GB-Newcastle: T20/0064 Render Farm

The University requires a new animation render farm service in support of the Animation BA Degree course.

To align with the current software applications used by our students, the render farm must be able to support the following 3d Design Software: •Maya

•Houdini

•After Effects

•Unreal engine

•3D Studio Max

The render farm must also support a GPU render using the following: •Arnold

•Redshift

Volume

2nd year students - 40 students

2. animations in Semester 1 of 750 frames each
2. animations in Semester 2 of 750 frames each

3rd year students - 40 students

2. animations in Semester 1 of 750 frames each
2. animations in Semester 2 of 4,500 frames each

Key Solution Requirements

•A Multi-node GPU Rendering solution utilising the latest GPU Technology, based around the Microsoft Operating System platform.

•The System must run on the latest CPU Processors (Intel or AMD), have a minimum of 256gb RAM and provide local disks to run the operating system. (Not the data)

•The renderfarm must provide access to the campus network. This is to submit the Jobs to the renderfarm by the Artists / Students from the existing client facilities.

•The Render farm solution should provide a core 25Gb/100Gb network switch(s) (Mellanox or similar) to enable a minimum of 25Gb connections to each proposed render node plus an available 2x 100Gb connection to the DDP storage unit. •To work with the applications for rendering, the following software needs to be included in your tender response:

oDeadline licenses- each render node requires a licence of Deadline

oRedshift licenses - each render node will require a licence of Redshift

oArnold licences are available at no cost via our Autodesk education programme.

Services:

•Installation

•3 Month post installation support

Any questions about this tender, its content, the process or any related topic should be posted in the Delta portal. Any partner who attempts to contact any member of the University directly about this tender may be excluded from the tender process at the University's sole discretion.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.