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docs/sigs/MediaAndEntertainmentSIG.md

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+# Media & Entertainment SIG
+
+Special Interest Group for Visual Effects, Animation, Post-Production and other Media & Entertainment fields.
+The Media & Entertainment SIG is a Special Interest Group dedicated to supporting and enhancing the use of AlmaLinux within the professional visual effects, animation, and post-production industries. Our mission is to ensure AlmaLinux becomes the trusted, production-ready Linux platform for studios of all sizes by serving as the central hub for collaboration between artists, engineers, and open-source developers. To ensure AlmaLinux is the trusted, production-ready Linux platform for studios large and small, while contributing patches, documentation, and reference architectures back to the AlmaLinux ecosystem.
+
+### How to Join
+
+Joining is easy! You can:
+Show up to a SIG meeting
+
+Pick up an issue from our tracker by assigning it to yourself
+
+Ask questions and get involved in our chat space
+
+Not every contributor wants to be a member of the SIG, but if you do, participation is straightforward and always welcome.
+
+### Where we chat
+
+We use Mattermost (link TBD) for communication. Discussions also occur on the AlmaLinux mailing list: lists.almalinux.org.
+
+### Where and when we meet
+
+The Media & EntertainmentSIG will hold monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of each month at 16:00 UTC.
+This time was chosen to accommodate members across Europe and Canada — aligning with late afternoon in Europe and mid-morning to midday across Canadian time zones.
+Meetings are open to all and will be held virtually through the AlmaLinux community platform.
+
+### Activities, projects, and deliverables
+
+The Media & EntertainmentSIG will focus on:
+Certification & compatibility: Ensuring Media & Entertainment industry-standard tools (Nuke, Houdini, Maya, Blender, etc.) run smoothly on AlmaLinux.
+
+Reference builds: Providing guides for configuring workstations, render nodes, and storage systems.
+
+Studio workflows: Documentation for hybrid and on-prem Media & Entertainment pipelines (storage, networking, render farms).
+
+Best practices: Security hardening, performance tuning, and reliability guidelines for production environments.
+
+Community contributions: Packaging, testing, and bug reporting related to Media & Entertainment software.
+
+### Help wanted
+
+We welcome contributions of all shapes and sizes! Areas where help is needed:
+Packaging: Assist in building and packaging ASWF projects into RPMs and Creating automation playbooks for render farms, storage, and pipeline tools for AlmaLinux
+Testing: Run validation tests, Benchmarking and publishing performance data for hardware and workloads projects to ensure stability and compatibility with other Media & Entertainment / Animation software on AlmaLinux and reporting issues.
+Documentation: Write guides on how to install, configure, and integrate these projects into studio pipelines and transitions to AlmaLinux.
+Bug Reporting: Identify and report bugs specifically related to running ASWF software on AlmaLinux.
+Upstream Collaboration: Work with the upstream ASWF project teams to contribute patches and provide feedback from the AlmaLinux community.
+
+Project/task tracker: [GitHub Issues link TBD]
+
+### SIG members
+
+Tristan Theroux – SIG Lead (IT Infrastructure & Security Director, SHED Inc.)
+
+Samuel Bissonnette - Founding Member (Pipeline TD, SHED Inc.)
+
+Cristian Slavik – Founding Member (NOX, VFX Supervisor)
+
+Mike Owen –Founding Member (AWS M&E)
+
+Eric Marundee - Founding Member (Independent)
+
+Aubert Vachon - Founding Member ( IT Operations Manager, Cinesite)
+
+John Kirkman - Founding Member ( Director of Platform & Infrastructure, Disney Animation Studios)
+
+Alex Fuller - Founding Member ( Lead R&D Software Developer, Flying Bark Productions)
+
+Laurence Cymet - Founding Member ( Head of Technology, WeFX)
+
+Timothy Toulis - Founding Member ( Systems Engineer, WeFX)
+
+Neal Gompa – Founding Member (Engineer, Velocity Limitless)
+
+### Additional information for SIG application approval
+
+Timeline
+Q1 2026 Official kickoff, initial focus on documenting AlmaLinux workstation and render farm configurations.
+
+Mid to late - 2026: Publication of reference architectures and compatibility guidelines for Media & Entertainment studios.
+
+### Resources
+
+Infrastructure: A Mattermost channel, mailing list, and GitHub space under AlmaLinux.
+
+### Funding
+
+None required at this stage, though future sponsorship may be requested for industry outreach (e.g., SIGGRAPH presence or licensing to test softwares).
+
+### Why now
+
+The Media & Entertainment industry is experiencing significant disruption due to recent licensing and support changes from established platform providers. This has created a clear and urgent demand for a stable, open-source, and enterprise-grade Linux distribution that studios can rely on. AlmaLinux is perfectly positioned to fill this gap.
+This SIG will act as the crucial bridge between the AlmaLinux community and the M&E industry. We will ensure the needs of studios, artists, and engineers are not just heard, but are actively documented, addressed, and integrated into the AlmaLinux ecosystem, guaranteeing it is the trusted, long-term platform for production pipelines.