Euphonix Inks First UK Deal With Tinopolis Group

The Tinopolis Group, one of the UK’s largest independent media producers for television, animation, and new media has installed a 106-channel Euphonix Max Air digital audio-mixing system to meet the increasing demands of their growing programming schedule. Currently, Tinopolis produces 230 hourly and 230 half-hourly live daily magazine-style programs, a wide range of sports programs, and various children’s TV and serial TV dramas.

Headquartered in Llanelli, South Wales, The Tinopolis Group is composed of several independent television production companies, including Mentorn Media, John Cleese’s Video Arts, sports programmer Sunset + Vine.

“We needed to take a step forward, as our output has increased considerably, and our old analogue console became limiting as it didn’t have the flexibility to adapt easily between different shows,” explains Richard Vaughan, head of sound for The Tinopolis Group. “We were looking for longevity in the new console. We had the old analogue console for 10 years, and it might well be another 10 years before we get a new one again. Euphonix is a well respected and tried-and-tested console manufacturer in the broadcast market that will be able to deliver for us.

“The Max Air went into a new control room and was very easy to install,” he continues. “We went straight into using the Max Air even though we had a week overlap with the old desk in the old control room as belt and braces, but we didn’t need it. There hasn’t been a steep learning curve at all. In fact, the engineers are confident in using features like layouts and PatchNet and are happy moving between different titles for different projects.”

The Max Air is specifically designed for on-air and live-to-tape broadcast production applications. The console is compact yet powerful and offers a rich digital-feature set and advanced technology, such as a 100%-redundant DSP SuperCore with MADI router and MADI I/O, four knobs per channel, and a central touch-screen interface for easy navigation.

“The Max Air gives us the flexibility and reliability we need. The dynamics are great, and the central touch-screen gives so much feedback,” adds Tinopolis Sound Supervisor Gareth Evans. “What’s really nice is the metering; you can meter any point you want. With the Max Air, our engineers are now finding their own tricks on the console and passing them on to each other.”

The Tinopolis Group is the first UK broadcast installation for Euphonix as the pro-audio company steadily grows its broadcast market throughout Europe. Other notable broadcast installations in the region include MediaPro in Spain, TVM Mobile in Ireland, and multiple Euphonix broadcast consoles for both Canal+ and Eurosport in France.