Every quarter, I like to do a little update to give our readers a behind-the-scenes look at what is happening. Often, there is a big difference between what folks see publicly and the inner workings of STH, so I like to peel that back. Last quarter we went into some of the gradual but large changes we were making. In this edition, I wanted to share why Q3 2024 was exceptionally cool.
Previous Updates
If you want to check out how this series has evolved, here are the links to the previous ones:
- STH 2019: Q1 – Q2 – Q3 – Q4
- STH 2020: Q1 – Q2 – Q3 – Q4
- STH 2021: Q1 – Q2 – Q3 – Q4
- STH 2022: Q1 – Q2 – Q3 – Q4
- STH 2023: Q1 – Q2 – Q3 – Q4
- STH 2024: Q1 – Q2
We now have been doing this for over five years. It is amazing how time flies.
2024 Q3 Absolutely Cool
This quarter was undoubtedly cool. The most exciting one that we published, and probably the second “coolest” one we recorded, was at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
A fun backstory there is that Intel initially gave the opportunity to a very large YouTuber (one that has 15M subscribers on their main channel), and they declined. At that point, I got the call since we did the San Francisco 49ers Levis Stadium. Also, for companies that keep metrics on data center analyst/ influencer reach and effectiveness, STH is quite literally off the charts at a number of companies. I originally thought that doing the Olympic Games Paris 2024 would be a matter of:
- Flying to Paris
- Setting up a tripod, the Canon R5, and putting a mic on
- Doing my normal thing
- Alex edits the video while I am flying back
- We go live a few days after filming
How wrong I was!
We started the process early in 2024. Paris 2024 is not an event that one could just go and film. Instead, there are sponsorship tiers that allow companies to be associated with the event. Intel has been an Olympic Games sponsor for a long time, so that was one component of getting to film. There are also strong media rights being enforced. Since STH does long-form horizontal video, we needed to secure the OK from all of the global broadcast rightsholders to be able to produce a piece even though we were not showing events.
After many months of doing an approval or two per week and having baby STH in the middle, we finally had the OK to do a piece, but not to film.
Even after months of approval, I was not allowed to hold a still or video camera in a ticketed venue and use the footage — that included my iPhone. Instead, we needed to use the Olympic Broadcasting Services film crew. For still photos, that was a Getty photographer. During parts, we also had a very nice woman who was shaking her head when I would say things like “Paris Olympics” or “the games” or “Olympics 2024”. Those are all “do not use” terms.
You might also notice that my Apple Watch was blurred out, and we did not show my iPhone in the video. Due to Samsung’s event sponsorship, no Apple products could be displayed. In the videos we publish, you will often see a Broadcom Tomahawk 4, AMD EPYC, Intel Xeon, Ampere Altra Max, NVIDIA GPU or NIC, and an Apple system in all of them. To follow the IOC rules, our videos had to go through a branding approval step to ensure that only allowed brands were shown.
This project took many days, and it was especially hard being away from my two-month-old son. It was a much more difficult process at every step than we had previously done before, and was a great learning experience.
Starting in Q2 2024, we had the concept for a server review that grew in scope. The STH crew will love this other project, which has not been published yet. After months of approvals, trips that resulted in no footage, and George and my phones/ camera gear being locked in security offices, we finally filmed it and have a sweet video (and article) coming. It is going through a process to ensure we are not showing too much IP and logos we are not supposed to. Had we not done the video in Paris this summer, this next one would not have gotten filmed.
In addition to all of the typical STH content we produce, looking at systems and gear from very big to very small, we have been looking to produce at least one big/ cool piece out in the world per quarter. I am trying to make that a regular feature on STH. My goal is to start covering edge installations worldwide in unique places and incredible data center installations. The challenge is that it does not happen overnight.
We are in the middle of a big launch cycle with the Intel Xeon 6900P Granite Rapids-AP last week and likely doing an Ampere AmpereOne review this week. AMD Turin is a Q4 launch as well. Technically, we will have the NVIDIA Oberon OEM launch happening albeit that is a different process. There is a ton coming on the processor side. The hope is that we can still manage to get plenty of the smaller mini PC, edge, and NAS systems, networking gear, and server reviews and also hit the mark for all of the launches. There were times 7-10 years ago when it felt like we did not have enough content, and I was happy to get anything. It feels like we have plenty, and I am trying to be mindful of what I want to cover.
That has created some challenges. We have two elegant server projects sitting half-built in the studio that I want to get done, but we lack publishing slots right now.
Of course, I hope we can show you the big piece we have been working on soon, so you can see why I am so excited.
With that said, we need help.
Hiring in Scottsdale
It is time to scale the team a bit. This quarter, we Welcomed the Newest STH Team Member, but he is taking time. My goal is to find someone who can become a #2 over time for STH. We also have some roles that we will be hiring for where the primary workplace will be in the STH studio.
If you live in the Phoenix/ Scottsdale area, or you know someone at ASU who would like to learn and get a job, please let us know.
Part of the reason we need help is due to the YouTube and Substack growth.
The STH YouTube Update
This quarter, the growth of the STH YouTube channel again slowed a bit, but we reached 700K subscribers. Instead of doing a piece for every 100,000 (e.g. the 500,000 one), I think we will next mark 750,000. That number will likely be reached in Q4 2024.
My best guess is that we will crest 1,000,000 sometime in Q4 2025 if the growth rate does not slow too much. At the same time, that means we are thinking about evolving the channel for a 1M+ subscriber audience. I still have a vision for what I want to do, and we are slowly moving in that direction.
The Axautik Group Update and Substack
In Q1, we rolled out our new analyst arm, the Axautik Group. This is the “Analyst” part of our Analyst-Influencer-Other model. Our first PCIe Gen6 and CXL retimer research short was more popular than I expected.
The Axautik Group will produce content designed more for the financial communities. Some folks will be upset that AG content will be priced more for those communities. This is not a replacement for STH in any way. Instead, it will be designed to take much of what we learn by doing STH and turn it into formats we can monetize.
There is a question of whether this will be more of a subscription model or selling one-off reports. We started doing a Substack in August. That Substack has been growing almost exactly in line with my expectations. It is not crazy growth, but it is growing at a nice clip for publishing once a week or so. For now, I think we are going to focus on the Substack and then have one-off reports on the AG site when something is much larger and more specific.
The Substack is meant more as something for a work subscription rather than a personal subscription. You can check it out here. I am hoping we can hire someone in the next few months to take over this as well. Revenue is still not quite there, but in 2025, it should be at this rate.
STH Labs: The Shorts Channel Update
As a 2024 project, we have the new STH Labs shorts channel here.
While growth and posting frequency have been slower this quarter, we still managed to see the STH Labs shorts continue to grow. Realistically, it is still much smaller than the main channel, and we need to increase the volume of content here. In the Q2 2024 letter I said I hope this crests 10K subscribers in early Q4. We are almost at early Q4, and we are getting close. Still, our long-form video focus has hurt the shorts channel.
Subscribe to the STH’s Newsletter and YouTube
Did you know STH has a free weekly newsletter that comes out on Saturday with curated “Top 5” pieces from the week? We know you cannot visit every day, so we can deliver our picks for weekend reading directly to your inbox. Subscribing to the newsletter is easy. Here is the form.
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Finally, subscribe to our YouTube and check it out here. Since that is a big focus at this point.
Subscribing to STH’s newsletter helps you see my favorite pieces of each week and a preview of the next week. Subscribing to the STH YouTube channel also helps us demonstrate our reach beyond just the website. Sometimes, doing things like showing power consumption or fan noise is easier than writing about it. This has also been something important for STH over the past few months. We have to demonstrate reach, and simple things like subscriber counts help explain reach.
Final Words
Again, thank you to all of our readers, the STH team, and our advertisers for making everything possible. Q3 2024 was a lot of work, but it was also fun learning about the production that needs to happen if we take another step forward in doing big projects. Not everything is going to be perfect, but it has been a lot of fun.
A very cool year!
It would be interesting to perform a head-to-head comparison of Granite Rapids versus AmpereOne and Epyc Turin CPUs.
Given the high core counts memory bandwidth could become an issue, so scaling analysis would be quite interesting for each one. For example, Geekbench 5 and 6 running on 4 cores with the rest idle, then 8 cores, 16 and so forth until all cores are being used.
Thanks for the update, wishing you and your family all the best!
I do have to say that this year has been a sort of bonanza for the processor business on all sides. Ampere bringing out its AmpereOne, Intel with Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids, AMD with more Ryzen and Epyc. I’m a little surprised we don’t see much from IBM regarding their POWER or Z architecture chips. Of course Nvidia still owns the AI market and AMD’s playing catch-up there. Definitely looking forward to what’s next.