Dell is partnering with The FADER FORT Presented by Converse to bring live performances from the four-day event to music fans around the world via live stream during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media conference. The live streaming, powered by Dell and Intel, will broadcast performances from some of today’s most innovative and emerging artists, including Schoolboy Q, Sky Ferreira, Delorean, and more, on TheFADER.com/FORT on March 12 – 16.

“The FADER FORT is one of the hottest tickets in town this week, and Dell technology and expertise are effectively opening The FORT doors to the world,” said Fara Howard, executive director, Consumer and Small Business Marketing, Dell. “This partnership with The FADER is the perfect opportunity for us to showcase some of the innovative things we’re doing with our products in the music, film and entertainment space, and right here in our own backyard.”

Dell is making The FORT accessible to the local community by providing technology for public viewing of The FADER FORT by Converse live stream in popular Austin hangouts, including Birds Barbershops and Jo’s Coffee.

The FADER turned to Dell because of the company’s established expertise in audio engineering and video editing, including successful live streaming of music festivals like Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Jazzfest; helping visual effects companies like Pixomondo, SohoVFX and Tippett Studio produce award winning VFX shots; and enabling audio professionals like Paul Oakenfold’s lead sound engineer to mix, record and produce music.

“We are excited to partner with The FADER to bring some of the hottest performances to fans around the world,” said Neil Hand, vice president, Tablet and Performance PCs, Dell. “With Dell’s high-performance Dell Precision video editing and audio engineering solutions powering the live stream, fans will have a front-row experience, with high-quality audio and video, in their living room, coffee shop or almost anywhere they are.”

Dell and Intel are partnering to provide a complete end-to-end solution that combines powerful mobile and tower workstations, high-end displays and servers to handle demanding visual and audio experiences. The audio workflow begins with microphones capturing sound from the stage, which is then channeled through an Allen & Heath MixRack and iLive audio console. The signal is processed in real time by a Waves SoundGrid® audio networking platform controlled by a Dell Precision M4700 mobile workstation. Two Dell Precision T5600 tower workstations with dual Intel® Xeon® E5-2630 processors capture all channels of audio for archival purposes. The final mix is sent from the audio console to the TriCaster 800 where it is married with the video signal coming from the cameras onstage.

The content is then sent to two Dell Precision M6700 Covet Edition mobile workstations, featuring Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme Edition processors, where it is encoded to a web-friendly format which becomes the final content for the live stream. Editorial content is built using a Dell Precision T5600 with dual Intel® Xeon® E5-2630 processors and Avid® Media Composer®. Dell UltraSharp U2713H and U2413 displays with PremierColor are used for high-definition display and color correction and all audio and video content is backed up locally to a Dell PowerEdge R320 server for a true end-to-end solution.

By leveraging standards-based technology from Dell, video editors can save up to 96.5 percent on video production tasks versus using an Apple Mac Pro, according to a Principled Technologies study commissioned by Dell. For example, a Dell Precision T7600, named best video editing workstation by Videomaker, can render and entire work area for an AVCHD four-layer video in only 13 seconds compared with six minutes on an Apple Mac Pro¹.

Dell Precision workstations are also designed and certified to run the top professional digital content creation applications including Avid Media Composer, Pro Tools, Venue and Interplay; Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite; Adobe CS6; Grass Valley EDIUS Pro 6.5 and GV STRATUS Media Application Framework; and Sony Vegas Pro 11, Sound Forge Pro 10 and SpectraLayers Pro. With Dell Precision, video and audio pros can complete projects fast with minimal downtime with the speed of dual socket and multi-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 512GB² of memory, internal storage and best-in-class professional grade graphics – all translating to more time to focus on creativity and not technology.

Additional Quotes:

“Dell Precision workstations with dual Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 processors combined with video editing software from companies like AVID, Adobe or Grass Valley, deliver a compelling solution capable of handling media instantly and efficiently,” said Frank Soqui, Workstation General Manager, Intel Corporation. “And, by adding storage technologies like solid state drives, media and entertainment customers can now edit film, video and file-based footage faster than they might have imagined possible.”

"As leaders in their respective market sectors, it is natural that Dell and Waves are partnering to bring the precise professional studio sound of FADER FORT performances to consumers," stated Jack Joseph Puig, Waves Director of Creative Innovation. "With Waves’ professional audio expertise combined with Dell’s industry leading workstations, we can enable professional producers and engineers in all areas of entertainment audio to do what they do best. We look forward to continuing to work with Dell to introduce some exciting technological innovations in audio.”

Additional Information:

• Dell on Twitter
• Dell Precision
• Dell PowerEdge
• Dell UltraSharp
• Dell Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

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¹ Principled Technologies report commissioned by Dell, August 2012, http://www.principledtechnologies.com/clients/reports/Dell/Dell_Precision_T7600_Mac_Pro_video_rendering_0812.pdf

² GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; significant system memory may be used to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factor