Autodesk is making moves to acquire X2X Media Group’s Pix, an award-winning production management application used by M&E creatives and execs for secure review and collaboration spanning the production process, from data acquisition to post. The deal, whose terms have not been disclosed, hinges on various factors, Autodesk said, and if met, closing is expected in early fiscal-year 2025.
What do we think? It’s obvious that Autodesk is building up its Design and Make strategy. This past November, Autodesk began rolling out its third industry cloud, Flow, for the media and entertainment industry, with the intent of providing a seamless end-to-end collaboration environment spanning preproduction to postproduction. Pix appears to fit well into that strategy.
Autodesk announces deal for Pix
The key to a smooth workflow is unimpeded communication and collaboration. X2X Media has been providing this and more to the media and entertainment industry with its Pix production management platform. Now, Autodesk has confirmed that it has reached an agreement to buy Pix, X2X’s production management tool for review and content collaboration spanning the production process. However, these are still early days for the agreement.
In November 2023, Autodesk rolled out Flow, its M&E industry cloud on its Design and Make platform. Flow aims to unite fragmented production pipelines, connecting teams and all project data with a seamless pipeline that all project stakeholders can use. With Flow, all the project information, from shots to the latest edits, can be found in Flow, serving as a single source of truth for assets, versions, and feedback. Flow uses open standards, enabling users to access and manage their assets, independent of the tools they use.
Moxion and ShotGrid were the first Autodesk offerings added to Flow.
Pix fits hand in glove with Autodesk’s Design and Make Platform strategy for M&E, operating on the same premise. Built on a cloud-based infrastructure, Pix offers a centralized space used by all the project stakeholders, enabling real-time collaboration. With Pix in the mix, Autodesk will have a wide cloud-based communication and collaboration network, linking preproduction and postproduction, with Flow at the center.
The Pix acquisition is in the early stages, with the two companies having entered into an agreement, which, of course, is dependent on regulatory approval and Conditions of Satisfaction. If the deal proceeds, it would not close until early fiscal-year 2025, said Autodesk. Terms have not been disclosed.
The online collaboration application Pix was developed by Eric Dachs in 2003 and provides secure communication and production content management capabilities. Pix has been heavily used in the film and broadcast industry over the years. In 2019, Dachs received a Technical Achievement Award from AMPAS for the production management platform. That same year, the company acquired Codex Digital, which males digital production workflow tools. Among its offerings was the system for transferring content from set to post. It was at this time that Pix (and Codex) began operating under the X2X Media Group name.
Flow is one of three Autodesk industry clouds, which also includes Fusion for M&E and Forma for AEC, all with the same purpose of having all aspects of a project in one location, accessible through the cloud. Recently, Autodesk unveiled Informed Design, part of its industry cloud XX, for linking design and manufacturing workflows to make industrialized construction faster and more accurate.