19 March 2009

Azimuth Post Production in the heart of Soho is pleased to announce the purchase of a Nucoda HD tapeless grading and mastering system from Digital Vision.

“We needed to be able to supply a HD grading solution to our clients,” comments Neil Hatton, Director of Post Production. “I was familiar with Nucoda from past organisations and like the way it renders in the background, utilising every spare clock cycle you’re not actually using to manipulate the picture on screen. You finish the session and it’s as good as rendered, which is exactly what clients want as they don’t want to sit there waiting and watching a ‘lack of progress’ bar.”

Hatton was also very interested in the workflow advantages possible following Digital Vision’s qualification of its products on Avid systems last year, and the company makes the most of the interoperability between the Nucoda HD and its Avid Unity shared storage.

“The flexibility to reflect offline changes into the conform and grade is a great advantage,” Hatton says. “Decision making is being made later and later in the post process, and to be able to cope with that by simply importing a new AAF file into the Nucoda and to have all the grades link up with the new EDL immediately is superb.”

Azimuth is part of a well-established Middle Eastern-owned media group that includes London-based production company ORTV International. It has been set-up as a standalone facility with the high standards of customer service necessary to attract clients in the competitive Soho area. Part of a £275,000 investment in the facility, the Nucoda HD has already been used on Faisal for Al-Arabiya and is lined up for Blackboards and Bullies for Discovery US.

“We are delighted to see Azimuth set-up with the Nucoda HD,” comments Simon Cuff, Digital Vision President and COO. “In UK broadcast we are fast becoming the de facto standard for grading. The interface with Avid is what differentiates our offering as we are the only supplier able to offer metadata, media, platform and storage compatibility and allow grading, editorial and finishing work to overlap. Deep-level interoperability and integration is crucial to provide the parallel workflows and quick turnarounds required by our customers.”