If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a Soho Post House, here’s your chance to sneak a peek! With articles from our Ops, Producers, Design team and more, The Beagle is keeping our staff updated across all of the Evolutions sites. Expect to see a new issue every quarter. Enjoy!
To read edition 12 of The Beagle, click here.
Evolutions is delighted to announce a new facility based in Shine TV’s production offices in Gloucester Avenue, Primrose Hill.
Comprising 20 Avid offline suites over 4,000 square feet, the facility, which opens for business on 8th May, will be home to some of Shine TV’s most complex productions such as Hunted and The Island for Channel 4 and the new entertainment show for Sky One, Loot, amongst many others.
The investment of over £750,000 is part of a new output deal between Shine TV and Evolutions. It includes Avid offline suites, a purpose built MCR area and various client break out areas. The facility is designed by Owen Tyler, Technical Director, with the aim of mirroring the look and feel of Evolutions’ other buildings. It will be connected by dark fibre to Evolutions’ Soho offices, enabling complex media ingest and management to be handled remotely by Evolutions’ 24/7 edit support team. Final post will be carried out by Evolutions’ top creative team in Soho.
Evolutions will be employing a team of 6 people to run the facility in Primrose Hill, supported by the Soho team at all times.
Alan Williams, Shine TV’s Director of Production said ‘We are delighted to forge this new relationship and bring Soho post production service levels and expertise under our roof here. We are very happy to be able to collaborate closely with such a fantastic team and provide our productions with the best level of post support within our own offices.’
Simon Kanjee, Evolutions’ MD said ‘This is a very exciting opportunity not only to work on some excellent and challenging programmes, but also to change the post model somewhat. Technology now enables us to provide Soho quality facilities anywhere in London. We can expand our business by creating new close relationships with our clients, and expect to replicate this model elsewhere.’
Huge congratulations to many of our Evolutions Bristol clients for their awards nominations this season, most notably: BBC TNW ‘Owl Power’, nominated for an Outstanding Nature Programme Emmy in the category of News and Documentary; BBC NHU ‘Life Story’ (Panda Nominee for Cinematography); Rolf Steinmann’s ‘In Between’ (Panda nominee for Cinematography and Best Short); James Reed for Underdog Films – ‘Jago: A Life Underwater’ (Panda nominee for Cinematography, Editing, Music, People and Nature AND Sound); BBC NHU ‘Tribes, Predators and Me (Panda nominee for Presenter Award); Big Blue Live (Panda nominee for Technical Innovation Award).
Evolutions are one of the most prestigious names in TV post, with a diverse credit list including QI, TOWIE, Tipping Point, and The Apprentice and almost every fixed rig show on the air, such as 24 Hours in Police Custody, One Born Every Minute and Secret Life of 4 Year Olds. To accommodate this workload, the last year has seen Evolutions open a third London facility, boasting 24 Avid Media Composer suites, two Pro Tools studios, three Symphony suites and grading facilities. They’ve also expanded their Bristol operations with the purchase of natural history specialists Big Bang.
Meeting client deadlines while moving house
“Previously we’d have had to outsource 30 or 40 rooms in our busiest quarters, which didn’t allow us to have the direct engagement with clients that’s so important to Evolutions’ ethos,” explained Operations Director Owen Tyler. “We have a very loyal client base and established suite model that works well for us and our clients, and we wanted to be able to offer everyone the same consistent – and consistently excellent – level of service.”
Evolutions secured a facility on Berwick Street, Soho, but had just six weeks to get ready before major clients needed projects underway. “It was a bit of a scramble,” Owen admits. “Jigsaw24 were very supportive, coming up with workarounds and loaning us video cards and other kit so that we could hit client deadlines despite disruption to the install.”
Building an Avid pipeline
“We’re an Avid house, and we always go with the latest and best Avid solution available,” Owen says of Evolutions’ decision to equip Berwick Street with 24 Avid editing stations running on HP Z840s (“we like the grunt of multicore processing”) and two Pro Tools | S6-based audio suites with DAD monitoring.
“The S6 is the next step on from the ubiquitous ICONs. There wasn’t another desk we’d have considered in terms of price and suitability. We worked with Jigsaw24 around the studio design and the DAD AX32 monitoring solutions’ which allowed us to configure the studio in such a way that we needed fewer audio interfaces. It was interesting to draw on the team’s knowledge of the film space and implement a film box into television – it’s worked well and our guys are very enthusiastic.”
The suites are all linked by “hundreds of terabytes” of Avid ISIS 5500 storage which, combined with the uniform setup of each cutting room “means we can switch people around and accommodate more clients as and when they need us. Our clients want to work with specific creatives on our team, and this new facility makes it easier to accommodate that.”
Staying at the cutting edge
“Our directors and owners are on the floor working with clients every day, which helps us be very reactive to our customers needs,” says Owen. “We evolve custom workflows to help the client deliver what they want to deliver. For example, we’re working on pretty much every significant fixed rig show at the moment, and that’s using technology we developed ourselves using off the shelf hardware, to give clients something that had previously been cost prohibitive.
“Creativity in this marketplace isn’t about just onscreen creativity – it’s about technology, and while the rate at which new formats and codecs appear is challenging, it allows us to develop closer relationships with clients, because they want more engagement prior to shoot. Jigsaw24’s combination of expertise, efficiency, support and competitive pricing is key in allowing us to deliver that.”
Deal secures 14 jobs in Bristol and ensures continuity of current projects
London and Bristol, 17 March 2016: Evolutions has acquired the trade and key assets of the highly regarded Bristol post house Big Bang Post Production Ltd.
The agreed deal sees Big Bang Post Production’s picture editing and finishing equipment and infrastructure, its on-going work, and all 14 of its full-time staff become part of Evolutions Bristol.
At the same time, Evolutions has taken on the leases for two of the four buildings in St Paul’s Road in Bristol that were occupied by Big Bang Post Production.
This gives Evolutions a total of four post-production facilities in the city.
Founded by colourist Tim Bolt in 2004, Big Bang Post Production specialised in providing picture editing and finishing services to natural history, factual, arts and children’s productions.
Simon Kanjee, managing director of Evolutions, said: “Big Bang Post Production is a highly respected company with talented and friendly staff that have a reputation for creative and technical excellence. When it became clear that there was an opportunity to add the skills and expertise of Tim and his team to Evolutions Bristol we jumped at it.”
Kanjee continued: “The deal provides continuity for Big Bang’s staff, clients and projects, adds significant talent to Evolutions Bristol’s already extensive capabilities and widens our remit to include natural history programming. It’s a great conclusion for everyone.”
Tim Bolt said: “Over the past 12 years we’ve done some fantastic work, at an incredibly high standard, on some amazing series. And we will continue to do so as part of Evolutions Bristol. We will take the strengths of both companies and put them together. What Evolutions is good at, we will add to, and vice versa. We believe that the joint company will be better and stronger than the two businesses would be if they were operating separately. “
Big Bang Post Production credits include Earth’s Greatest Spectacles (BBC2), Gorilla Family and Me (BBC2), Britain’s Outlaws (BBC4) and Harvest 2015 (BBC2).
Evolutions will open a new purpose-designed 30-suite post-production facility on Soho’s Berwick Street in September.
The completely file-based operation, which represents a £2m investment, will occupy all four floors of a brand new 13,000 sq ft self-contained office development.
The 59 Berwick Street facility will consist of 24 Avid Composer offline editing suites plus four Avid Symphony online suites and two Avid Pro Tools sound dubbing theatres, all running on high-spec workstations and running the latest versions of software.
Production office space, client breakout areas, a screening room and a bar with roof terrace will also be added.
An additional 25 members of staff, from runners to creatives, will be recruited.
As with all Evolutions’ facilities, 59 Berwick Street is to be marketed to Indies and broadcasters making entertainment, light entertainment, comedy and factual programmes. Read more
Evolutions Bristol is to open a second facility on Whiteladies Road, just one year after opening in the heart of the city’s media district.
Situated at 38, Whiteladies Road, the new building will provide additional capacity for the thriving post house as it prepares itself for the busy coming months. The new facility will predominantly offer offline suites, but has capacity to develop further. There will be 10 fully equipped Avid cutting rooms at the new address, which will be connected to Evolutions Bristol’s first building only several hundred yards away, at 11 – 13, Whiteladies Road. A private dark fibre network will connect this building with the main site, giving Evolutions clients a seamless experience wherever they are located. Read more
Evolutions has opened the doors to its brand new purpose built facility in Sheraton Street.
The new 13,000 square ft HQ off Wardour Street, in the heart of Soho has been designed with clients in mind. The facility offers light, spacious and comfortable suites with break out areas nestled inbetween the rooms and an impressive large client lounge area that can be used at any time – viewings, TX parties, impromptu meetings or general room away from a session, this stunning area is a space dedicated to our clients that is rarely found in a central Soho facility. Read more
TVB Europe recently visited Evolutions Bristol to catch up with the team and have a good look at our brand new facility.
Here is a link to their article where you can find out how it is looking, now that we are up and running and enjoying welcoming clients through the door!
http://www.tvbeurope.com/main-content/full/progression-and-evolutions#.UoIPYieYlI4