Composer and producer Steve Kilpatrick has made an AMS Neve 8816 16-channel summing mixer a central part of his new studio in Manchester, where he provides bespoke music for film, TV and radio projects.

Best known for his compositions for the Resident Evil 6 and Racoon City trailers, as well as the award-winning BBC Radio 4 dramas Amazing Grace and Cottonopolis, Kilpatrick’s music has been broadcast around the globe, including on the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, MTV and VH-1. His opera Flight Paths was commissioned as part of the 2012 London Olympics celebrations and he also composed the music for the feature film A Coven of Evil.

Kilpatrick, who owns Soundfrackery Productions, says incorporating a hand-built and hand-wired Neve 8816 into his new studio was a ‘no brainer’ from the moment he started planning it.

“I wanted a bit of kit with mojo, which is what attracted me to the unit in the first place,” he explains. “But what made the 8816 stand out amongst the other summing mixers was that it had monitor control and headphone monitoring covered, without my having to purchase further separate units.”

Once he had the Neve 8816 in his set up, all Kilpatrick had to do was add a Neve 8804 fader pack that allows channel and main audio levels to be controlled by faders. Everything he records now passes through the units, which he says have become an essential part of his workflow.

GB Labs, innovators of powerful and intelligent storage solutions for the media and entertainment industries, today announced that M for Media, an Abu Dhabi-based media production house that produces TV shows and adapts international formats for the GCC and MENA region, has installed GB Labs’ FastNAS shared storage system.

M for Media’s Andre Aouad said, “I first heard about GB Labs from the creator of MIMIQ for Avid systems, who forwarded some information that he thought would interest me.

“It did, particularly because, at the time, we had no existing storage and it was rapidly becoming a problem because of the volume of work we were taking in. You can’t keep running back and forth with arms full of hard disks. It’s unproductive, and it was beginning to show. However, GB Labs soon came up with the ideal solution.”

Supplied and installed by partner, MediaCast, the GB Labs FastNAS F-16 Nitro system installed at M for Media can be accessed by up to 10 users of Avid Media Composer, simultaneously if required.

As leaders in intelligent storage solutions, GB Labs recently introduced even more acceleration for FastNAS storage systems with the introduction of new 25 GbE connectivity.

GB Labs CEO-CTO Dominic Harland said, “Ultimately, the engine of the newly 25 GbE-enabled FastNAS is our powerful CORE.4 OS, an ultra-high-performance operating system that serves media files with intelligence layers that deliver high stability and unparalleled quality of service. We are delighted to have been referred to M for Media by acknowledged experts, which is further evidence of our growing reputation for excellence.”

According to Aouad, “Recognising that we needed to make a change, we had made numerous enquiries for recommendations for a shared storage system and felt that GB Labs offered the best value and highest performance ratio versus any other solution on the market. Once we had taken the decision, we were up and running with FastNAS very quickly and the benefits we expected were almost instantly felt.

“We have had a very positive experience with FastNAS and are already looking forward to working with GB Labs on future projects.”

FastNAS media production storage systems are available in a range of configurations, including FastNAS F-8 Nitro Studio; FastNAS F-8 Nitro; FastNAS F-16; FastNAS F.16 Nitro and FastNAS F-16 Nitro MAX.

For more information, visit www.gblabs.com

No matter how old you are, it is always lovely when something excites you enough to feel like a child again – and that is exactly how renowned musician, composer and orchestrator Youki Yamamoto felt the first time he heard PMC monitors in his own studio.

Yamamoto has had a 15 year residence at Pinewood Studios where he creates his own music as well as other compositions for films and computer games. He is also equally at home in Katara Studios, Doha, which is where he first had the idea of investing in a pair of PMC monitors for his own facility.

After doing some research, he chose PMC MB2 monitors with a separate Class A Bryston amp because he felt this was the most versatile system for any kind of music. “I get all the lovely clarity and detail that PMC delivers, but I don’t get tired listening all day and the sound is so beautiful that I find it hard to leave the studio,” he says. “I just want to stay in there and keep working. It is almost like being with your first ever girlfriend!”

DigiBox, one of the leading UK distributors of market-leading technologies for the broadcast, video, and pro-AV industries will exhibit on Stand 314 at Media Production Show 2019 at Olympia London from 11-12 June.

Marquis Broadcast, specialist software manufacturer of media storage management tools, disaster recovery solutions and large complex enterprise middleware integrations, has expanded its team with the appointment of Serena Harris as Sales Director for North America. Serena’s responsibility will be driving Marquis’s direct and indirect sales within the United States and Canada. Serena joins Marquis from Avid Technology and brings with her over two decades of international sales management experience within the media and entertainment industry.

Altered Images has recently supported the University of Central Lancashire with a large update to its Avid Media Composer systems, as part of the university’s complete Avid Interplay, iNews and Avid shared storage infrastructure. Since the Media Composers operate in an Interplay environment, Altered Images also made sure all components in the system were upgraded to the correct versions.

Additionally, Altered Images helped UCLan update Avid MediaCentral, improving collaboration by integrating news, sports, post-production and live-production workflows. MediaCentral enables students to access media and work on projects from anywhere, plus UCLan’s tutors are now able to view student work – both on and off campus – without being at a Media Composer station.

Oook Audio has today announced the launch of their royalty-free music library, aimed at the professional videography market. It links video editors with high quality compositions, crafted and curated and available via Oook’s easy-to-use portal. Features includes exclusive tracks and a simple licensing mode with a user-centric approach which can be used in films, and across the full range of video sharing websites.

Independent television production company, October Films, has built a new Avid facility, designed and installed by Altered Images, with 17 new Avid Media Composer systems and 120TB of Avid NEXIS storage. The new premises are part of October Films expansion plans as their busy operation grows.

AJA Video Systems today announced a technology partnership with Avid® to design and manufacture Avid Artist | DNxIV, a new hardware interface option for Avid Media Composer®. The Thunderbolt¢ 3 capture and output device offers the latest 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 I/O connectivity, advanced audio features and 4K/UltraHD support up to 50p/60p frame rates.