AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 30) Pinewood > – the Powell Theatre (renamed from Pinewood Theatre ), for example. Sometimes a particular site will fit better with a Director’s home location, or other services that the company is using. The point is that this mix-and-match approach works well for clients but requires mixers and support teams to be flexible and not get too precious about a particular room. but Euphonix had stolen the march on them five years ago. One thing I loved about the Euphonix was the feedback from the screens… The build, the quality of the sound, the number of tracks they can handle, a truly assignable board. We hung our hat on that and it was very difficult to justify going to another.” Teddington Studios, on the other hand, which had its own mixing theatre some years ago, was destined for another business tack. It was decided that TV was the Teddington way, and now plays host to a variety of TV stages and channels. Smaller stages are rented out on a yearly basis to projects such as the Poker Channel, a horse racing channel, and a Chinese channel. “It’s a nice business,” says O’Donoghue, “because it’s contracted and fixed – known revenue for a known period of time.” The two main TV stages are also seen as a complement to the two TV stages at Pinewood – most recently associated with The Weakest Link, My Family, The Lily Allen Show, Gladiators, and more. The point here is that these are purpose built. “You could go in there and switch on, whereas at Shepperton you’d have to bring in OB trucks and all that – more a dry hire space. To aid this kind of adaptability, the Group now has four Euphonix System -F consoles in the four main theatres – two at Pinewood, and two at Shepperton. All four consoles are dual-operator System -F systems, each with DSP channels, channels of analogue I/O, channels of AES I/O, and MADI I/Os. The only spec that separates them is the frame size. The Powell Theatre (Pinewood) has faders; Pressburger (Pinewood), ; Korda (Shepperton), ; and Theatre , Shepperton, . All four systems are now equipped with EuCon Hybrid for extensive, multiple DAW control over Ethernet, and the latest version . eMix software. “Going back five years,” explains O’Donoghue, “we took the plunge and bought the first Euphonix [digital] desk in the country – a big System in the Korda Theatre. That proved instantly successful. On the back of that, a year later we bought another one for Theatre .” A short while after, the fate of the two main Pinewood consoles had to be considered – a Harrison Series (“…lovely desk, but it had run its course and needed upgrading”); and an AMS Neve DFC (“great desk, but again needed money spending on it”). Thus, late last year the fourth Euphonix install for the Pinewood Group was announced. According to O’Donoghue: “We’re now one studio. If you’re running one studio… you would probably endeavor to have the same hardware – for support, spares, maintenance, and mixers moving from room to room… We can all mix, but it’s much tougher to mix on a desk where you don’t quite know where the EQ is, or the routing is… “It’s no reflection at all on Harrison or AMS Neve who had supported us fantastically well, Q uadruplets Overall, the Pinewood Group is dedicated to being an all-encompassing media service provider, and achieves that not only through its own resources, but also those of its tenants. The title ‘Media City’ is being coined all over the place at the momemtn, but the Pinewood Group is among the originals – still creating new partnerships and doing bigger, better deals. A recent example of that is the production of a recent flagship BBC period drama, Little Dorrit (from the Dickens story). The Pinewood Group collaborated with its tenants and partners to provide a one-stop shop for the project – not just for post, but for shooting and finishing as well. The filming was done on Pinewood stages and a back lot set. The picture editing equipment was supplied through Hireworks; a new partnership with Molinare in Soho (screens and control in Produc tion Bundle Pinewood, material/masters/hardware at Molinare via SohoNet) took care of the grading and visual effects; SonicTracks was subcontracted to do the sound edit; the Foley was done in the main Pinewood Foley studio, and then a Pinewood mixer, Ian Tapp, did the audio mix in a Pinewood theatre. “ We’re rather thrilled about it,” says O’Donoghue. “It’s the first real instance of the Pinewood Group doing a package of everything… It’s an attraction because the producers know it’s one price – unless they deviate massively from the original time allowed.” O’Donoghue is patently proud of this latest ‘bundle’, which he explains was only possible because he now has an environment filled with media services that he can recommend and that will not let the client down. This one-stop-shop approach, derived from the new, improved co-operation both between sites around the Pinewood Group and with its resident companies is, in part, an antidote to the Soho-effect. The ‘out-of-town’ studios have a suffered over recent times because of the accessibility of services inside the Soho catchment, first driven by a powerful > A1 Discrete Class A and Tube Dual Preamp / DI A2 Discrete Class A and Tube Stereo Processor Ice Cool Looks Discrete Class A Electronics Plus Tube Warmth All Ebony Series feature tube stages with variable drive in addition to the discrete Class A circuitry putting you in total control of how ‘warm’ or how ‘cool’ you want the sound. From £499 ex vat. PASSIONATE ABOUT TUBES A3 Discrete Class A and Tube Mono Channel Strip tlaudio.co.uk N EW A4 Discrete Class A and Tube 16:2 Summing Amp http://tlaudio.co.uk http://tlaudio.co.uk
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