both sides of the coin, Alex’s clients more often than not call on him to help him find some workflow solutions and not just about storage which he is an expert in. A courtesy he extends every time. And these are relationships which have seen emerge as amongst the top executives in the storage vertical at Dell.
Indiantelevision.com’s founder, chairman and editor in chief Anil Wanvari got in touch with the affable gentlemen over several zoom calls to distil down whatever he had to say about the the transformative impact of AI on content creation and the evolving landscape of media storage solutions. Excerpts from the various conversations with Alex. This one is only part one of the interview; the second part will follow mid-this week.
On what were the workflows for animation and post-prod when he started out.
I spent nearly 16 years at Animal Logic, and the transformation I witnessed was remarkable. . I vividly remember my early days at Animal Logic, where we were working on Matrix 2 using film scanners. The workflow seems almost archaic now - we'd send work out for overnight printing. Even during Happy Feet, our dailies process involved sending work out to be printed overnight. The next morning, everyone would gather in the theatre to review footage on actual film, Our technology backbone consisted of SGI boxes, with one particular suite costing around 1.5 million Australian dollars. Individual machines were running between 30,000 to 50,000 dollars each.
Then came this revolutionary shift towards personal computers. It was transformative - suddenly we had access to incredibly powerful technology for just 5,000 to 10,000 dollars. This technological deflation has continued throughout my career and is accelerating with AI and generative technologies. Each year, we see the capability-to-cost ratio improving exponentially. What's fascinating is how this democratisation of technology has fundamentally changed the way we approach content creation.
This technological deflation has continued throughout my career and is accelerating with AI and generative AI. It's been fascinating to watch this snowball effect, enabling us to do exponentially more with less.
On his transition from a major animation studio to Dell Technologies
I'll be completely honest - I was incredibly skeptical about joining what I perceived as a sales company. I didn't think I'd last more than 12 months, assuming I'd be bored out of my mind. But here I am, over five years later, and it's been an extraordinary journey. Dell has a massive media and entertainment focus that many people don't realize. We have a team of subject matter experts from various backgrounds - broadcasters, film studios, game studios - with over 100 years of combined industry experience.
I actually had a relationship with Dell's technology before joining them. Back in 2006-2007, I purchased an Isilon system (now PowerScale) to replace 14 individual storage silos. We went from needing two people working shifts to manage data movement to requiring just a quarter of one person's time. That experience showed me the real impact technology could have on production workflows.
On the major challenges media companies are facing today
The biggest challenge we're seeing is data management - and it's not what people might expect. When we go to major trade shows, everyone assumes AI will dominate the conversation. But in reality, most customers want to discuss data orchestration. They're grappling with questions like: How do I support globally distributed workflows? How do I enable freelance artists working from home? How do I manage this tsunami of data being created by automation and new tools?
Many media companies are dealing with hundreds of millions, if not billions of files. They need help regaining control of their data. This includes automated solutions for deprecating or deleting data efficiently. It's becoming a critical issue, especially as generative AI tools create even more data at an exponential rate.
All of this is happening against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty. Companies are making more utilitarian decisions, seeking certainty in their investments. They want to know exactly what return they'll get, whether that's efficiency gains or cost control. Agility is also crucial - the ability to shift where data lives and how it's accessed has become fundamental to modern workflows.
On how companies are implementing AI in their production pipelines
We're seeing AI adoption across every scale of production. Whether it's an individual working from home or a team of 1,000 artists, most customers are starting their AI journey. They're gravitating towards validated solutions and partners who understand the unique infrastructure needs of this technology.
The fascinating thing about generative AI in media production is its diverse application. While it doesn't handle true 3D environments well yet - it's more '2.5D' with depth mapping - we're seeing it used for face replacement, frame blending, character development, and environmental creation. But the implementation varies significantly, what we call the 'T-shirt size' approach.
"A small 'T-shirt size' might be an individual or small workgroup doing exploratory work using local SSD storage. As projects evolve and more people start collaborating, you need shared flash storage - even for small teams of 30-40 people working with just 30 terabytes of data. The largest enterprises might invest in Nvidia superpods or specialized AI servers with large VRAM-capable GPUs for distributed AI use cases."
On his perspective on cloud storage in media production
We're seeing a significant shift in cloud strategy. The future is definitely hybrid, but cloud-first isn't the right approach for many customers. In fact, we're seeing considerable repatriation from the cloud. The reality is that sustained workloads in the cloud can be very expensive.
That said, certain workflows make perfect sense in the cloud. Broadcasters who need to scale dynamically for specific events and then scale down - it would be foolish to buy infrastructure that sits idle most of the time. But there's been a recent rationalization of strategy. Customers are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of when cloud makes sense and when it doesn't.
On his perspective on the key trends in media technology that one should keep an eye on.
The industry is at a fascinating inflection point. We're seeing the convergence of real-time workflows, often driven by game engines, with AI tools. This combination is radically speeding up the creation process. At the same time, there's a growing focus on operational efficiency - automating repetitive tasks, improving asset management, and making more informed decisions about data lifecycle.
The key is finding the right balance between innovation and practicality. Success isn't about rushing to adopt every new technology; it's about understanding your specific needs and implementing solutions that deliver measurable value while protecting your creative assets and IP.
