With two Avids and two Jaleos occupying their comfortably decorated ‘nouveau’ suites, the gang at Toronto’s Optix are making room for a brand new system coming all the way from the Canary Islands ­ The Jaleo Octane.

The Jaleo Octane workstation from Silicon Graphics is capable of handling two layers of 3D DVE, color correction and transition effects in a single pass in realtime. And according to Shane Nakoneshny, Optix sales and marketing representative, it will be the fastest box in the city.

One of the drawbacks of the previous Jaleo systems has been their lack of processing speed and power; something that could take five minutes to render in Flame might have taken 20 minutes in Jaleo, says Nakoneshny.

With the new system, they will be more competitive in speed as Jaleo Octane’s dual processors will allow them to get things done four to five times faster.

Explains Paul Moyer, Optix gm, ‘It will have realtime capabilities instead of having to render certain functions.’

For Optix, the addition of the new system was a way for the relatively new company, opened last October, to improve their services and meet agencies’ demands.

‘We want to position ourselves to do a lot of high-end work for commercial productions,’ says Nakoneshny.

The old systems will still be used as design tools and to create elements in an offline preparatory stage, so the introduction of the new system will allow Optix to produce a lot more volume.

Seated at the reins of the Octane and running the show will be one of Optix’s founding partners, George Levai, who has been working with the system for a number of years doing demos at trade shows.

The Optix team is confident the Octane will be busy with commercials, television show openings and music videos from the moment it reaches its new home in their main suite.

The editing suites and the interior design of the office space itself are set up in a very non-traditional way, allowing Optix to position itself as a boutique. With a large-screen tv and communal bar, it makes for a comfortable atmosphere for clients and editors to hang out.

‘We have the suites set up so the editor and the client can sit together, so the client feels like they are part of the creative process,’ says Nakoneshny. ‘Architecturally, we designed the space a lot differently so it allows for better interaction and it is comfortable.’

And that space fared well as they packed it with 500 people and a lot of food, drinks and music for a July party which gave Optix a chance to introduce its services to the industry.

So far they have worked with Microsoft and Softimage through Corporate Vision, and have done a video for the Headstones through Universal Music and a spot for McCain with Magic.

‘I think we have done well and are getting off to a great start,’ says Nakoneshny. ‘Technologically we are there.’