Audio Media - September 2008 - (Page 52) HOLLYOAKS GOES HD Upgrading for high-definition at Lime Pictures. BEN WRIGHT learns how the TV production company behind UK soap Hollyoaks made the best of a move to high definition, and completely re-imagined their audio and video production processes. s it Lime Pictures – or Strawberry Fields? When you first enter the grounds of Merseyside’s foremost independent television production company, there’s a similar nothingis-real atmosphere, the impression aided by the fact that John Lennon’s old stomping ground is only a couple of miles from the leafy Liverpool suburb where Lime are based. If you’ve ever taken a Hollywood studio tour, you’ll know what I mean. Is that crèche by the entrance a real one for employees, or is it part of a permanent Hollyoaks set? Is this the entrance to Lime’s production facilities, part of the now sadly defunct Grange Hill, or the entrance to Hollyoaks High School? Confusingly, it turns out that the answer to all of the above questions is ‘yes’. Most of the Lime Pictures premises are also used as sets, inside and out, to the extent that the company’s employees are frequently trapped in their dubbing suites or offices while a bevy of impossibly welltoned bodies completes a take in what has temporarily become a ‘school corridor’ outside. To complete the sense of mental disorientation, it turns out that the reason why so much of Lime’s premises looks like a secondary school or art college is that it used to be, well, an art college. But then there is much that sets Lime Pictures apart from other independent TV production companies. Known originally as Mersey Television, it was founded by Grange Hill and Brookside creator Phil Redmond in the early ‘80s, and has been home to both of those former shows at different times. Since 15, Hollyoaks, now Channel 4’s flagship soap, has been made there, and production is now continuous, most days a week, 52 weeks a year. To support this rolling production, Lime owns its own premises, builds its own sets, services its own equipment, and has its own on-site video and audio post-production facilities. As Lime’s Group Head of Production Jamie Hall points out, Lime is really more like a small division of an older-style broadcaster on the BBC or Granada model than the usual small-footprint TV production company. Technically, too, the company has distinguished itself, adopting a server-based production process for i Hollyoaks in 2001, and earlier this year, becoming one of the world’s first continuously produced soaps to move to high-definition production. It’s rare that a TV company gets an opportunity to completely revamp its audio and video equipment, workflows and production methods – to say nothing of the funding – and yet Lime’s HD upgrade allowed it to do just that. Moreover, the unforgiving allyear-round schedule of a continuous soap leaves little room for such far-reaching changes to the production process. Yet somehow, Lime have pulled it off. THE REVIEWER PAUL MAC is the Editor of Audio Media magazine. The major impetus for the changes at Lime came from satellite broadcaster Sky, which wanted more highdefinition drama to complement its impressive roster of HD Sports coverage. Channel 4 decided to offer Hollyoaks to Sky in HD – which in turn required them to make some serious investment in new video equipment at Lime Pictures. However, it was Jamie Hall’s decision to find additional funding to take the improvements a stage further. An upgrade of Lime’s aging AMS AudioFile DAWs and dubbing suites had already been under consideration for some time, and there was a tentative plan to switch to Merging’s Pyramix. But Hall decided to do even more. “It was a question of funding; you always have to demonstrate what benefit you can bring to the programme by investing in new equipment. And the impetus to go HD was the perfect opportunity.” The upgrade proved to be a break with the past in many ways. With Hollyoaks’ relentless production schedule, there was no downtime or between-seasons hiatus in which to install the new equipment, so preparations were made for the new HD video and audio facilities to be installed alongside the old SD systems. This also gave Lime the opportunity to bring all their video and audio production suites together on one floor of their offices, with a new Central Apparatus Room (CAR) on the floor below, next to the in-house engineering workshops. End O f The Tape > 52 audio media september 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.