ZEN are based in
MANCHESTER, UK
Tel
+44 (0)161 736 5300
Fax
+44 (0)161 736 5303
email

PRODUCTS

By Type
By Manufacturer

Adobe
Avid
Blackmagic
Bluefish
BorisFX
Canopus
DataVideo
Digital Rapids
Duplicators
Keyboards
Matrox
PC Systems
(for Adobe CS5)
ProVTR
RTX2 PC Systems
Viewcast
Wacom

Product Spotlight

Blackmagic Decklink

PC systems & upgrades

PC Video Editing System Integrators & Consultants

ZEN has been involved with video production since the 1970s, and with computers since the days of the Amiga.

Our most popular editing systems use Adobe Premiere

Click here for PC video editing systems with the Matrox RTX2

See Adobe Premiere CS5 in action

Demos available of Premiere and After Effects

Inside one of our Intel i7 editing systems

Affordable power for all edit systems (eg Adobe CS5)

Most PC edit systems can be repaired or upgraded

Workshop facilities available at our Salford Quays premises

Decklink I/O cards from Blackmagic Design

Uncompressed SD/HD video and audio over SDI/HDSDI

Where we are, with MediaCity taking shape nearby

Our estate, Quays Reach, is on the right of the picture

Matrox Axio systems with Adobe Premiere Pro

Realtime SD/HD up to full uncompressed quality

Editor's Keyboards

For Avid, Adobe, etc. New & used

DPS PVR system with SDI I/O

An old but working PVR in 4U Rack case - see more in the Car Boot Sale

Astons - a byword for TV captions

Read about the history of Caption Generation for television

This is (some of) what we provide:-

Custom-built PCs
Video editing systems
Editing software & hardware
PC repairs & upgrades
Edit Suite video wiring/installation
PPM meters installed/configured
Studio & Edit Suite design
Video Production training
Sound Recording & Dubbing
Interview studio for hire (inc lights)
Production Support

In fact it's hard to think of all the things that we could help you with - if you've got any video-related questions, just phone or email and we'll see what we can do for you!


Elsewhere on this web site:-

On the News Page New v4.2 Matrox drivers for Win7 & CS4.21 Matrox MXO2 mini & Compress HD (H264) Blackmagic H264 USB Video recorder for Mac Mini-review of the Panasonic HM151 AVCHD camera Matrox RTX2 & Axio driver info for CS4 Avid Media Composer Blackmagic Decklink Extreme HD multi-I/O card Read more on the News Page	Additional Reading... Audio Line-up Levels & Meter Scales discussed The art of better sound (and when to say "No") A history of Caption Generation Lighting tips for Chroma-key shoots Disk space requirements for different compression ratios VTClocks and other TV history Read more

Part of the team at the IOV VideoSkills Roadshows

This year Martin has been one of the trainers at the IOV Videoskills Roadshows, aimed at helping videographers improve their basic skills. Topics covered include lighting, sound, camerawork and editing, with a two-handed interview as the sample subject matter. This is the resulting video from the Glasgow event.
Shot on a Sony EX3 directly linked by 1394 cable to a PC running Adobe's On Location recording/monitoring software, so recorded in HDV mode. Edited in Premiere CS4. Lit with Kinoflo Diva 400 and Dedolights, and recorded on a 416 mic on a boom-stand, connected via a SQN4 mixer to the EX3.

The last Videoskills Roadshow training was in Coventry on 10th March

IOV Videoskills Roadshow - Glasgow in HD, from Martin Kay on Vimeo

Encoded 1280x720, so best viewed Full Screen on the Vimeo site, in HD

IOV Videoskills Secrets of Better Encoding training sessions have now started - see sample slides here

We apologise for any disruption whilst our website underwent major structural changes in 2009.

During this time you may have experienced the odd unexpected page display or navigational error. However, we believe all pages have been revised to work with the new underlying code.

Please report anything that doesn't appear to display as you would expect, particularly if you don't use Internet Explorer or Firefox.

What we're about . . . ZEN is not a traditional Audio-Visual dealer who started selling computers, nor is it a computer shop that also sells video editing systems. You won't get any salesmen giving you the "hard-sell" when you call, just straightforward advice and information - which for some callers is the knowledge that they don't need to buy whatever it is they thought they needed! Above all you'll be dealing with someone with a wide range of experience and knowledge of both PCs and video production. We're not the biggest, nor necessarily the cheapest, but we are one of the longest established computer/video specialists in the UK.

Company history . . . ZEN was started in the 1980s by Martin Kay, then working for ITV at Granada's Manchester studios, who built his first 6502-based computer in 1979 from an Ohio Scientific kit, bought in the USA whilst working as a Sound Recordist on a film shoot for World In Action. With the advent of the Amiga, which could be gen-locked to a video source, Martin started writing a variety of video-related software. This included subtitling & tele-prompting, ident clocks, scoring software for sports & gameshows, and specialist software to mimic other computer displays for use in TV film dramas like Cracker, Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost. Martin left Granada in 1993 to concentrate on his computer-video activities with ZEN, following a natural path into non-linear editing systems, now the main focus of the business, although he still maintains an active interest in video production.