ALTERED IMAGES FIXES MIDNIGHT'S TRANSFER

ALTERED Images, the London-based digital broadcast systems reseller, have helped leading telecine house Midnight Transfer achieve their own 'midnight transfer' by moving from Kingly Court to a new, larger post-production facility in Wardour Street in just three days.
With growing demand for their services, Midnight Transfer's founder Neil Harris was determined to minimise downtime when they moved to bigger premises in the heart of Soho. The last session at Kingly Court ended at 5pm on the Friday of the move. Thanks to Altered Images, Midnight Transfer's sessions at the new location were able to begin promptly the following Monday night.
Set up in 1991 by Neil Harris, Midnight Transfer is a high quality telecine facility, which also offers cutting rooms and duplication in various formats. Altered Images Director Clive Haydon said: "Midnight Transfer's telecine machine weighs over half a ton and is full of delicate optics, film path mechanics and electronic circuitry. It was too wide to go through the doors, so it had to be lowered through a hole cut in the roof. The installation itself was quite complex, as Midnight Transfer need to work with virtually all types of analogue and digital signals and with pictures in both PAL and NTSC formats."
The new premises provide more space, enhanced facilities and a better working environment for Midnight Transfer and their clients.
Haydon and his team worked closely with Midnight Transfer and their builders to ensure the move was completed on time. After two weeks planning the Altered Images team were on site at both locations for five weeks in total.
Altered Images' work involved moving Midnight Transfer's existing telecine suite and reinstalling it, incorporating the existing dubbing facilities into a much larger system and building a new machine room, based around a new Leitch routing matrix. The job entailed some seven miles of cable, over 2,300 connectors and over 1,000 man-hours for Altered Images' team.
Midnight Transfer's recent 'post’ credits include ‘Gladiator’ and ‘The Beach’. (CMcL)