AudioMedia - March 2009 - (Page 50) Audio Projects, Barcelona Sun, sea, and competitive rates – is this really all it takes to make it in audio post production? Definitely not, but it helps. PAUL MAC talks to Andrew Galletly of Audio Projects about the Barcelona advantage. udio Projects, Barcelona, is an impressive post production business. Built up from very humble beginnings by the Managing Director, Andrew Galletly, alongside the wise business head of his father, John Galletly (Chairman), it has become a major player, primarily in European language dubbing and subtitling; but encompassing many roles in audio post production. These include sound design and mixing, plus media work such as DVD authoring, conversion, encoding, and so on. Two recent additions to the real estate promise new aspects to the studio’s already busy workload with the purchase and refurbishment of the ex-DUY rooms in Plaza Lesseps, in the heart of Barcelona, and the construction of a Dolby Premier room amongst the city’s ‘ @’ development. HQ for Audio Projects is a large facility in nearby La Garriga – m in a late th century manor house. The La Garriga facilities extend to four dubbing rooms, three mixing rooms, a Foley studio, authoring and video editing suites, a transfer room, and office space. The new Lesseps space adds three A studios and a Dolby theatre amongst some very individual design features arranged in a U-shape with two entrances into a larger building. The main workhorse tool of choice in here is the new Fairlight Xynergi system, of which there are currently two on site. The newest acquisition is currently in its building phase, under the expert direction of Philip Newell (Reflexion Arts) who was also responsible for the company’s other facilities. When finished, it will house a dedicated single large mixing room with Euphonix Fusion console, Reflexion Arts monitoring, and hopefully claim the coveted and still rather exclusive moniker of a Dolby Premier license. Importantly, Galletly estimates that at least percent of the core language dubbing work is for export and not for the domestic market. The client base spans the globe – Japan, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, UK, US, and South America are amongst the origins. The main destination languages remain English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Catalan – with individual Project Managers for each. There are several reasons for this international approach – and the attraction of international business. One of the big reasons is price; alongside availability of talent. Barcelona is still a relatively low-cost place to do business and to live. Then there’s the bonus of good weather a relaxed, sociable nightlife, and tapas – which all go some way to explaining the proliferation of international creative types in the area. So a reliable pool of talent and the ever-more pressing matter of budget makes conditions ripe for an operation such as Audio Projects. This also means that Galletly does not have to rely on the unusual annual TV tender (TV is the major local domestic broadcaster). Galletly explains that the local broadcaster dubs around , hours of programming every year, and every year studios are asked to bid for that work – itemised by length of content, genre, and more. Once the prices are in, the work gets handed out in scaled lumps as a percentage of those hours. “ Technicians go from one studio to another, depending on where the studios end up on the list,” says Galletly. The tendency is for the less ambitious facilities to wait for the tender process to play out, then adjust the year’s business plan accordingly, rather than spreading the liability and moving into the international league. There is some popular weight behind changing the system, possibly with TV specifying prices, and using and paying studios on merit – quality, speed, and so on. 50 AUDIO MEDIA MARCH 2009
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