Sohonet unifies VFX workflows with managed Media Fabric and 4K HDR tools

The shift toward 4K and 8K streaming content has made high-fidelity remote review a technical necessity rather than a luxury. By consolidating critical review tools with a managed networking layer, Sohonet addresses the mounting complexity of 'virtualized' post-production, where vendors and artists are often geographically fragmented. For the ecosystem, this move signals a transition away from disjointed point solutions toward integrated 'media-native' infrastructure that competes with general-purpose cloud providers. Success in this category will be defined by the ability to maintain sub-100ms latency while handling the massive bitrates required for 4K HDR. Watch for adoption rates among Tier-1 streamers like Netflix, which are increasingly moving high-end production pipelines entirely into managed cloud environments.

The VFX and virtual production market is undergoing a period of rapid technological acceleration, with Global Market Insights Inc. forecasting the sector to grow from $3.3 billion in 2026 to $18.5 billion by 2035. This expansion is driven by the normalization of real-time engines and cloud-based workflows as streaming platforms like Disney+ and Netflix scale high-budget, asset-heavy programming. Per VFX Voice (January 2026), the industry has shifted toward 'web-native' production pipelines where global talent pools collaborate as if they were in the same room, necessitated by recent Hollywood labor shifts and the need for greater operational flexibility.

In April 2026, Sohonet officially soft-launched Media Fabric, positioning it as a 'unified managed infrastructure suite' to close the gap between expanding cloud tools and shrinking internal IT resources. This move aligns with broader industry trends toward 'cloud repatriation' and hybrid models, where studios seek to regain control over costs and security by using specialized media-optimized networks rather than relying solely on generic hyperscale providers. Per British Cinematographer (April 2026), Sohonet’s infrastructure now includes a strategic partnership with Resilio to power the high-speed file synchronization essential for moving multi-terabyte VFX assets across these distributed environments.

Simultaneously, competitors are racing to provide similar integrated environments. Per OpenPR (May 2026), Autodesk launched Flow Studio in late 2025, which provides a cloud-native collaboration environment for managing VFX assets. The competition is intensifying as streaming platforms demand higher efficiency to offset rising production costs. Analysts at Research Nester (September 2025) noted that AI-driven automation is expected to account for a significant portion of VFX market share by 2035, further increasing the demand for high-performance networking like Media Fabric that can handle the high-concurrency traffic of AI-assisted rendering and real-time world-building.