Archive for February 13th, 2012

The 3D family tale Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, from New Line Cinema, Contrafilm Production and Warner Bros. Pictures, features an array of fantastical visual effects shots, 81 of which were completed by international visual effects company Pixomondo. A follow-up to Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, much of the action-packed adventure takes place on strange island in the middle of nowhere packed with extraordinary life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more. Pixomondo was one of seven vendors who contributed to the 430 total VFX shots in the film, with five of Pixomondo’s eleven global facilities working on the project.

“Most of the VFX sequences in Journey 2 were pretty unique so I parceled work out to different companies based on their strengths,” said film VFX Supervisor Boyd Shermis. “Pixomondo did some previs for the film and I was so impressed by their work, I had to have them do the VFX on those shots as well. The sequences they delivered were some of the most challenging and render-intensive in the whole film – almost all virtual CG environments with hundreds of layers.”

Using concept art, underwater photography and real-life sea creatures as reference, Pixomondo set to work in January 2011 creating the sequences in which the mysterious island collapses into the ocean as the characters race to find the submerged Captain Nemo’s Nautilus submarine. In the underwater caves, the crew encounters a massive eel, whose electricity they must harness to jump-start the sub and flee to safety by navigating collapsing land masses in a pulse-pounding race against time.

“Production had a stand-in for the eel which gave us an idea of what they wanted proportionally,” explained Pixomondo VFX Supervisor Bryan Hirota. “From there, we designed this sort of semi-bioluminescent, giant moray eel crossed with a dinosaur. In nature, you don’t actually see electricity crawling on eels but that visual cue was an important part of the story. We ended up concocting a tesla coil meets Jacob’s Ladder effect that conveys what is needed but isn’t completely outrageous. It was a bit of a challenge but I think the end result accomplished everything we set out to convey.”

“You can really feel the peril in the final climax by the way the eel moves in those shots,” Shermis added. “The weight and fluidity of the predatory creature make it really feel like it is on the prowl and the characters are in imminent danger. Pixomondo did a phenomenal job.”

In addition to developing complicated, full CG environments and the electric dino-eel, Pixomondo created a late-addition Easter egg shot for the end credits in which the miniature elephants – thought to have drowned with the sinking of the mysterious island – are shown sporting gills and swimming towards the sunken island. Once the camera movement had been established, Pixomondo modified the elephant assets created and animated by Trickster and Atlantis assets created by Method to look like they belonged in the underwater environment created by Pixomondo. Pixomondo then built out the underwater environment resulting in a wide sweeping shot teeming with activity.

“With the underwater environments, we had pretty broad creative license under the directive of ‘make it look interesting’ along with some specific actions that served the story,” Hirota said. “Our shots were so large in scale we wanted to fill them with lots of little areas of interest. A huge open space can feel very empty very quickly if you don’t add enough activity so we referenced a lot of nature photography, adding diverse, realistic fish and jellyfish to help sell the massiveness of what was going on. For the most part, we designed our shots and then would present them back to Boyd who would decide what was working for him or not.”

“One of the things Pixomondo came up with to fill the underwater space were these amazing jellyfish – a school of which scatters to reveal the Nautilus,” said Shermis. “The way they captured the fluid motion and transparency of hundreds of jellyfish – all shown in 3D – is remarkable. It’s one of the most beautiful underwater creatures I’ve ever seen.”

As with many of their projects, VFX for Journey 2 was a global effort for Pixomondo. The company’s Los Angeles office served as the lead facility on the project and helped create much of the giant eel. Many of their artists had just wrapped work on Green Lantern so they already had a solid team of character animators in place. Especially talented at volumetric rendering and dynamic simulation, the Berlin office was well equipped to tackle the FX-heavy shots that involved underwater cliffs cleaving, clouds of silt dispersing in the water and lava oozing out of cracks. Pixomondo Burbank also contributed animation, while Shanghai and Beijing contributed roto and paint work. Communicating via cineSync and Skype, Hirota was able to remotely supervise and guide the various international teams as well as convey client feedback as needed.

Directed by Brad Peyton, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island follows teen Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) as he partners with his new stepfather (Dwayne Johnson) on a mission to find his grandfather (Michael Caine), who is thought to be missing on a mythical island. Opening February 10, 2012, the film also stars Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman.

ABOUT PIXOMONDO
Pixomondo is an international visual effects company boasting 24-hour production capabilities, sharing projects across a global network of 11 facilities in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Berlin, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Munich, Burbank, Toronto and Hamburg. Founded by CEO Thilo Kuther in 2001, Pixomondo has created visual effects for more than 30 feature films including Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Red Tails, Hugo, Sucker Punch, Super 8, Fast Five, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and 2012. The company is currently in production on upcoming features including Snow White and the Huntsman and The Amazing Spiderman, and TV series including Game of Thrones, Terra Nova, Hawaii 5-O and Grimm. In addition to visual effects, Pixomondo delivers the full range of creative, production and post services required to produce design-driven storytelling for commercials. More information on Pixomondo can be found here: http://www.pixomondo.com

— Audio-Technica provided over 250 mics for the live broadcast of the GRAMMY® Awards, as A-T maintains its definitive presence at high-profile awards shows—

STOW, OH, February 13, 2012 — For the 15th year in a row, Audio-Technica microphones appeared on GRAMMY® Awards Show, known throughout the industry as Music’s Biggest Night®. This year, the 54th Annual GRAMMYs, held February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, featured a wide selection of artists from various genres of music. For the live show and broadcast, Audio-Technica supplied over 250 of its acclaimed microphones, including an impressive array of hard-wired mics and Artist Elite® 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems.

The GRAMMY Awards ceremony itself has garnered widespread notice throughout the years as it continually raises the standard for broadcast entertainment. The EMMY®-winning production was the first major awards show to venture into HDTV and 5.1 surround sound, and it was outfitted with the most advanced tools to ensure the highest fidelity for the evening’s performances. Audio professionals continually select Audio-Technica microphones to achieve exceptional quality amidst the ever-increasing sonic demands of the show’s musical portions. The team working on this year’s GRAMMYs featured many top-tier contributors who returned to ensure the success of this landmark event.

The sound system was provided by ATK AudioTek with FOH (front-of-house) Engineers Ron Reaves and Mikael Stewart, with the house audio supervised by Leslie Ann Jones, a prominent member of the Producers & Engineers Wing® of The Recording Academy®. New Jersey/California-based remote facilities company M3 (Music Mix Mobile) were onsite with their Eclipse and Horizon trucks to create the music mix, facilitated by Broadcast Music Mixers John Harris and Eric Schilling, while Tom Holmes was responsible for the overall broadcast mix. The broadcast audio was supervised by Phil Ramone and Hank Neuberger, also leading members of The Recording Academy® Producers and Engineers Wing®. Michael Abbott returned as Audio Coordinator, and M3’s Joel Singer served as Engineer-in-Charge for the Eclipse broadcast mix truck, while M3’s Mark Linett served as Engineer-in-Charge in the offline Horizon remix truck.

For the home audience, CBS once again delivered the most advanced form of HDTV, with 1,080 lines of picture resolution and 5.1-channel surround sound. To meet the sonic demands of this format, the audio engineers and music mixers employed a wide range of Audio-Technica microphones for the GRAMMY Awards.

Artists who performed throughout the evening using Audio-Technica’s Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System included Audio-Technica endorser Jason Aldean and The Beach Boys. Aldean performed using wireless AEW-T6100 Hypercardioid Dynamic Handheld Transmitters for his lead vocals, and The Beach Boys used a combination of AEW-T5400 Cardioid Condenser Microphone/Transmitters and AEW-T6100 units for their vocals.

The backline mic complement of A-T wired microphones included additional AE5400s for backing vocals, horns and rotary speaker cabinets (high and low); ATM350 Cardioid Condenser Clip-On Microphone for strings; AE5100 Cardioid Condenser Instrument Microphone for hi hat and ride; AT4050 Multi-Pattern Condenser Microphone for overheads; and AT4081 Phantom-powered Bidirectional Ribbon Microphones and additional AT4050’s for guitar cabinets.

For more information, please visit www.audio-technica.com.

The latest update to PluralEyes allows Final Cut Pro X editors to sync and output multicam clips quickly and accurately the first time around
 
Vancouver, British Columbia — February 13, 2012 — Singular Software™, a developer of workflow automation applications for video production, has enhanced its support for multi-camera workflows in the company’s PluralEyes® for Apple® Final Cut Pro® solution. The multi-award winning PluralEyes technology, which quickly and accurately syncs video and audio clips for dual-system audio and multi-camera productions, now outputs multicam clips, fully automating multi-camera syncs for Final Cut Pro X editors. “The initial release of PluralEyes for Final Cut Pro X allowed editors to sync projects of all kinds easily and efficiently. The latest update of Final Cut Pro X added new multi-camera editing features, and these are now fully supported by PluralEyes. FCP X users can now take advantage of the full power of PluralEyes to sync their multi-camera projects quickly and with confidence,” says Bruce Sharpe, CEO, Singular Software.
 
PluralEyes for FCP X Pricing and Upgrades
PluralEyes for FCP X is available now for 149.00 USD.
Existing PluralEyes for FCP customers can upgrade to PluralEyes for Final Cut Pro X free of charge.
FCP X editors can test-drive the new release by downloading a 30-day trial version.
 
About PluralEyes
PluralEyes dramatically accelerates the workflow for multi-camera, multi-take and dual-system audio productions. By analyzing audio information, PluralEyes synchronizes audio and video clips automatically, without the need for timecode, clappers or other special preparation. The one-click ‘sync video clips’ and ‘replace audio’ capabilities provide simple and accurate synchronization of media regardless of project type or size.
 
About Singular Software
Established in 2008, Singular Software pioneers the development of workflow automation applications for audio and video professionals. Its breakthrough solution, PluralEyes, offers innovative technology to automate and simplify multi-camera, multi-take and dual-system audio workflows. Singular Software products support industry leading non-linear editing products. For more information about Singular Software, please visit the Singular Software website.
 
Singular Software PluralEyes is a trademark of Singular Software Inc. All other trademarks, registered trademarks and products mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.
 
Press Contact
To schedule a press briefing or request a product review, please contact Janice Dolan at:
Zazil Media Group
Janice Dolan
(p) +1 617 817 6595
(email) janice@zazilmediagroup.com
 
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HOLLYWOOD, California- Anticipation, suspense and recognition are essential to the production of awards shows, so it is no surprise that the GRAMMY Awards also deliver entertainment to its audience with a highlight reel of nominees before honoring the winner. Sound Design Corporation, Hollywood’s premier post-production audio facility, turns to Fairlight’s Xynergi consoles when developing ‘edge of your seat’ digital material for the GRAMMY’s.

Sound Design’s President, Paul Sandweiss, a voting member of NARAS (The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) has been working with the GRAMMY’s since the late 1970’s, offering his expertise and knowledge of sound production to make sure that the show runs smoothly as well as provide viewers and nominees with thrilling anticipation before the winner is announced.

“It’s an honor to be apart of the industries most prestigious live music award show,” says Sandweiss. The GRAMMY’s, which is typically a three hour music award show, has anywhere from 10-20 awards with four to six nominees per category. Sandweiss and his team are responsible for creating the sound of the clip packages that highlight the nominee’s efforts, as well as any other video packages that roll in the show. “Once the packages have been edited, we have the task of recording the announce copy, blending, mixing, and sound designing any transitions, as well as the overall mixed sound of the packages.”

The process from start to finish can be tricky, especially as changes are made on the fly and different awards and presenters are added or dropped. However, with the Xynergi console, Sandweiss says the workflow is easily manageable. “Once we are done with our final mix, we use the Xynergi controller to control the HDCam recorder, where we marry our mix with the final picture. The final mix is layed back as two stereo stems. One stem is the final mix minus the announcer, and the other stem is the announcer, so the front of house and monitor mixers can build their own mix regardless of our broadcast mix. That way everyone has control of the sound elements they need for their audience, be it performers, audiences in the live venue, or those at home watching the broadcast live on TV.”

Sound Design Corporation is also responsible for mixing the in memoriam package, a showcase of renowned members of the music community who have passed away over the last year. “This can be quite difficult,” Sandweiss says. “As seen this year, we have to be ready to update the packages as devastating events happen so close to the show. This is never a highlight of the job but the Xynergi helps to make the update seamless.”

One aspect of the Xynergi and Fairlight is the ability to save everything. This proves to be useful in situations when Sandweiss can pull up a template from the previous year and look at the settings that were used. “I always keep notes, sometimes different producers like certain techniques, having that knowledge helps to make the process easier the next time around.” Fairlight’s ability to import different file types without the need for external plug-ins eliminates difficulties in opening past projects or dealing with new ones.

There are strict time limits for each project, and more so with a show as big as the GRAMMY’s where everything is closely watched. “There’s no need for any external devices, all the plug-ins including reverb are all there with the push of a button. It saves us a lot of time with no need to flip through menus and pages to find what you’re looking for,” Sandweiss explained.

With the Xynergi’s ability to interpret a variety of file extensions, it makes the sending and receiving of audio and video straightforward. “We can import and export our audio and video in a variety of formats which makes interaction with picture post houses easy, and quick. From there we can easily send it to be reviewed and are able to work alongside the other members involved, a difficult process if you aren’t using Fairlight,” Sandweiss mentioned.

“Our main challenge is time,” Sandweiss stated. “It’s called television for a reason, emphasis on vision. If there is a certain amount of time allocated for video, the audio cannot be added until that is established. Fairlight and the Xynergi make it easy to view everything together and enables me to track the changes as they occur.”

Sandweiss and his team have been in the industry for over a decade, and continually strive to advance through creativity, “Fairlight understands my job and how to make it easier. I couldn’t imagine my work without it.”

For more information on Sound Design Corporation, please visit: http://www.sounddesigncorporation.com

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About FairlightUS:
FairlightUS is headquartered in New Jersey USA and is the exclusive distributor for Fairlight products in the North American market. Fairlight has been at the forefront of digital audio development since its inception in 1975. Fairlight designs and manufactures media creation tools including digital audio recording, editing and mixing systems for standard and high definition audio post, broadcast and music production applications. www.fairlightus.com

About Fairlight:
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia Fairlight designs and manufactures media production systems powered by the company’s groundbreaking CC-1 FPGA digital processing engine. The Fairlight product range includes EVO, Xynergi and the new PyxisG2, all of which feature in the world’s leading broadcasters, commercial post facilities, music studios and film production studios. Fairlight has a rich tradition of innovation and development and is at the forefront of green computing technology.

LONDON, United Kingdom — At BVE 2012, HARMAN’s Studer is showcasing its unique and versatile OnAir 1500 digital mixing console for the first time in the UK. The OnAir 1500 is a flexible solution for radio broadcasting and production, and the result of Studer’s close attention to the needs of its customers, who are increasingly requesting more versatility and connectivity from their mixing systems at an affordable entry budget price point.

The Studer OnAir 1500 is a 12-channel, 6-fader console (expandable to 12 faders), ideal for studios needing an additional professional-grade fader unit and additional I/O or a compact and cost-effective mixing console for a production room or on-air studio. Integrated USB playback and record functions make the OnAir 1500 a very compact yet complete production unit and mixer. With simple point-to-point connectivity it can easily be moved around as a backup or secondary unit.

Flexibility is increased with the addition of a 6-fader extension bay, creating either a 12-fader surface, or an additional six faders that can be remotely placed in a producer’s bay or used as a redundant surface. The system bridges the gap between production and on-air needs, offering an all inclusive feature set to simplify great programming in either setting.

Channel parameters such as EQ and dynamics can be comfortably edited using console controls in combination with the OLED channel displays without requiring an additional screen or PC. For more advanced operation and configuration, the console provides interfaces for connecting a PC screen, keyboard and mouse.

The master section gives the operator simple yet comprehensive access to the signal monitoring and switching for control room and studio with an internal speaker preconfigured to output CUE and talkback signals. Audio monitoring is augmented by two 29 segment stereo bargraph PPMs, providing constant overview of all-important signals; six different meter standards are available. Unique features such as Headphone Split allows the user to listen to two different sources, one through the left earpiece and the other through the right. Preset buttons also allow one-touch control of all monitoring. Additional monitoring for separate studios is available via an external Monitoring/ Talkback unit for added flexibility.

The separate NANO SCORE of the OnAir 1500 contains the audio and control engine. Its straightforward design provides standard sockets, making any additional breakout panel unnecessary. Two separate card slots can be equipped with any optional D21m I/O module, such as MADI (up to 64 ch in/56 ch out), ADAT, AES, or additional MIC inputs. The front panel carries three USB ports, one of which is used to identify the console operator. The second port can host a USB stick for recording and playout, while the third one can be switched to deliver an additional eight channels of I/O to/from a USB device. The core connects to the surface via one Cat5 cable, which also supplies power to the surface.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.8 billion for the twelve months ending September 30, 2011.

The TNS547 DTT Monitor extends T-VIPS’ portfolio of DVB-T2 solutions and enables “end to end” monitoring – from the headend to the RF signals at the transmitter – delivering a complete toolset ensuring top class Quality of Service in terrestrial networks

Oslo, Norway – T-VIPS, a global leader in professional video contribution and distribution solutions, today announced the launch of the TNS547 DTT Monitor for DVB-T and DVB-T2 Networks, which provides true end-to-end monitoring for DVB-T and DVB-T2 operators. The TNS547 is the newest member of the T-VIPS nSure product line and is designed to ensure the delivery of high-quality video content by simplifying the monitoring and analysis of DVB-T/T2 transport streams and services throughout a terrestrial network. This new solution has been developed in close cooperation with customers and will ship at the end of Q1 2012.

“With the switch off of analogue systems imminent, Quality of Service and reliability in DTT systems are of critical importance. Errors and service breaks need to be detected the second they occur, and that is what we enable with our nSure monitoring and switching solutions,” said Johnny Dolvik, CEO, T-VIPS. “By providing the capability to monitor off-air signals at the transmitter site with the T-VIPS TNS547, we can now offer powerful end-to-end DTT monitoring – from the head-end to the transmitter site – for both DVB-T and DVB-T2 infrastructures.”

The T-VIPS TNS547 provides efficient monitoring of all major interfaces, formats and layers found in DVB terrestrial networks. The monitoring and analysis features enable fast fault-detection and diagnostics either through an intuitive web-based user interface or integration with a network management system. Improved operational efficiency and network reliability are compelling reasons to deploy the TNS547 DTT Monitor in digital terrestrial networks.

As broadcast infrastructures become increasingly complex, the TNS547 provides an ideal tool for the continuous monitoring of relevant QoS parameters at important points in the terrestrial transmission chain. The TNS547 provides an extensive range of RF measurements, T2-MI analysis capabilities (DVB A14-1), IP/Ethernet statistics and EPG/EIT verification. Error detection and alarms are compliant with ETSI TR 101 290 (Pri 1-3) for DVB signals.

Applications:

Off-air RF monitoring of signals at DTT transmitter sites
Simultaneous monitoring of signals in the transmission chain including ASI, IP, T2-MI and RF
TS monitoring, error detection and advanced analysis
24/7 continuous supervision of signals.

Key Features:

DVB-T/T2 RF monitoring and analysis using two demodulators
Round-Robin monitoring of up to 16 frequencies (both DVB-T and DVB-T2)
Monitoring of 6 Transport Streams over ASI or IP
Transport Stream monitoring and error detection
Powerful Transport Stream and T2-MI analysis
Compact and cost-effective with simultaneous, real-time monitoring of 6 multiplexes in 1 RU
User-friendly configuration and control.

For further information: David Bramley, Platform PR, Tel: +44 (0)20 7486 4900, Email: david@platformpr.com

About T-VIPS AS

T-VIPS is a global leader in professional video transport solutions. We help our customers deliver next-generation TV services such as 3D, HDTV, live events and local content. Our IP based video transport and Digital Terrestrial TV solutions allow network operators, broadcasters, and content providers to deliver the highest picture quality at the lowest cost. Leveraging our technology expertise in video over IP, video compression, transport stream processing, monitoring and seamless switching we deliver products and solutions that improve Quality of Service (QoS), ensure high quality in live contribution workflows and enable state of the art DTV.

Our wide range of products enables fast time-to-market, increased reliability and improved video quality. We also provide fully customizable solutions, tailored to customer needs to deliver increased efficiency in video transport infrastructures.

T-VIPS is driven by innovation, customer success, and the application of new technologies to enhance both traditional video transport and Over The Top infrastructures and ensure the delivery of high quality content to TV ready mobile devices.

NEW YORK: Walters-Storyk Design Group co-principal Beth Walters has named Cheryl Fleming official WSDG project photographer. “We have always prided ourselves on outstanding visuals of our completed designs,” Walters said. “Cheryl’s work has brought a new level of elegance to this key element of our overall image.”

An accomplished architectural and event photographer Fleming also specializes in ‘beauty’ shots of luxury yachts, (is there any other kind)? Among her high-visibility pro audio credits are covers of Jay-Z’s Roc The Mic Studio; the $6 million NYU Steinhardt/Dolan Music Technology Center and NY’s Jungle City Studios. Fleming has also collaborated with noted commercial photographer Patrick St. Clair to develop a unique interactive 360º video tour designed to provide comprehensive architectural facility ‘walkthroughs:’

http://www.stclairphoto-imaging.com/360/360tours/Thompson/TourWeaver_Thompson.html

“The recording studio projects I’ve shot for WSDG have been both challenging and gratifying,” Fleming said. “Lighting and glass reflection issues need to be addressed in very specific ways. Beth Walters and John Storyk have given me great direction and a tremendous amount of freedom to experiment with interesting angles and lenses. Their clients have been very complimentary about our collaborations. The fact that we’ve produced three magazine covers out of three shoots is equally encouraging,” Fleming concludes, “Patrick St. Clair and I also look forward to producing a number of video walkthrough tours. They’re affordable and they’re extremely effective.”

For information on Cheryl Fleming Photography visit: http://www.cherphotos.com/architecture

Photo: Jungle City Live Room photo by Cheryl Fleming

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Walters-Storyk Design Group has designed over 3000 media production facilities in the U.S., Europe, the Far East and Latin America. WSDG credits range from the original Jimi Hendrix Electric Lady Studio in Greenwich Village to NYC’s Jazz At Lincoln Center performance complex, broadcast facilities for The Food Network, CBS and WNET, over twenty teaching studios for The Art Institutes around the US, and corporate clients such as Hoffman La Roche. Recent credits include Jungle City, NY’s major new destination studio; private studios for Green Day, Jay-Z, Timbaland’s Tim Mosley, film composer Carter Burwell, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen and Alicia Keys. WSDG principals John Storyk, Beth Walters, and Dirk Noy lecture frequently at universities and industry events, and contribute regularly to industry publications. WSDG is a seven-time winner of the prestigious TEC Award for outstanding achievement in Acoustics/Facility Design, including 2012 for Jungle City. WSDG maintains offices in NY, SF, Miami, Argentina, Brazil, Beijing, Germany, Mexico City, Spain and Switzerland.

LONDON, United Kingdom — HARMAN’s Studer has extended its popular Vista 5 M2 range of digital broadcast and production consoles to include a 22-fader option, realising the lowest cost Vista ever to be made available and accompanying it with a new low-cost, Compact Stagebox.

Like its bigger brothers the 32 and 42 fader versions, the new model is optionally equipped with new TFT metering, capable of displaying signal levels from mono through to 5.1 channels on each input, with a configurable lower area which can be used to display bus assignments, surround images or the unique ‘History Mode’, where a scrolling audio waveform displays signal anomalies and highlights them for up to 50 seconds to allow the engineer to identify where the event occurred. Metering for ‘layer 2’ signals can also be viewed, while the Control Bay screen can be used to provide configurable user pages with up to 40 meters. When the TFT meter bridge is fitted, the external GC screen becomes an integral part of the chassis.

The Vista 5 family has found its home in all kinds of broadcast and theatre production facilities around the world. Existing Vista 5 owners will be pleased to learn that their console may be easily upgraded to the M2 version to be ready for the optional meter bridge, which is a simple add-on to the console chassis.

To provide a cost-effective package with the 22-fader console, Studer has also introduced the optional Compact Stagebox, which offers a high density of I/O connections in only 4U of rack space. The modular unit is fully configurable but is offered with a standard configuration of 32 mic/line inputs and 16 line outputs. Optionally, the Compact Stagebox can be equipped with an additional 16 mic/line input module instead of the output module, then providing 48 inputs. Alternatively, up to three output modules resulting in 48 outputs may be fitted.

The expansion slots for standard Studer D21m I/O cards may be used for interfaces connecting to most popular digital formats, including CobraNet® or Aviom A-Net® 16, Ethersound, ADAT, TDIF, SDI (SD/HD/3G), Dolby® E and Dolby Digital. A MADI recording interface can be fitted to the expansion slots as well.

The Compact Stagebox is connected to the host console using either Cat5 or optical-fibre MADI, the same way as the larger 64 mic/line Stagebox is hooked up, and shares the same redundant MADI cable capability. The unit comes complete with twin redundant power supplies, thermostatically-controlled fan cooling and full LED status monitoring. An 8ch GPIO interface is also provided.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.8 billion for the twelve months ending September 30, 2011.

NORTHRIDGE, California – Derik Lee is a New York-based musician, composer and recording engineer who was invited to travel across the country to record and mix the score for “Bring It On: The Musical,” a new theatrical musical comedy which recently debuted at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. On location, Lee had to work in a number of acoustically less-than-ideal environments—including a dressing room, and relied on the accuracy of his JBL LSR4300 Series studio monitors as a sonic reference point.

“I began recording and producing the music in my Brooklyn home studio, which of course I’m intimately familiar with, and which is based around JBL LSR4328 monitors,” noted Lee, who learned his craft working with renowned producer/ engineer Frank Filipetti. “Soon after, I had to move my setup to a room in Studio 54 in New York, which turned out to be fine.”

However, when composer Tom Kitt and orchestrator/arranger Alex Lacimore asked Lee to come to Los Angeles, Lee knew he was in for a challenge. “When I got to the room—which was normally used by the theater ushers—I took one look and thought, ‘I’m dead.’ I was in an area that was like a little box and didn’t see how it could possibly sound good. I set up my laptop, keyboard, and a pair of JBL LSR4328 monitors—and the sound was way too boomy. My heart sank…but that was before I turned on the RMC Room Mode Correction feature.”

Using a supplied microphone and internal analyzer, the LSR4328’s RMC system measures and compensates for the misleading peaks in bass response caused by room modes and the speakers’ proximity to walls and work-surface boundaries.

“I turned on the RMC system and the clouds parted and the butterflies came out,” said Lee. “After a huge sigh of relief, I knew I could keep working. Having a reliable reference monitor is important for any project, but it was especially important for ‘Bring It On’ because of the nature of the music. It’s intensely synthesizer-driven and has a lot of sonic elements.”

Just when Lee was getting a handle on the project, he had to relocate again—this time to an office. “If that wasn’t enough, after a while I had to move once more, to the conductor’s dressing room! The dressing room in particular had trouble written all over it,” Lee said. “But once I kicked in the LSR4328P RMC system, the low-frequency response I was getting was excellent. That and some judicious speaker positioning enabled me to get accurate mixes no matter where they stuck me.”

In addition to smooth bass response, Lee needed speakers that were accurate through the rest of the frequency range, and had resolution of musical detail that would let him know exactly what was being recorded. “I couldn’t have gotten through this project without the LSR’s,” Lee said. “I never had to use the RMC feature in so many places before and under conditions where we were constantly making revisions to the score right up until opening night. No matter what rooms they threw me in, I knew I could trust that my mixes would translate well in the theater.”

Headquartered in Northridge, California, JBL Professional is the world’s leading manufacturer of loudspeakers used in demanding recording, post-production and broadcast applications and facilities worldwide. JBL Professional is the recipient of numerous awards including a prestigious Technical GRAMMY® Award “for continual mastery and innovation…to ensure exacting standards for the most accurate sonic experience.” JBL Professional is part of the Harman International network of professional and consumer audio companies. For complete product and company information, go to the JBL Professional website at www.jblpro.com

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,500 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.0 billion for twelve months ending September 30, 2011.

New York: Ogilvy/NY looked to Charged Studios and director Adam Pierce to usher in a new age of package delivery for UPS. Using a hybrid of live-action and stop-motion animation, the campaign promotes UPS’s new My Choice service, which provides customers with package information electronically, turning their old paper notices into a “dinosaur”…literally.

 

The spot opens with a breeze from a kitchen window scattering a stack of UPS Info Notices on the counter top into the air. Magically, they transform…landing as a mini origami T-Rex. As the paper dinosaur explores his new world, contemporary gadgets and devices rain down on him. The T-Rex stumbles over a laptop with an announcement on the screen that reads: “UPS Info Notices will now be sent via text and email.” In a desperate attempt to escape extinction, the “dinosaur” tries to hide, only to be squished by a UPS package. Our hapless T-Rex survives, but its clear that a new dawn in the evolution of UPS package delivery has arrived. “Using the iconic UPS Info Notice to make the T-Rex hero was the creative catalyst,” said Pierce. “Paper is tricky in stop-motion…it’s delicate work, but our team did a great job bringing our prehistoric hero to life.”

 

Charged Producer Mike Landry guided the project from concept to completion, initially tapping storyboard artist Tom Connor to help put Pierce’s vision into pitch form for Ogilvy. Adam Miller was brought on to lead the team of fabricators in armature and puppet design. Lead animator Pete Levin along with assistants Peter Blank and Esther Casas Roura completed the animation team.

 

Operator Richard Coppola employed his motion control rig to capture the counter top adventure at close range. “Adam (Pierce) wanted the viewer to travel right along with our hero…to discover this new world as he did…” Director of photography Mike Eder worked along side Coppola to tackle the visual challenges of the storytelling.

 

The production was filmed on three separate stages at Charged using Canon 7Ds with Nikon Lenses. 7D’s ability to shoot not only 1080p live action but also high res digital stills made it the perfect camera for the job. Seamless blending of live action plates with the stop-mo puppet was achieved in Adobe After Effects. Editor Andy Harmon used Final Cut Pro for all final comps.

Ogilvy was thrilled with the final product. “We especially love the articulation and life-like quality of the T-Rex character,” commented Jennifer Hays from Ogilvy’s creative team. Along with Hays, Ogilvy creative Renee Rotkopf immediately clicked with the team at Charged, and found the full service experience of the studio to be a distinct advantage.

 

“Having access to every department under one roof allowed Ogilvy to work directly with everyone, from production designer Kevin O’Donnell to sound designer Daron Murphy,” said Pierce. “This helped to make the entire job an incredibly rewarding experience for both the agency and the production team.”

 

About Charged Studios: Nestled in the heart of Brooklyn, Charged Studios is a full service production facility catering to clients ranging from Madison Avenue Advertising to Local Artists. While the studio specializes in all forms of animation: stop motion, CG, traditional and mixed media, it’s also a complete live action production resource. For more information about ‘UPS My Choice’ or Charged Studios please contact us at chargedinfo@charged.com, visit www.charged.com or give us a call at 718-855-0216.

 

CREDITS:
Client: UPS
Title: “UPS My Choice” Length: :30
Category: Web Spot

 

Agency: Ogilvy/NY
Agency Producers: Bridget Kaczmarek, Elizabeth Lucas, Sharon Mendelow
Creative Directors: Jennifer Hays, Renee Rotkopf
Writer: Christine Aliferis

 

Production Company: Charged Studios/NY
Director: Adam Pierce
DP: Mike Eder (Canon 7D)
Producer: Mike Landry
Motion Control: Richard Coppola

 

VFX/Animation Co: Charged Studios/NY
VFX Artists: Djuna Wahlrab, Eric Rothman, Adam Miller, Peter Blank, Josephine Noh (After Effects, Photoshop)
Animators: Pete Levin, Esther Casas-Roura, Peter Blank

 

Editorial Company: Charged Studios/NY
Editor: Andy Harmon (Final Cut Pro)

 

Music: Massive Music/NY

 

Sound Design: Charged Studios/NY
Sound Designer: Daron Murphy (Logic)