Dublin Video Encoding Firm Establishes American Headquarters

Pictured at Moving Media’s new American headquarters are

(L-R) Simon Factor and Bruce Maddocks. Photo by David Goggin.

Moving Media principle Simon Factor and Cups ‘N Strings founder Bruce Maddocks have formed a joint venture to deal with content in a wide range of broadcast video formats for encoding and distribution through worldwide digital distribution channels.

“We’ve worked with Bruce a number of times in the past for high-end analog audio archiving and transfer to digital formats,” remarked Simon Factor. “We felt his team had the perfect skill set and facilities for our new operations here in America.”

Moving Media, with European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, is a video encoding specialist, working with cutting edge compression systems and customized workflow to deliver optimum quality online video through digital channels such as the Internet, IPTV, VOD and mobile networks.

“We aim for high volume transfer of broadcast videotape to digital file formats,” Factor continued. “We are working with content in tape-based formats such as Beta SP and Digi Beta and transferring to digital video formats like Flash, Windows Media, and MPEG-4 for online delivery.”

Offering state-of-the-art facilities to encode from tape to file or provide transcoding of existing digital assets, the new studio has a strong focus on audio quality. Studio principal, Bruce Maddox has over 30 years experience in sound production, television scoring and studio design expertise, merged with extensive knowledge of mixing, mastering, analog archival and restoration.

“Moving Media has a strong presence in Europe and has established safe and efficient ways of transporting valuable physical assets,” explained Bruce Maddocks. “But shipping valuable content from America to Europe and back presents sizable logistical problems. We are here in the entertainment hub of America and can easily handle content from New York City, Chicago, Miami and other US media centers.”

With strong broadcast engineering talent in house, Moving Media’s LA team are well-equipped to produce output of any format for iPod, IPTV, or Archival with systems for secure VPN delivery as well as FTP and support for all-important DRM-enabled encoding.

Moving Media employs a 3-stage encoding process designed to optimize the quality of encoded video. Starting from tape, an uncompressed digital version is fine edited to exclude slates and breaks. Particular attention is paid to the useable screen area, cropping the frame to give the best results, removing noise and misalignments before checking audio phase alignments and levels. Director, Simon Factor, explains, “We tend to apply the technology in our own special way. We don’t see encoding as being a ‘roll tape hit button’ process. Our encoding service is designed to optimize the quality of the encoded video and to present the content in a way that is effective within its target platform.”

The studio’s first project for Getty Images involved transferring a collection of several hundred clips from tape to MP4 files covering a range of archive footage from the 1920s to 1960s including public service announcements. The LA studio used Digital Rapids technology to implement fine editing, progressive scan and audio remastering measures to enhance content recorded some 40-80 years ago.

Simon concludes, “The US studio is a significant move for the company and we are very happy with the reaction from both our existing customers and the market. Encoding is a hot topic at the moment and there is room in the US market for an encoding specialist. We focus only on encoding and the processes that support the delivery of digital video content.”

For information about Moving Media visit: http://www.movingmedia.tv

or call 310.453.1686

For info about Cups ‘N Strings, visit: http://www.cupsnstrings.com

REEDSBURG,WI — Sound Devices is pleased to announce that the latest addition to its 7-Series line of digital audio recorders, the 788T eight-track recorder, is now shipping.

First shown at NAB 2008, the 788T is designed specifically for multi-track, on-location productions and features a significant expansion of input and output capability — eight full-featured microphone inputs and eight tracks of recording. The expanded inputs, combined with a thoroughly revised digital architecture, provide unprecedented recording flexibility.

The new features available with the 788T have not compromised the compact size that has become a trademark of the 7-Series recorders. In a stainless-steel and aluminum chassis weighing less than 4 pounds and roughly the size of a hard-backed novel, the 788T accommodates individual controls and connectors for each of its eight inputs, plus numerous additional I/O and data connections.

“Our production sound customers are using more isolated tracks and have been asking for a machine with more than four tracks without a size, weight, and cost penalty,” says Jon Tatooles, managing director of Sound Devices. “Users can now take advantage of the 788T’s substantial increase in flexibility while still having access to all the features they are accustomed to in our best-selling 7-Series.”

To accommodate the larger data storage requirements of multi-track recordings, the 788T comes equipped with a 160 GB 2.5-in. internal SATA hard disk drive. This on-board storage provides up to 30 hours of 8-track, uncompressed 24-bit audio recording of industry-standard Broadcast Wave files. Additionally, CompactFlash cards with UDMA support and external FireWire mass storage volumes can be used for recording and playback. All three storage mediums can be selected for simultaneous, redundant recording.

With the 788T, transitioning from the field to the studio is easy. To transfer recorded audio, the 788T features high-speed access to both the internal hard drive and connected CompactFlash medium. Disk-to-computer and card-to-computer transfers are limited only by the drives themselves, with transfer speeds greater than 40 MB per second with fast, 266x CompactFlash media.

For fast, accurate setups in the field, the 788T visually indicates level information of both inputs and track assignments. Each of the eight input controls has a corresponding tri-color circular LED, making level adjustments simple in fast run-and-gun environments. The 788T’s Input Control Toggle allows for quick access to common settings such as input type, limiter engagement, high-pass filter activation, and phantom powering. Its LCD display is viewable in all lighting conditions, including direct sunlight. Additionally, the LED’s are dimmer-adjustable for any lighting condition, including a lights-out setting for blacked-out sets.

As with the 702T and 744T’s time code recorders, the 788T has a high-performance, full-featured time code generator. It is also equipped with selectable word clock sync source, including numerous video sync sources. The 788T is powered by 7.2 V Li-ion batteries or external DC (10-18 V) and offers an on-board Li-ion battery charger.

For more information, please visit the Sound Devices website, www.sounddevices.com

London, England, May 28, 2008 – James Lewis, one of the UK’s rising producers, engineers, mixers and songwriters in genres ranging from indie rock to dance, continues to choose Avastor’s HDX-800 triple interface drives for tracking via Pro Tools. Working with such artists as Arctic Monkeys, The Pistolas and Simon Webbe, whose single “Ride The Storm” was produced and mixed by Lewis and chosen as the main title track for Fantastic Four: Rise of Silver Surfer, it’s no wonder why Lewis required a drive that would outlast the competition. more