Use the workstation as built.
Applications, plugins, GPUs, caches, licence clients, and mounted storage stay in place.
Media and VFX
The artist is elsewhere. The production stack stays put.
Give editors, colourists, and VFX artists responsive access to the Linux, Windows, or Mac workstation already connected to shared storage, installed applications, plugins, GPUs, and specialist hardware.
Product evidence
Real creative application through Deck
The operating problem
Moving the workstation stack is harder than reaching it.
Source media, caches, plugins, colour pipelines, licence services, GPUs, and storage are already coupled in the facility. Rebuilding that environment elsewhere creates another production stack to operate.
Carry the artist's working gestures.
Deck carries keyboard, trackpad, and Wacom pen pressure, tilt, and rotation to Pier—no Wacom driver needed on the host.
Grade in 10-bit 4:4:4, and HDR where the host proves it.
The Grading preset streams HEVC 4:4:4 10-bit BT.709; HDR adds PQ/BT.2020. Tested with Autodesk Flame on Linux and DaVinci Resolve on Windows.
Publish workstation sound when required.
Pier can publish workstation audio for editing and review, or the operator can disable it.
A practical freelancer handoff
Start the job without mailing a hard drive.
When a freelancer needs to begin quickly, keep the project on studio storage and give the authorized artist remote control of a workstation already connected to the production environment.
Prepare the workstation, project, and account.
The studio keeps the media on its existing storage and makes one Pier reachable over its LAN or customer VPN.
Install Deck and connect to the supplied address.
The freelancer uses the route and workstation credentials provided by the studio. Arcen does not create the account or VPN access.
Use the production workstation from somewhere else.
The applications execute on Pier and the project files stay on studio storage instead of being copied to a drive and shipped.
Boundary: Remote control presents frames to the artist. It is not anti-piracy or leak prevention; screen capture, a camera, or application export may still reproduce information.
Creative proof
Judge the pixels, pen, and sound in the real application.
Arcen is engineered for responsive, high-quality workstation access. A studio should judge colour, codecs, display layout, peripherals, and latency on its own pipeline and production content.
Evidence required
Live application and image output
Evidence required
Pen position and pressure in a real task
Evidence required
Workstation audio in review
Generated interfaces are never used as product proof.
Operator control
Pier decides which session channels exist.
Pier controls clipboard direction, content type, transfer size, workstation audio, and microphone input. Deck cannot widen the policy.
Set direction, content, and size.
Allow both directions, one direction, or none; permit text, PNG images, or both within a host-defined limit.
Match the review path.
Enable workstation audio for editorial and review, or disable the channel.
Control the upstream channel separately.
Microphone input is a separate host setting, and the Deck asks for consent on every launch. Linux hosts today; the macOS Pier preview ships a virtual microphone.
Keep runtime dependencies out.
Direct sessions and OS authentication work without contacting an Arcen-operated service.
Shift economics
Use the same workstation across shifts.
Arcen Pier and Deck are free software under AGPL-3.0. Creative application licensing remains separate and runs on the Pier.
FreeAGPL-3.0
Product status
macOS Deck with Linux and Windows Pier is the current platform path; macOS Pier is a preview. Display topologies, peripheral coverage, and release availability must be checked against the published product status. Span is under consideration and is not part of the current product.
Technical evidence
Inspect what happens before a frame reaches Deck.
Review the Grading and HDR pipelines, codecs, pen modes and certificate trust.
Open the technical page