Antena Upgrades To Avid Unity ISIS

Antena studio and post-production centre in North Wales has recently upgraded its facilities with a range of Avid hardware and software.
The equipment, installed in early September, consists of an Avid Unity ISIS, Symphony Nitris, three Media Composer Adrenaline systems, including HD board, and four Media Composer software-only systems.
Based in Caernarfon and with production offices in Cardiff, the company produces Uned 5, a kids’ live magazine programme based in a ‘house’, for S4C, which goes out live on Fridays.
Mike Griffiths, Antena’s Managing Director, explained the decision to upgrade the company’s systems. “We have always kept our equipment up to date, ensuring that all kit had the latest software versions installed. With the accessibility of HD now, upgrading our systems was the obvious choice. At the NAB show earlier this year, we were not only impressed by the flexibility and expandability of the Unity ISIS system but also its built-in redundancy for live work, an issue that’s central to our core programming. We also have Sony XDCAMs which integrate extremely well into Unity, allowing transfer speeds of 6x for offline.”
Antena had only used Avid as an offline tool before about 1999; then it set up a joint venture with Barcud and installed its first Unity, Symphony, Media Composer and two Avid Xpress Pro systems.Now, Antena will be editing all its broadcast transmissions with the new system. Griffiths continues: “Our new Avid systems, centred around Unity ISIS, allow us not only to edit material for our weekly live programme but also use our two Avid Xpress Pro systems to play straight into the programme from the ISIS. The system also allows us to edit all our other commissions and create stings and opening sequences in-house, and provides us with the ability to quickly go back to a job for changes without losing a high powered machine for just loading in material. Changes can be made over a lunch time without rescheduling other work.”
Antena’s project workflows vary from fast turnaround projects such as Uned 5, to long term documentaries like Snowdon Café. Projects coming up include a film to go out in September 2007 to mark the 10th anniversary of the devolution referendum, a four part series for Teachers TV and a one hour documentary about the Welsh/American jazz legend Bill Evans.
“Our new Unity ISIS will allow us to expand our system in the future with Avid Interplay,” Mike adds, “spreading the advantages of the Avid workflow to the rest of our production staff. Avid also fits extremely well with Adobe After Effects, our 3D packages and our graphics department. It has improved our workflow already.”
Visit www.avid.com for further information.
(SP)