CineMontage

Spring 2015

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64 CINEMONTAGE / SPRING 2015 C ollier, director of engineering at Warner Bros., claims that his major challenges "have changed a lot, but not changed at all! In the early days — and I've been at Warner for 19 years, following 11 years at Universal Studios — we had larger crews working on the stages and in the engineering department." Now, his team of a dozen engineers looks after 16 film and TV dub stages, together with 200-plus Pro Tools edit suites, plus two Foley and six ADR stages. "These days, we often have to work out the bugs in digital consoles and workstations," he continues. "But with the proliferation of IT, server technologies are more stable than our other niche tools. And to make sure that we can play back digital assets recorded in legacy formats, we keep two players of just about every style and vintage. Realistically, storage space has become more valuable than technology; we need to ensure that our stages can handle any format of current and older-generation media that they might encounter." The biggest issue for Novitch, chief engineer of Technicolor Sound Services on the Paramount lot is technology management. "New systems don't always do what the manufacturers say they do," he says. Novitch has been with the facility for five years and worked previously at Todd-AO and Sony facilities. At Technicolor, he and his crew of four technicians look after four film re-recording stages, five TV stages, two ADR stages and one Foley stage, in addition to over 30 editing suites. "My number one priority each morning is to ensure that all our stages are fully operational; we need to address any problems as quickly as possible," Novitch says. "I hold off on bigger projects until the weekend so I can work uninterrupted. We are fortunate here at Technicolor, because this facility was built from the ground up to include current-generation networking and workflows. During post-production of 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction, for example, we really stressed our central SAN [server network] because of the number of dialogue and sound- effects Pro Tools sessions being accessed simultaneously from the stage and editorial areas." Having worked previously with console manufacturer Solid State Logic, and then at Technicolor Creative Services for nine years, Bair has been with Fox for four years as chief engineer. With a crew of around 20, including three full-time technicians who work in a dedicated wiring and installation shop, he oversees three feature-film dub stages equipped with AMS Neve DFC consoles, plus a number of editorial suites and QC/archival rooms. The complex also includes several ADR, Foley and scoring stages. "We are well staffed and, if possible, will dedicate one engineer plus a recordist to a dub stage," he reveals. New immersive soundtrack formats, such as Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D, put additional demands on a facility's technical infrastructure, according to Bair, "since we now have far more playback and record tracks to accommodate on our A/V production systems and centralized storage. In the past, we might have been using a 64-channel Pro Tools system as our primary stem recorder; nowadays we can go as wide as 192 record tracks. Data management has become our way of life. We are under constant pressure to do more in the same amount of time, yet within the same budget!" Bair tries to anticipate Fox's clients' needs before they happen. "Advance preparation is the key to our success, he continues. "What will the mixers and/or editors need, in terms of playback systems, stem recorders, plug-ins, outboard gear, video codecs, projection, etc.? To ensure that the picture and sound will roll flawlessly on the stage from the start of the session, my engineering team members check in early each morning with our lead mixers to make sure everything is ready for the client." Kevin Collier.

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