StudioSysAdmins is a social networking community dedicated to improving infrastructure, workflows and support across the Entertainment Industry. An expanding community with one common site that joins Systems Administrators, Technical Directors, Pipeline Developers, Consultants, Hardware/Software Support Engineers and Hardware/Software Vendors and Resellers (VARs) that currently work in and/or support production studios in the areas of animation, visualization, visual-FX, film, and games.

Our goal is to enable the sharing of all non-proprietary information among all of our members and to maintain open discussions between Studios, Vendors and VARs to determine standards in order to help improve support for the installation, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of hardware, software and operating systems.

 

Meetings
We currently hold regular meetings in London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto and Vancouver and continues to expand local coverage as our membership grows. Meetings are hosted by one of our studio Members and/or sponsored by our supporting member Companies to present, educate and discuss ongoing issues/concerns, future technologies; and of course, social conversation.

Once we have enough members in a particular location we will arrange to have separate local meetings in those areas while continuing to use this site as a common place to bring the different localities together.  We also arrange meetings at various tradeshows throughout the year for the opportunity of having our members from various local groups meet face to face.

Once meetings are established in a certain area, we encourage the actual meeting locations to change often so that our members get a chance to see other studios and/or facilities.

If you are interested in starting meetings in your area, contributing or sponsoring local meetings in your area or if you are interested in helping to contribute or sponsor events, please contact one of the groups meeting coordinators  directly, so we can provide you with the proper information and/or assistance.

 

Meeting Coordinators
The StudioSysAdmins meeting coordinators team are comprised of the people that arrange meetings in their local area. We currently do not have elections or votes to determine the people on this team.  The only rule we have, is that you must be a current member, work at a production studio (either full-time or in a production consulting capacity) and most importantly; assist in arranging the meetings in your area.  Vendors and Resellers may contribute to meetings by providing a location for meetings and/or providing content in the form of talks or presentations during a meeting. This helps the group stay both reseller and vendor neutral.

The following is our current list of executive team members:

	North America			Europe
	Toronto:	John Hickson (Founder)		London:	Ben De Luca
	Montreal:	Pascal Filion & Francis Provencher		Paris:	Bruno Mahe
	Vancouver:	Ron Stinson & Scott Parker
	New York:	Dan Young
	Los Angeles:	Anthony Lopez
	San Francisco:	Jaime Gago
				Asia-Pacific
				Sydney:	Stefan Gillard

Assistance/Contributions/Sponsorship
We are always looking for help to expand our membership, promote local meetings, and other events. If you or your company would like to help organize, fund and/or present at future events, or you would like to help contribute to improving the StudioSysAdmins web site, please contact the StudioSysAdmins Meeting Coordinators.

Additionally, if you wish to have your company logo displayed on the StudioSysAdmins web-site or if you plan on posting items in either the StudioSysAdmin Job Board or StudioSysAdmins Used Gear Board; please send a 200 x 133 pixel file preferably on a white background along with your company URL to SignMeUp@StudioSysAdmins.com.

Vendors and Solution Providers must contact Subscriptions@StudioSysAdmins.com for company and product listings on our web site. Subscription options are available to assist vendors in the delivery of whitepapers, product announcements, press-releases, as well as assisting in increasing your audience at your own marketing events.

Recruiting
We are always looking to recruit new members to help provide support in new locations and areas of expertise. Membership is absolutely free, you just need to ask to be added to the lists and have an account created so you can start contributing to the group.

Please remember that it is everyone in the groups responsibility to assist in recruiting new members and helping the group grow. The more members and companies contributing to the group the more benefit to everyone we will have.

The following section outlines the types of people we are looking for to help further the reach and goals of StudioSysAdmins:

 

Production Studios, Schools & Training, Research Facilities and Visualization Labs:
We would like to get at least one or more people from each production/post-production studios in the areas of animation, visual-fx, film and games.

	Senior Systems Administrators and Managers
	To help support and share common issues faced in production with budgets, hardware, software, infrastructure, etc.
	Pipeline Developers and Technical Directors
	To help support or suggest applications and methods used to solve common pipeline issues.

Consultants:
We would like to get at least one or more people from each consulting company that currently provides additional support to our studios.

To help support and share common issues faced in production with budgets, hardware, software, infrastructure, etc.

Resellers (VARs):
We would like to get at least one or more people from each Value-Added Reseller to help expand product knowledge and extend fair pricing across all our members studios.

	Support Engineers
	To provide insight and support on difficult issues faced by production studios directly related to current infrastructure, upgrades, or new technologies.
	Sales Managers
	To provide new product knowledge, licensing options, and competetive pricing.

Software/Hardware Vendors & Service Providers
We would like to get at least one or more people from each software and hardware vendor that currently offers products being used by one of our member studios or in the Entertainment Industry.

	Developers and Engineers
	To provide insight and support on difficult issues faced by production studios directly related to the products in question.
	Systems Administrators and Support
	To provide additional knowledge of support issues related to new operating systems, patches, and hardware found and/or resolved during product testing.
	Sales Managers
	To provide new product knowledge, feature road maps, and licensing options.

 

E-Mail and Website Rules
Please remember that this is an open forum to share non-proprietary information and a place that encourages everyone to share and learn.  We try to be vendor neutral as much as possible  with the exception of discussing or answering questions asked about a specific product. In all cases we should remain reseller neutral. This is not a place for either vendors or resellers to try to take customers away from our other members or companies.

	Currently the rules are very simple:
		Please be honest with your comments and replies at all times.
		Keep the language clean and professional at all times.
		Try to keep all conversations Reseller neutral at all times.
		Try to keep all conversations Vendor neutral unless discussing a specific product.
		Do no send un-related topics or unnecessary e-mails to the group e-mails.
		Do not harass any of our [wiki: members] or associated [wiki: companies].
		Do not ask other [wiki: members] to post comments on your behalf.
		Please participate as much as possible and help in our recruiting efforts.
	Also...
		If you wish to unsubscribe to a list, send an e-mail to SignMeUp@StudioSysAdmins.com

 

E-Mail List
We currently only have one e-mail distribution lists which allow us to communicate with the majority of our members.

	Discuss@StudioSysAdmins.com
	This list is used for general discussion topics among all our members.
	We expect the traffic for this e-mail list to be over 100 posts per week.

 

E-Mail List Options
To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your digest options please follow these instructions:

	1) Send an e-mail to the list you wish to change your options on.
		studiosysadmins-discuss-request@studiosysadmins.com
	2) Put the command in your subject line of the e-mail.
		unsubscribe	(To remove yourself from the mailing list altogether)
		subscribe	(To add yourself to the mailing list)
		off	(to receive messages in non-digest mode)
		on	(to receive messages in digest mode - 1/day)
	3) Send the e-mail (Leave the body blank)
		You will receive an e-mail to confirm for subscribe and unsubscribe.
		Subscriptions are moderated and must be confirmed when joining the group.

 

Site Content
Everyone in the group is responsible for and encouraged to participate in the creation and maintenance of content contained on this site to improve the knowledge of the entire group, as well as provide support to our [wiki: members]. We have several areas that information resides on this site through browsing or by using RSS feeds.

News:

The news area of StudioSysAdmins is for the posting relevant news for the entire group and/or individual location meetings, as well as sponsored events.

		http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/news
		http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/events

 

Blogs:

In the blogs section of the site members may post an article which can not be edited or changed and also allows other member to make direct comments.

http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/blogs

 

Forums:

Our goal is to maintain open discussions between all members and look at ways that standards can be set in order to help improve support for the installation, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of hardware, software and operating systems. If you have a question about a support issue, or if you are testing or looking for a new solution, please ask our members for their input.

If you would like your avatar to be included in the Forums section, please send a .jpg file (max size 120 pixels - height or width) to Info@StudioSysAdmins.com.

Our E-Mail Lists are also automatically added to the FORUMs on this site so new members can read was has been previously discussed and people have the option to not get all the e-mails directly in their INBOX.

		http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/forums
		(for all messages from all threads

		http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/threads
		(for just initial message in thread)

 

WIKIs:
WIKIs are used to share information amongst all the members to help improve standard practices between the various studios as well as additional information about the group in general. 

• Please remember, you must determine if what you are sharing is non-proprietary information for your company.

http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/wikis

 

Galleries:
Galleries are to be used to share images of hardware configurations, server room set-ups, as well as social images outlining daily life at various studios, conventions, trade shows and StudioSysAdmin meetings.

Not available for galleries

 

Jobs:
The Job Board is to be used for posting available job listings for the IT and IS releated jobs in the Entertainment Industry. All members may post jobs by simply filling out the available form.  Please ensure that once a job is filled and/or no longer required - you must login and modify the job so it will no longer be listed.

http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/jobs

 

Used Equipment:
The Used Equipment Board is to be used for posting the sale of unwanted used equipment, the rental of unused equipment, or the request for parts or equipment needed to help you continue to run your facility . All members may post items by simply filling out the available form.  Please ensure that once an item is obtained or no longer available - you must login and modify the item so it will no longer be listed.

http://www.studiosysadmins.com/feeds/gear

 

Downloads:
The downloads section of this site is to share scripts or documents between our members.

There is currently no way to upload files to this area. If you have files to share, please send them to Info@StudioSysAdmins.com and we will post them on your behalf.

 

External Content
In order to help promote the group, we have also attached the StudioSysAdmins name to other community portals on the internet. We are currently in the process of trying to link content between all of the sites.

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Group

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