What happens when you’re charged with managing systems deployment and performance for a fast-growing team of creative professionals? Experts whose work demands the highest performance systems, but also need to support a wide range of software platforms each with their own deployment and management challenges? And from the start, you quickly realize that your studio is vastly under-powered and randomly configured? You realize you need a partner you can trust, and one you can rely on.

That’s exactly what happened with the Technology team at Mob Entertainment – a globally recognized multimedia company founded by two brothers fueled by their mutual passion for the arts and their love of creating 3D animation. We caught up with members of that team who shared their experience of transforming the studio from a disparate collection of under-powered hardware to a well-oiled machine.

Mob Entertainment: A Tour De Force in 3D Animation

Mob Entertainment was originally founded in 2015 by current Chief Creative Officer Seth Belanger and his brother, Chief Executive Officer Zach Belanger. Starting a YouTube channel called EnchantedMob in high school, Seth began building a fanbase and following through releasing 3D animated music videos with the guidance and advice of his older brother. Over the next several years, Seth would continue to create quality entertainment that would attract millions of people worldwide.

The Team that Keeps Things Running

Andrew Omernik is the Director of Technology and leads a crew of professionals charged with managing all of the systems that power Mob Entertainment. We spoke with Andrew – known as AJ – and Ryan Mooney, Systems Administrator, along with Paul Ash, DevOps Lead.

Andrew provided us with his initial assessment and standardization needs upon taking the Director position at the studio in 2023. He explained, “We originally conducted an audit that immediately revealed underpowered systems and randomly configured DevOps environments that really pointed to the need for what I called ‘the professionalization of the studio.’” One of AJ’s first steps was to bring Ryan and Paul onto the team, recognizing the urgent need for dedicated information technology and dev-ops programs. “The existing systems simply lacked uniform specifications. So the team decided to implement a tiered computer system, rolled out over time, ensuring each role received appropriate hardware.”

This is where Puget Systems came into the picture. AJ added, “The impact of Puget Systems on workflow and build times was significant and immediately apparent. The Puget Systems team streamlined our operations by providing pre-provisioned computers directly to our employees’ homes, which significantly reduced setup time and integrated seamlessly with their cybersecurity and source control. In fact, Puget Systems sourced customized build server hardware that reduced full build-times from four to six hours down to 45 minutes, and incremental builds from four to six hours to just five minutes after tuning! This resulted in substantial cost savings per build! AJ noted, “If we were fully cloud-based, we calculated it out and discovered it would be roughly two and a half times the server cost to run builds on a yearly basis!”

Benefits of Standardized Hardware and Remote Setup

Ryan added, “Puget’s instrumental role in enabling our fully remote studio by handling hardware support and expediting parts replacement just made our jobs significantly easier.”

Additionally, the standardized systems and automated configurations through PowerShell scripts eliminated the need for complex tutorials, allowing the studio’s artists and other team members to simply log in and begin work without needing to understand underlying technical setups. AJ noted, “Puget’s support was crucial for our smooth transition to a remote environment, especially since we were building our IT infrastructure from the ground up!”

Enhanced User Experience and Technical Support

To learn more about Mob Entertainment and their incredible work in 3D animation and gaming, please visit their website.

For more information on Puget Systems and our Recommended Systems for Game Development and 3D Animation, please visit our Solutions pages.

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