For two decades, NVIDIA has pioneered visual computing, the art and science of computer graphics. With its invention of the GPU, the engine of modern visual computing, the field has expanded to encompass PC games, movie production, product design, medical diagnosis and scientific research.
Today, visual computing is becoming increasingly central to how people interact with technology. Its products span the entire spectrum of visual computing – from fundamental inventions, to processors incorporating GPUs, to system components, to fully integrated systems.
NVIDIA targets three major vertical markets: gaming, professional visualisation and design and high performance computing along with big data analytics. For each, it offers a platform of processors, software, tools, marketing, expertise and increasingly, connected services.
In an interaction with AnimationXpress.com’s Niyati Handa, NVIDIA’S, managing director, south Asia Vishal Dhupar disclosed about their new Quadro launch and its benefits in uplifting the gaming and entertainment industry.
NVIDIA has been around for over two decades now, what has kept the company really going?
NVIDIA’s foundation is built on visual computing; it is the science and art of computer graphics. The work we have done for last 20 years with over $7 billion in investments has helped many important industries. Our work delights and amazes people and there are billions of devices that are delivering quality work with our support. The field of computer graphics encompasses product design, video games, medical diagnosis and multitude of other capabilities. We are very passionate about this field and will continue to invest in it. We work very closely with independent software developers and vendors and bring their products to life. The likes of Autodesk, Adobe and many more are onboard as our partners.
With the recent launch of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, how is it going to change visual computing for the future?
There is a lot of thought and research that has gone into the development of Quadro GPUs based on the inputs that we have received from all our global partners and clients. This will now go onto help in smoother workflows across cities, states and around the globe; these new generation cards have twice the power of data handling as well as performance and more importantly it helps to get connected over the cloud to give you performance that nobody has ever seen before.
The work started way back in LA in August and today we have brought the technology to India. Our belief is that our loyal client base as well as our customers will spread the word of our excellent new product line, since they are already using them and thus capture the pulse of the market.
How has NVIDIA been positioned in the Indian market? Which are the key growth verticals for the company?
So today is the day where we are looking at the professional visualization market place. This is market where we have a dominant share, but our bigger challenge is to increase the frontiers of this industry, so my team and I spend more time trying to see how things can be developed further, so that all our partners can come together and help to nurture the industry. We have dug our hands deep in working across educational segments; specialized industries like diamonds, where we are helping people to come to terms with the value our enterprise in creating product solutions for them.
What kind of training programmes do you host for your partners, for better understanding of your products?
The programmes are an integral part of NVIDIA’S growth strategy. Partners come in different shape and sizes, there are people who basically integrate products and sell to their customers, and we bring technology to them. We help them understand how the technology is going to differentiate itself in a specific industry by giving them examples of cases that have happened across the globe. We help them by making sure that they understand how to support customers after they buy it and together with teams of engineers that NVIDA has, we are able to come together and make sure that our customers are always satisfied with our services.
Several programmes are underway, where we are getting enterprise partners together, enabling them to understand our technology, and likewise getting their views on the industry needs and together building up the programmes which customers will be able to take advantage of. These programmes are running across the country, there are few which are held every month. We have partners from all across the globe.
What is NVIDIA’S role in supporting and nurturing the animation, VFX and gaming industry? How successful has it been in its endeavour?
One of the greatest challenges the creative world has faced in India is the quality of people that we are getting because of the lack of infrastructure, studies from NASSCOM and other research institutes show that typically one out of four people is ready to do a job as soon as they finish their graduation. In their attempt to enhance their skills level, we have joined hands with several agencies that are bringing curriculums to them. We are creating infrastructure for people so that they have hands on experience. We are refreshing CAD-labs in engineering colleges and by virtue of that they will be able to use the application tools, and will become more well-versed and productive the day they join this industry.
Pretty much all the animation studios in India and abroad use NVIDIA’s technology. Prime Focus, After Studios, etc. you just name the studio and I will tell you that all of them embrace our technology specially – Quadro, it’s the heart and soul of every digital artist and designer. NVIDIA is well known among Animation, Gaming and VFX industry; as we work with the leading studios.
If we look at the movies that has come in recent time, like RA.One, Chennai Express and Krissh 3 all have been created using the NVIDIA platform.
Gone Girl is a very special movie, it’s a first movie shot on 6K camera, which will redefine content and detailing, and our new product line is very capable of handling such complex work.
From PCs, to consoles and now to tablets and mobiles, NVIDIA has forayed into all available platforms, so what next for the future? Do we see NVIDIA coming up with something involving artificial intelligence (AI) as well?
NIVIDIA started 20 years back and we had built all our platforms leveraging open systems that were available in that particular time. With the oncoming of mobiles computing, cloud computing, we embraced those disruptions and made visual computing even more expendable. It’s our belief that in the new disrupted world, visual computing will play an even bigger role, that’s when the PC’s have morphed into tablets and consoles and devices are multitude of other devices that we are getting to see even in cars.
Audi, BMW and Mercedes all endorse NVIDIA’s technology for navigation system, travelling assistance. As Android the operating system of humanity is going to disrupt different worlds, NVIDIA is in the forefront with them to make a difference in the society. Now visual computing has gone to the next forefront, computer vision, photo realistic photography, imagery processing, machine learning, etc. are big virtues of this visual computing. Machine learning is playing an enormous role in where web 2.0 companies will be. Whether its photo or song tagging, searches or facial recognition these all are applications of machine learning and at the heart of this is the real Artificial Intelligence that plays an important role. So, NVIDIA is absolutely delighted with the kind of work we are doing with these companies.