Archive for January, 2012

HOLLYWOOD—Soundelux Supervising Sound Editor Becky Sullivan faced an unusual task in creating sound for In the Land of Blood and Honey¸ Angelina Jolie’s powerful, new film about the Bosnian War. Jolie produced two versions of the film, one in English, the other in Serbo-Croatian and therefore Sullivan and her crew needed to produce two complete soundtracks, one in a language none of them spoke.

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Hip hop kings Jay-Z and Kanye West have teamed on an eight-week run of their Watch The Throne North American tour where Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are playing a key role. The tour, which ends in Vancouver just before Christmas, supports the rappers’ joint LP released in August and features solo cuts from their own catalogs.

Solotech, which is providing all the tour’s lighting, rigging and specialty lighting fixtures, supplied 130 Clay Paky Sharpys from its inventory to lighting designer Nick Whitehouse. “The design of the tour is very minimal, modern and eclectic,” says Richard Lachance, at Solotech, which is headquartered in Montreal. “The lighting, lasers and staging are very different – there’s a center module that’s a B stage which is very prominent, and the show is laden with LED products.”

Karl Gaudreau at Solotech, recalls that “the first time Nick used Sharpys was for Beyonce when they blew away all the other lights on the rig. Now Nick is using mostly Sharpys for the main rig for Jay-Z and Kanye. He’s positioned 24 on the floor and 48 on the main truss. Three other trusses combine Sharpys with strobes, and Sharpys are integrated with other lights on the back wall as well.”

Sharpy is a 189W moving head with an unprecedented brightness usually achievable only with far greater wattages. Tipping the scales at just 16 kg, Sharpy produces a perfectly parallel, laser-like beam with an incredible output of 5,100 footcandles at 65 feet. Sharpy is also groundbreaking in the purity of its beam, which is sharply defined and free of any halo or discoloration around the edges. It offers an interchangeable color wheel with 14 fixed colors and an interchangeable gobo wheel with 17 fixed gobos, allowing users to change the shape of the beam and create an array of spectacular mid-air effects. Sharpy features new, high-performance electronics and can perform rapid and extensive pan-and-tilt movements.

According to Lachance, Solotech’s Sharpy fixtures are in high demand. “We never see them in the shop – they’re always out. Sharpy is a very robust special effects unit, and we’ve loved them since we bought them.”

Solotech has been a fan of Clay Paky products for many years, Lachance says, and he’s been pleased with the company’s support. “We like that Clay Paky keeps coming up with new lights that are winners. We’re impressed with the direction the company is taking – that’s going to direct us in our future purchases.”

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, adds, “We’re very proud to be a part of such a high profile tour and glad our products work so well on it. Solotech has been a great supporter of Clay Paky for many years and we look forward to continued collaboration with them.”

A.C.T Lighting is the North American distributor for Clay Paky.

Headquartered in Seriate (Bergamo), Italy, Clay Paky SPA has a history of designing and manufacturing innovative professional show lighting. The company was founded in 1976 by entrepreneur Pasquale Quadri who anticipated the enormous impact the evolution of technology would have on the show and entertainment worlds.

SEATAC, WA — Professional video and audio systems integration firm Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) opened a new satellite office in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 2. Located at the KGW/ Belo Corp. station facilities at 1501 SW Jefferson St., the new space provides regional customers with a centralized location for product demonstrations and improved customer support .

“Portland is one of the top 25 local television markets in the country and one of the largest in the northwest,” said Mark Siegel, President of ABS. “Our new office will help us better serve customer in the Portland area and all of Oregon.”

ABS account executive Dave Spraker will be based out of the new office and can be reached at (503) 708-7422 or via e-mail at dspraker@advancedbroadcastsolutions.com.

About Advanced Broadcast Solutions:
Based in SeaTac, WA, Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) specializes in personalized professional video and audio services such as sales, consulting, project budgeting, workflow analysis, feasibility studies, project management, system and architectural design and engineering, equipment specifying, procurement and installation, maintenance support, and training. ABS boasts a technical staff with over a century of practical experience in professional video and audio operations, automation, traffic implementation, multiple program stream management, and signal distribution by fiber, microwave, and satellite. ABS clients include: Fisher Communications, Cowles California Media, Real Networks, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft Studios.

For more information about ABS, call 206-870-0244 or visit our Web site at www.advancedbroadcastsolutions.com.

For Walter Biscardi, Jr., respected post-production professional and founder of Biscardi Creative Media, one of the keys to a successful business is the ability to adapt and evolve. This mindset has been critical to Biscardi Creative Media’s continued growth, from a single workstation in Biscardi’s home in 2001, to a three person facility in 2004, and to the company’s new 6,000 square-foot studio in the suburbs of Atlanta that currently features 14 workstations covering all aspects of post-production, from ingest to editorial to sound and color.

Like many other creative professionals, Biscardi has seen tremendous changes in the industry – from technological improvements that have streamlined the editing process, to the recent ongoing shift from professionally made video content to the “average man on the street” creating video content for use on-air and online. Through it all, Biscardi has preached the importance of keeping your options open, and his recent decision to install Small Tree’s ST-RAID II 48 TB rackmount system is paying immediate dividends by allowing his team to work on projects using Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer 6 or Final Cut 7. Such flexibility ensures that Biscardi Creative Media, a full-service, script-to-screen creation company and leader in creative digital design, can handle any client that walks through its doors.

“We’re running a combination of Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer, while continuing to support Final Cut 7 because they all have particular strengths and weaknesses,” Biscardi said. “For example, Adobe Premiere Pro is capable of handling almost any format that you throw at it, while Media Composer is excellent for large projects. As such, why would we limit ourselves on the projects we work on by settling on a single software application?”

Featuring transfer rates capable of supporting 44 streams of Pro Res 422 HQ with transfer rates up to 1 GB/s and 96TB, the ST-RAID II’s ability to work simultaneously with Adobe, Avid and Final Cut was essential in Biscardi’s decision when upgrading his facility’s storage technology, especially in light of the agency’s continued growth and expected production schedule in 2012 – five original series and five documentaries.

“Everybody going with the open I/O has provided a tremendous amount of flexibility, so anybody trying to shoehorn themselves into one application is making a mistake,” Biscardi continued. “With Small Tree’s technology, we can literally launch all three applications on the same workstation at the same time – that’s how good the post-production ecosystem is right now.”

ST-RAID II is expandable, which is a huge consideration for Biscardi as he can already see the need for at least one more 48TB RAID in 2012, if not two. The ST-RAID II’s expansion chassis design will allow the agency to daisy chain multiple RAIDs off one host controller, which is super simple and economical.

In addition to selecting Small Tree’s ST-RAID II, Biscardi Creative Media installed the company’s 24 Port SFP 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch to maximize throughput across the studio’s 18 workstations.

“The cool thing about the Small Tree switch is that it allows us to run 1 Gb across all of our systems, which is all we need right now, with the option of ramping up to 10 Gb at anytime if we need higher data throughput,” Biscardi said. “Prior to switching to Small Tree, we could not lay off to tape if more than one workstation was on the server at the same time. Today, we can lay off to tape for five projects simultaneously. Now that’s performance.”

During the installation, Small Tree had to remotely “dig” into each of Biscardi Creative Media’s workstations to improve system performance. While this is typical operating procedure for Small Tree, it was out of the ordinary for Biscardi when dealing with outside vendors and something he appreciated greatly.

“Each machine has its own quirks, and the guys from Small Tree were able to adjust each machine based on its specific needs,” Biscardi revealed. “I was blown away when they told me the Mac I was working on had too much RAM. Too much RAM? How is that possible? But when they reduced the RAM I noticed an immediate difference in performance. That type of service and system know-how is invaluable.”

For more information about Small Tree and its products, visit www.small-tree.com or follow Small Tree on Twitter @SmallTreeComm

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NEW YORK, NY – Adding yet another piece to the creative puzzle that is ShootersNYC, the hybrid post boutique offshoot of Philadelphia-based ShootersINC has added veteran editor David Smalheiser to its staff. Smalheiser joins an editorial team that also features Anthony Marinelli, Mark Hutchinson, Chris Magliozzo, Matthew Burres, Rob Graham and Steve Wheelock.

“I have worked with Dave over the years and I knew he would be a perfect fit with what we’re building with ShootersNYC,” Jeff Beckerman, ShootersNYC Managing Director/Executive Producer says. “He’s a veteran editor who understands how the industry is changing and why Shooters’ unique business model is so valuable to clients today.”

That business model is one that emphasizes a boutique approach to customer service and creative one-on-one with clients, combined with a tremendous amount of talent and full service resources available thanks to a high speed link to its Philadelphia studio.

“Dave’s talent and creativity will be a big asset for us in the work we do in the traditional advertising space, as well as our TV Development and production, feature film, broadcast promotion and branded entertainment work,“ Ray Carballada ShootersINC President says.

Known for his deft touch with comedy, lifestyle and vignette style spots, Smalheiser‘s clients include such top agencies as Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, BBDO, EuroRSCG and McCann Worldgroup, among others. In his career he’s worked with such acclaimed directors as Spike Lee, David McNamara, Tim Hamilton, Tenny Fairchild, Annibel Jankel and Marcus Nispel.

Since joining ShootersNYC Smalheiser has completed a package of spots for Nature Valley and Chex, both through agency Campbell Mithun/McCann Worldgroup. His current showreel includes spots for State Street Global Investments and Hamburger Helper.

“There’s great energy at ShootersNYC and I Iove that there are so many facets to the company,” Smalheiser says. “There’s a boutique feel when you walk in the door, but I’m able to access so much talent and technology for my clients – it’s really the ideal situation, and one that is perfectly in sync with the way clients want to work today.”

ShootersNYC (www.shootersnyc.com) is the New York division of ShootersINC, a multi-dimensional creative production and post house specializing in editorial, visual effects, graphic design, finishing and audio post for advertising, television, feature film and new media. For more information contact Managing Director, Jeff Beckerman at 212-533-9400 or at jeff@shootersnyc.com.

ShootersTV (www.shooterstv.com) is a division of Shooters Inc., dedicated to creating programming for reality and non-scripted television. ShootersTV is represented by Peleton Entertainment, the New York-based television agency representing leading producers working in reality and documentary. For more information contact Rob Miller at Peleton Entertainment by email at rob@peletontv.com or phone 212-572-9632; or contact Carrie Spott at ShootersTV by email at carrie@shooterstv.com or phone 215-861-0100.

ShootersINC (www.shootersinc.com) is a full service production and post house that blends talent, technology and client service to provide a superior level of quality and creativity. Shooters’ client base consists of ad agencies, production companies, political consultants, PR firms, and corporations. For more information contact Shooters’ Anne-Marie Starker (anne@shootersinc.com) or phone 215.861.0100.

DIVE (www.divevisual.com) is the visual effects, DI and film finishing division of ShootersINC, led by veteran Visual Effects Supervisor Mark O. Forker. As one of the east coast’s premier postproduction facilities for film finishing services, DIVE offers filmmakers the opportunity to complete Visual Effects, Digital Intermediates and Titles by coupling creative continuity with an integrated workflow. For more information, contact DIVE VP Business Development, Bob Lowery (bob@divevisual.com) at 267.514.7700.

Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 3, 2012 – Honda continues its sponsorship of the National Hockey League(NHL®) with a new spot featuring Anaheim Ducks’ Corey Perry and Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidström, which pays homage to a few of the league’s oldest fan traditions. Developed by Honda’s longstanding agency of record, RPA, the new 30-second spot, “Passionate Fans,” first aired during the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.

“This new spot gives Honda the opportunity to showcase its commitment to the sport. ‘Passionate Fans’ celebrates favorite customs and the passion of the league’s devotees,” said Tom Peyton, Honda brand manager, American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

The spot features Perry, the current league MVP, and 12-time All-Star Lidström walking from an arena after a late-night NHL game. As the pair prepares to depart in their Honda Pilot, a hat falls on the windshield, mirroring hard-core hockey fans’ habit of tossing their hats toward the ice when an NHL player pulls off a hat trick, scoring three goals in a single game. As the stars exchange confused glances, wondering if the other had scored a hat trick recently, hats rain from the sky. As an octopus plops on the dashboard-a bow to Detroit Red Wings’ fans habit of tossing these critters on the ice-a narrator says, “They’ve got passionate fans. We’ve got passionate fans.”

“You don’t typically find casual hockey fans-they are diehards by nature. Honda fans are also an enthusiastic bunch, so the two are a natural fit. This campaign ties the passion and tradition of the NHL directly to Honda,” said Pat Mendelson, group creative director at RPA.

“Passionate Fans” will run on NBC and Versus and during sports programming. Print will appear in “USA Today” and online units will run online on NHL.com and NHL team sites.

Visit RPA
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Credits
Spot: “Passionate Fans” (first air: 1/1/2012)

Agency: RPA
ECD: Joe Baratelli
GCD: Pat Mendelson
GCD: Jason Sperling
AD: Can Kadioglu
Jr. CW: Charles Patterson
Agency Executive Producer: Gary Paticoff
Agency Producer: Joshua Herbstman

Production Co: Alive&Well
Director: Alex Feil
DP: Christopher Sargent
Executive Producer: Phillip Detchmendy
Line Producer: Lawrence Lewis

Editorial Company: Spot Welders
Editor: Lucas Spaulding
Assistant Editor: Sophie Kornberg
Executive Producer: David Glean
Post Producer: Patrick McElroy

Telecine Company: CO3
Telecine Artist: Stefan Sonnenfeld
Telecine Executive Producer: Denise Brown

Visual Effects Company: Public
Lead Flame Artist: Max Harris
Visual Effects Producer: Stacy Aungst
Visual Effects Executive Producer: Kim Nagel

Title Design: Royale
Executive Producer: Danielle Hazan

Audio Post Company: Juice West
Audio Post Mixer: Bob Gremore

Sound Design Company: SOUTH
Executive Producer: Dan Pritkin

Celebrity Talent: Nicklas Lidström of the Detroit Red Wings, Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks
About RPA
RPA, headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., is a leading independent advertising agency. RPA builds momentum for brands by offering its clients truly integrated campaigns that resonate throughout its disciplines, which include traditional advertising, interactive, and direct and event marketing. RPA’s client list includes American Honda, both the Honda and Acura brands, California Department of Public Health, La-Z-Boy, Farmers Insurance Group and Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. For more information, visit http://www.rpa.com.

More info: TRUST 646 452 3388 (NY) 310 451 5153 (LA) trustcollective.com

Whether by car or by plane, by boat or by train, traveling always involves lots of sitting and waiting. To alleviate some of the inevitable boredom, BBDO New York came up with a novel way to convert your travel time into HBO time, via the wildly successful HBO GO app, called “Pack Your HBO.” Here’s how it works: Just log onto http://packyourhbo.com, and input your travel destination, and Pack Your HBO instantly fills it with a personal iTunes playlist of HBO movies and hit shows tailored to your travel time.

BBDO partnered with MPC to design and develop the new site.

Visitors to packyourhbo.com use a slider to adjust the duration of their travel playlist. Pack Your HBO then displays a suggested playlist from its slate of popular shows, which can be customized by genre (dramatic, hilarious, sexy, historical), or show title, including hits such as The Wire, Entourage, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and The Pacific.

Rather than build multiple versions of Pack Your HBO for the various desktop, mobile and tablet platforms, MPC created a single build with stack adjustments for different devices in just six weeks.

Online banner ads on Orbitz and boarding pass ads will be among the various elements promoting Pack Your HBO.

Visit MPC

Credits
Client: HBO
Title: Pack Your HBO
Launch Date: November 2011

Agency: BBDO New York
Chairman/Chief Creative Officer, BBDO North America: David Lubars
Executive Creative Director(s): Greg Hahn, Mike Smith
ACD/Copywriter: Rick Williams
ACD, Art Director: Marcel Yunes
Head of Interactive of Interactive Production: Niklas Lindstrom
Executive Interactive Producer: Doug Stivers
Digital Producer: Tara Johnson

Digital Production Company: MPC
Head of Digital Content, US: Wayne Robins
Creative Technologist: Neil Voss
Producer: Sara Vargas
Developers: Adam Leonard, Jason Wilbur
Designers: Leta Sobierajski, Rina Miele
About MPC
MPC is an award winning VFX and Digital studio servicing the advertising, motion picture and television industries. From its London, New York, Santa Monica, Vancouver, and Bangalore offices, MPC’s dynamic and diverse team delivers industry-defining VFX, animation, motion graphics, color grading, production, projection mapping, social and mobile application development, online advertising, data management, software R&D and pipeline development.

With a trio of integrated divisions, MPC utilizes a unified approach that drives the use of existing or newly created assets across the whole range of today’s media landscape. MPC Creative handles client projects directly with top-notch directing, CG animation and character design. MPC FX Studio is a dedicated corps of graphic and digital designers who bring clients’ visions to life. MPC Data Lab processes the content and makes it available for editing on demand. MPC is a Technicolor Company.

moving-picture.com

More info: TRUST 646 452 3388 (NY) 310 451 5153 (LA) trustcollective.com

New York – The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking today announced the five nominees for its second annual Cinema Eye Heterodox Award, sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine. The 2012 Heterodox Award will be presented at the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking on January 11 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York.

The Cinema Eye Heterodox Award honors a narrative film that imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production. These films illuminate the formal possibilities of nonfiction filmmaking while raising provocative questions about on-going documentary orthodoxy and the perceived boundaries between narrative and nonfiction filmmaking. Last year’s inaugural Heterodox Award went to Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill.

“As more and more nonfiction films integrate artistic fictional devices and narrative structures, and fiction films take on elements seen in documentary storytelling – the importance of artist-led conversation grows,” said Cinema Eye Honors Co-Chair Esther Robinson. “In its second year, the Heterodox Award continues to be an exciting and important home to this discussion, contributing to a rich and important cross-genre dialogue.”

The five films nominated for the second Heterodox Award are: Mike Mills’ BEGINNERS, Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza’s THE LIPS, Lech Majewski’s THE MILL AND THE CROSS, Sergei Loznitsa’s MY JOY, and Damon Russell’s SNOW ON THA BLUFF.

The Cinema Eye Honors nominations committee made its recommendations for nominations based on a list of eligible films that met the general criteria for the Cinema Eye Honors including two extra festivals that program narrative films. Finalists were then selected jointly by the committee and the writers and editors of Filmmaker Magazine.

“In a year when the reality of our social, political and economic situation dawned on 99% percent of us, filmmakers made their own reckoning,” said Filmmaker Magazine Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay. “This year’s Heterodox honorees are bracing, lovely, radical and troubling – fiction features for which the purely invented is not enough.”

Inspired by their subjects — which include people, countrysides, and even a painting — the filmmakers selected for this year’s Heterodox Award let these subjects’ realities bleed into their films, creating fascinating dramas in which the world outside is given a voice and documentary tactics are skillfully deployed in the pursuit of dramatic truth.

The jury selecting the winner of the 2012 Heterodox Award consists of: Natalia Almada (Director: EL VELADOR – 2011 Cannes Film Festival; EL GENERAL – 2009 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Directing Award), Sandi Dubowski (Director /Producer: TREMBLING BEFORE G-D – 2001 Teddy Award for Best Documentary at Berlin Film Festival; JIHAD FOR LOVE), Shannon Kennedy (Editor, The Trials of Darryl Hunt; A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory – 2007 Teddy Award for Best Documentary at Berlin Film Festival), Alrick Brown (Director/Writer: Kinyarwanda – 2011 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award Winner), and Kimberly Reed (Director: PRODIGAL SONS – Winner, FIPRESCI Prize at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival).

The Five Nominees:

Beginners: Drawing from autobiographical elements, including his relationship to his dying father, Mike Mills has made a sensitive, insightful, and whimsically funny ode to romance and reinvention. Starring Ewen McGregor, Melanie Laurent and Christopher Plummer, Beginners mixes drama with not only humor but also brief documentary essays that examine everything from art to the history of California gay culture.

The Lips: Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza’s Argentine picture, “The Lips” (“Los Labios”), a subtle and challenging mix of documentary and narrative filmmaking, follows three women who deeply inhabit their cinematic roles as social workers interacting with members of an impoverished rural Argentine community. Facing desperate poverty that threatens to overwhelm even the greatest reserves of calm, humor, and empathy, the trio moves into makeshift living quarters and records data on the needs of the community, while still taking time for an occasional night out.

The Mill and the Cross: Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross is an epic restaging of and journey into Pieter Bruegel’s celebrated 1564 painting, “Way to Calvary.” Rutger Hauer stars as Bruegel, Michael York is his art collector friend, and Charlotte Rampling is the inspiration for his Virgin Mary. Majewski explores not only the rich iconography of this work but, using digital technology to make his picture a dialogue with not only the past but the nature of creativity itself.

My Joy: Ukranian documentary director Sergei Loznitsa made his debut drama with My Joy, a harshly riveting journey through the countryside of contemporary Russia. Following a truck driver as he makes his various deliveries, Loznitsa draws upon his own experience shooting and traveling through the Russian provinces in this bold and terrifying film.

Snow on tha Bluff: As authentic a document of the life of a young, black, crack-dealing single parent as you will ever see, Damon Russell’s “Snow on tha Bluff” audaciously mixes footage from the camcorder of the film’s real-life inspiration with dramatic scenes to create a sometimes indecipherable mixture of real life and fiction, documentary authenticity and cultural mythmaking.

About Filmmaker Magazine

Published by IFP, Filmmaker Magazine is a quarterly publication and daily-updated website covering the art, business and craft of independent filmmaking. Visit Filmmaker Magazine at http://filmmakermagazine.com/.

About the Cinema Eye Honors and the 2012 Awards

The Cinema Eye Honors were founded in 2007 to recognize excellence in artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking. It remains the only international nonfiction award to recognize the whole creative team, presenting annual craft awards in directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing and graphic design/animation. The 5th edition of the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking will be held January 11, 2012 at New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Nominees for the 2012 awards were announced on October 26, 2011. A full list of nominees can be found at www.cinemaeyehonors.com.

Cinema Eye is headed by a core team that includes Co-Chairs Esther Robinson (director, A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Debut, 2008) and AJ Schnack (director, Kurt Cobain About A Son and founder of Cinema Eye), Producer Nathan Truesdell (producer, Convention), Nominations Committee Chair Sean Farnel (Former Head of Programming, Hot Docs Film Festival), Advisory Board Chair Andrea Meditch (executive producer, Buck and Man on Wire) and Filmmaker Advisory Board Chair Laura Poitras (director, The Oath; Cinema Eye winner for Outstanding Direction, 2011).

Tickets for Cinema Eye Honors at the Museum of the Moving Image on January 11 are $75 for non-members and $50 for Museum Members. A limited number of tickets are available and include a post-ceremony reception. Call 718-777-6800 to reserve tickets or purchase online at: http://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2012/01/11/detail/cinema-eye-honors-2012

For more information about Cinema Eye, visit the website at http://www.cinemaeyehonors.com and follow Cinema Eye on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cinemaeyehonors.

Alcorn McBride products are playing a central role in a unique new blacklight show at the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, The Netherlands where a V4 Pro, Video Binloop and LightCue system are used for show control and AV sourcing. The theme park, which features an impressive collection of marine mammals, introduced “Spetter en het magische avontuur” last summer showcasing the magical adventures of Spetter, the dolphin, and his friends.

The show is staged in a 500-seat former 4D theater so seat movements and air effects are integrated into the presentation. Although no human characters appear in the tale of the dolphin and his marine buddies, the actual show is controlled by actors who trigger the start, pause and lighting controls from an OCC panel on the stage. “The V4 Pro is the perfect controller in the hands of actors and operators,” says Frank Ruisch of AV-Sync who was the show’s sound designer and show control programmer, the latter in collaboration with Boaz Borggreve of Nightlife Productions.

Alcorn McBride’s Video Binloop professional audio and video reproducer (with three reproducers for this application) handles inputs from eight JBL VRX 928 speakers, a pair of JBL 3635 Cinema subs and three Crown XTI 4000 amps. Ruisch was charged with making sure all the show’s music and sound effects were in place and mixed to surround sound. He also did all the voiceover recording for the characters and the soundtrack’s final mix downs.

Alcorn McBride’s LightCue primarily functions as a lighting board replacement in automated applications. For the Dolfinarium’s show, it controls an array of ten blacklight cannons on stage in combination with 50 black fluorescents in the theater; the fluorescents are directly connected to an output of the V4 Pro show controller.

Ruisch is pleased with the ease of use and reliability of the Alcorn McBride products, which have to be robust to fill the needs of the Dolfinarium’s demanding schedule for “Spetter en het magische avontuur.” “The show is running perfectly two to five times a day; we haven’t had any downtime,” he reports.

About Alcorn McBride:

Founded in 1986, Alcorn McBride is the leading manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry, and a rapidly growing provider of audio and video systems for retail environments and transportation applications. Staffed by some of the industry’s best engineers and backed by outstanding customer support, the company has demonstrated great agility in bringing new designs to market. A hallmark of Alcorn McBride products is their durable, zero maintenance design. The company’s products provide consistent, reliable operation for audio and video playback applications worldwide. For more information, visit www.alcorn.com.

Old Lyme, Conn. – January 3, 2012 - Following the successful launch of the Neumann KH 120 two-way active nearfield monitor last fall, Neumann proudly announces the launch of two new active subwoofers: the KH 810 and KH 870.

Over the past few years, numerous developments in transmission technologies have increased the demands placed on professional monitoring systems. As a result, modern production facilities now require high-quality monitoring systems that can accurately reproduce any signal, including the latest 7.1 discrete high definition formats. The KH 810 and KH 870 both feature Neumann’s 7.1 High Definition Bass Manager™ technology, which complements high-definition video with the most accurate sound reproduction possible.

The KH 810: At the Heart of a Modern Monitoring System
The KH 810 is far more than a simple subwoofer; it serves as the heart of a modern monitoring system. The comprehensive 7.1 High Definition Bass Management™ system meets the latest demands of the industry and perfectly complements the Neumann KH 120 nearfield two-way monitor. It can be used either as a subwoofer dedicated to reproducing the LFE channel, or as a means of providing low frequency extension with an increased maximum SPL. With the KH 810, it is now possible to assemble flexible monitoring systems for studios of different sizes, with a smooth, uniform response that ranges from below 20 Hz to above 20 kHz.

The integrated 7.1 High Definition Bass Manager™ is compatible with all formats, from mono to the latest 7.1 high definition systems such as Blu-ray. Eight electronically balanced analog XLR inputs ensure flexible interconnectivity for modern studios. Four-mode LFE channel processing guarantees maximum compatibility across all formats, while 4th order crossovers and flexible acoustic controls allow for seamless system integration. A built-in volume control permits centralized system adjustment of replay levels, independent of the source. The electronics can be located remotely to reduce cabling, and to allow the cabinet to be mounted flush to a wall.

State-of-the-art amplifier technologies and acoustic components have been used to ensure maximum accuracy of sound reproduction. A robust 10-inch driver, solid cabinet, and carefully designed ports guarantee tight, articulate, distortion-free low frequency reproduction down to 18 Hz; even at high playback levels. By using sum output, Plane Wave Bass Array™ (PWBA™) techniques can acoustically improve lateral consistency in the listening area and further increase low frequency linearity. The flexibility of the system is further enhanced by an extensive range of accessories.

The combination of KH 120 and KH 810 is ideal for tracking, mixing and mastering in music, broadcasting, project and post-production studios. The KH 810 ($1,999) and the KH 870 ($3,199) are available from select retailers.