Additional Services    

Office Space  - available now

We have around 1000sq ft of additional office space at our new building in the Salford Quays area of Manchester just up the road from the BBC MediaCity site. Quays Reach is a brand new development of mixed size office buildings (up to 20,000sq ft) on a small business park with its own 24hr security lodge. The office space is on the first floor above our premises on the ground floor, and is part of the "office village", a terraced row of individual 2-storey units. The package includes use of the facilities downstairs (entrance hall, mini-kitchen & two toilets) shared with the ground floor office. Access is via a shared front door and stairs from the entrance hall. The first floor comprises a single pillar-less rectangular area with double-glazed windows front and rear, vertical blinds, suspending ceiling, cat-2 lighting, electric central heating and perimeter trunking. 3 car parking spaces are available.      See more Quays Reach pictures and office info

Broadcast mastering from DV formats

Having acted as technical consultants for Bakermedia's My North West TV series, in which we also carried out the processes of audio dubbing, picture grading and final transfer to DigiBeta tape format, we can now offer a "broadcast mastering" service. In particular, if you wish to use Avid, or Premiere Pro (with/without the Matrox RTX) for your initial editing, we can take your work directly on hard disk and apply the necessary "finishing" to prepare it for submission to the TV station's Tech Review, including transfer to DigiBeta via SDI. We can add the required test signals and clocks before the programme start, keep your audio levels within prescribed limits, and correct and enhance the picture levels (within practical limits). As such we'll also warn you when the original material is "past redemption" and in need of re-shooting or re-editing.  

Filming in modern office buildings - a look at how creative lighting can improve on simple illumination

Video acquisition to DV/DVCAM

Although not strictly a "location facilities company", we have considerable experience of location recording from Martin Kay's previous (20yr) employment at Granada TV in Manchester. This covered the full spectrum from local news to major drama series and everything in between. We can therefore offer help in recording a wide variety of subject matter, from dramatised reconstructions to straightforward interviews or news reports. We can offer a full shoot & edit service, and fully understand the requirements of shooting and encoding for a web video audience.

We aim to maintain broadcast standards, in as much as a Sony D30 2/3" CCD camera with DVCAM back end qualifies as "broadcast", by ensuring that we only take on work for which our facilities are suited. We've also got a sound kit including SQN3 & 4 mixers, Audio & Micron radio mics and 416 gun mics, so 1+1 interviews, PTCs and GVs are what we can cope with best. Lights include Mizar, Pulsar, RedHead & Polaris heads. However, if you need something more ambitious, we can act as consultants and have friends & contacts in the TV industry, some of whom are no strangers to the BAFTA awards. More info at www.dv2broadcast.co.uk

" I've been a regular contributor to user groups and technical forums for the last 20 years or so, and have written hundreds of posts offering advice and information on a whole range of computer, audio & video production topics." Read some of Martin's posts here...

Previously at ZEN Computer Services...
 

• 3D Animation & Graphics Render Farms

In the past we provided a 3D modelling and animation service using Lightwave 3D running on a PC "render farm". We can assist in the planning and building of suitable PCs for render farm use, including networking and shared keyboard/monitor/mouse control.

                             

• Computers for Films

For many years we have been supplying computers and writing custom software for TV films in the UK. These have included the award winning Cracker,  Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost series, plus many more from Game Set & Match in 1987 through to the present day (including a small part in The Full Monty).

Because of the need to have computer displays running at 50Hz to avoid a "roll-bar" when filming at 25fps, we have used the Amiga to simulate all manner of computer systems. To avoid undue fan noise when recording dialogue, the Amiga is usually hidden away out of shot, with an Amiga keyboard the only clue to the deception.

• Prompting

We have our own prompting software (Smooth Talker) which runs on the Amiga, and have a flight-cased A1200 system available. We can also replace or repair existing Smooth Talker handset controllers.

• Subtitling

Back in the Amiga days we developed a subtitling program called Eurotitler. Combined with a VITC/LTC timecode reader, this provides frame accurate subtitling for keying over video. We use the Harlequin board to provide a broadcast quality output with fully anti-aliased fonts, semi-transparent background boxes and linear keying over source video. Although we can still supply this software for Amiga users, we mainly use it ourselves to provide a subtitling service.

We can take a video with or without a script, and prepare a subtitled guide version on VHS, which we submit for approval before generating an on-line subtitled master, usually on Betacam. Eurotitler works in an off-line mode using the Amiga's overlay, or in an on-line suite controlling an Aston 4 (if anyone's still using one), or generating 32bit RGBA from a Harlequin board.

PS We're looking for a working keyboard for an Aston 4, if anyone knows of one available...?

Copyright © 2013 Zen Computer Services.
All rights reserved. E&OE
Revised: 07 March, 2013