Mobile workstations make on-site workflows faster

    Phil Holland has worked in his industry for over a decade. Over the years, he’s adapted his workflow alongside developing and evolving technologies, much to his benefit. He has witnessed the video industry grow and innovate its technology to places that once seemed impossible.

    The Dell Precision 7750 mobile workstation with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 GPU has changed how Phil Holland works for the better. Previously, some projects required him to wait days before being able to work on them. Now, he completes projects on the same day as the shoot because his mobile workstation is capable of doing so. The performance of Dell’s current mobile workstations are what make possible the type of work and workflow professionals like Holland innovated.

    Holland needs the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation to keep up with his mobile workflow

    Holland travels all over the world to do the work that he does for clients. He ventures to numerous states and countries and shoots high-res, RAW footage. In the past, this kind of workflow would lead to longer production times because Holland could not work on this kind of high-res footage without a powerful workstation, and that meant a bulky tower. With his current workflow, he does not have the option to hold onto the footage until he can get onto his home desktop workstation. Often, he finds himself jumping right back onto a plane for another shoot right after he finishes his current job.

    His clients expect him to fill a lot of shoes as a director, colorist, and editor. They need him to give results as fast as possible. Holland remembers how he and his crew would have to go about their workflows before the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation:

    “We had one guy who had this crazy van for a few years and he’d pull up and it looked like a time machine in there. And what was happening there was he was getting hired to go literally to on-site, take footage, ingest it, do [initial} color stuff, spit it out, back it up,” Holland says. It was an entire process that would require a ton of wires and multiple computers.

    Now, since Holland has started using the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation, he can do something much more quickly on set than they did when they had the van full of hardware.

    “Something very, very clear happened where the distance between taking that footage and doing something with it was quicker on-site,” says Holland.

    Utilizing the potential of mobile workflows

    Since upgrading to the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation, Holland can do more in a shorter amount of time, allowing him to take on more jobs and earn more money in the long run.

    “I’ve delivered some jobs after, right after, shooting, like full color-graded material,” Holland says. “The ecosystem was expanding and growing as the hardware was improving. It’s allowing me to undertake more work and allow more creative possibilities.

    Back in 2018, working with a native 8K RAW workflow “required quite a bit of effort,” Holland remembers. Regardless, it was something that excited him and something he has been fighting for early on. As the industry’s computer hardware advanced, things like mobile workstation’s GPU acceleration allowed for that kind of workflow to become more manageable.

    “What’s good about native RAW workflow is you’re shortening the distance between time of doing things,” Holland says. The industry was able to shorten the time needed to communicate and send assets between teams. Now, more is possible in a shorter amount of time, which is essential for the industry. Additionally, since mobile workstations can now handle a native RAW workflow, you can work on the footage from practically anywhere, speeding up the processes even more.

    “I’m able to glide right through footage, humped through clips. It’s a really interesting combination of the entire ecosystem where you have a higher speed drive. You have an amount of RAM that can support all of this. You have a powerful GPU that can push these frames through,” Holland says speaking, about the Dell Precision 7750 mobile workstation with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 GPU.

    Always moving forward

    The Dell Precision mobile workstation with NVIDIA Quadro RTX allows Holland to do the work that he does away from home. Being on the road most of the time, Holland cannot wait until he’s home to work on what he shoots. His clients trust him to fill a lot of roles, and the pairing allows him to complete the work he needs to do regardless of what the project is and wherever he finds himself in the world.

    “It’s about becoming more efficient and faster,” Holland says. “I think the potential of a Dell Precision mobile workstation is pretty interesting … I can work with footage on the NVMe drives right there in the box.” 

    Even on the go, Holland has access to 128 gigs of RAM, mirroring his larger desktop workstations at home. “I think for people who are looking to expand their capability, when it comes to mobile workflow, the Dell Precision mobile workstation, as well as the NVIDIA Quadro RTX, working in tandem can provide a level of efficiency and power to getting work done quickly and painlessly.”

    Learn more at: delltechnologies.com