Independent artists such as composers and editors rarely have the resources to retain a technology consultant. "Superman Returns'" John Ottman, who fills both roles (he is a film composer who edits movies only for longtime collaborator Bryan Singer), relies on his more tech-oriented friends to point out solutions to problems he didn't know he had.

"My music editor, my chief orchestrator and conductor -- when they see me suffering with old technology, they speak up," says Ottman, who turns to his recording engineer to install new equipment.

Frequently, though, Ottman finds, "When people ask me for something I can't do, that's when I know I have to catch up."

There was the phone call, for example, where someone asked him to "MP3 over that cue." Ottman had no idea what that meant, so he had to learn how to send digital files over the Internet.

But high-tech businesses can't afford to fall behind.

At visual effects house Rhythm & Hues, technology VP Mark Brown oversees a broad range of infrastructure, including vfx hardware and software, management IT and facilities.

Brown keeps abreast of "bleeding-edge" technologies through magazines, Internet news feeds, catalogs, conversations with vendors and even referrals from within the company.

"It's a background task. It's constantly running in the back of your mind," he says.

Brown spent some 20 years at USC, rising to associate dean for information technology before leaving in 1995.

At R&H, one of his main challenges is deciding when to go with something new and when to stick to proven technology.

"We'll put tried-and-true systems in as our primary technology, and we'll take the bleeding-edge stuff and start slowly funneling it in, find out where it works, where it fails, what its quirks are," says Brown. "It's not often that we'll put a bleeding-edge technology into production, because we can't afford to fail, ever."

Like Brown, many industry tech pros come from a background in information technology, not show business.

Fox Intl. Channels' Hector Frausto, exec director of business operations & information technology, worked for a marine insurance company in Pasadena before coming to Fox. Now he supervises IT infrastructure for some 600 people in 18 countries.

"Every time Rupert Murdoch buys a new company in the world, I have to go out there," says Frausto.

He spends 60%-70% of his time outside the U.S., integrating new acquisitions into Fox's IT systems.

"I try to attend as many seminars as possible, go to as many tradeshows as possible, a lot of reading, Internet," he says of keeping current.

Even more than Brown, Frausto likes to push for adoption of the latest tech innovations, even when it means asking staff to give up something they're already comfortable with.

"Usually, when new technology is out there and it's going to save money for the company, there's no objection to it," he says.