Euphonix 5-MC Controllers Offer Technicolor Montreal ‘Power, Customization and Fun’ in Post Production

Euphonix, announced
that Technicolor Montreal has installed three System 5-MC integrated digital
audio workstation (DAW) controllers. Technicolor Montreal, a Quebec-based film,
video and audio post-production facility finished installing the new consoles
in July and has quickly come to value the flexibility and versatility of the
improved workflows enabled by EuCon surface control technology.

Two Euphonix System 5-MCs with 40 faders serve as Technicolor’s main interface
for two Nuendo systems and a Pro Tools system in the facility’s famed dubbing
theater, which was converted from a church. The third System 5-MC, with 16
faders, controls the studio’s smaller film and DVD mixing room. Both rooms are
built with Euphonix converters for AES-Analog-MADI connections and center
around a Euphonix SH612 StudioHub digital router/patchbay. Picture playback is powered
by Pyxis non-linear systems.

“We are very happy with the Euphonix system 5-MCs and are finding ourselves
mixing more on the strips and less in front of the screen than we had been
doing with other DAW controllers, it’s a much more natural mixing
environment,” Gavin Fernandes, chief re-recording mixer for Technicolor
Montreal, said. “We are also impressed with the Euphonix StudioHub for
changing between complicated routing setups. In fact, we’re starting to wonder
why we even bothered with standard patch bays.”

EuCon, the high-speed Ethernet protocol from Euphonix, enables System 5-MC to
directly control both Pro Tools and Nuendo workstations. Though EuCon was
designed specifically for audio and video software, it works with any Mac or PC
application and can manage multiple workstations and applications simultaneously.
This unique feature from Euphonix is critical to supporting the demanding
projects Technicolor accepts.

“Like many of our post-production customers, Technicolor must serve the
diverse needs of editorial companies that work best with familiar software and
workflows,” Martin Kloiber, Euphonix’s CEO, said. “Only Euphonix
enables seamless switching among DAWs and applications to create an open system
where all the players can feel right at home.”

For example, Technicolor recently completed post-production on a documentary,
La Rivi re aux Castors, for Les Films du Reve in

France. The film’s entire FX-Foley
premix was done in Pro Tools. The music and narration had been edited in
Nuendo. Although both edits existed in separate DAWs, the mixers only had to
deal with one console interface. Thanks to the System 5-MC, the switch between
platforms was seamless.

According to Fernandes, a future client watched the mixing process and asked if
Technicolor could transfer his sessions from Pyramix. To simplify the transition,
the studio suggested that he bring over his Pyramix system and they would hook
it directly into the System 5-MC with EuCon. He could keep editing on his
machine then pass it over to the Technicolor mix team who could directly mix
the tracks on the System 5-MC surface.

“The first reaction of anyone who walks into the room, be it mixer or client,
is to remark on the amount of visual feedback we get from the board, metering,
encoders and faders,” Fernandes said. “The Euphonix System 5-MC also
has the most solid, long-term feel of any board on the market today. Had we
wanted to just ‘fit in’ in the community, we could have gone with different
choices. But we now have the potential to do something different, more powerful,
more customizable and honestly more fun with the System 5-MC without having
closed any other doors.”

The System 5-MC control surface can be fitted with eight 48-channel strips and
includes the MC Media Application Controller for master console functions and
integral control of the DAWs. A 2,600-pixel, 1 MB image of the System 5-MC can
be downloaded from

http://www.euphonix.com/press/products/system_5-mc_ang_bk_2600.jpg.
High-resolution images of all Euphonix products and personnel can be downloaded
from http://www.euphonix.com/press/index.htm.

All components of the completely upgraded System 5 mixing system will be on
display at IBC2007 at the RAI convention center in

Amsterdam from September 7-11 (Euphonix stand
11.241). A complete list of all IBC2007 press resources is available at

http://www.euphonix.com/press/ibc2007.htm.