The technical bits

Our Fairlight Digital Audio Workstation's can import audio from Avid or Final Cut Pro editing systems, by use of either the Open Media Format (OMF) or Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), via proprietary software from Fairlight, AVtransfer.

This OMF / AAF capability allows audio that has been edited on Avid or Final Cut Pro systems to be loaded directly onto our systems, without the need to re-digitise the original sound through a lengthy auto-conform process.

For OMF, OMF2 files are preferred, with at least 75 frame handles on all clips, (although 100 frames are ideal) and all fades and effects should be rendered before creating the OMF / AAF file.

The sample rate of all clips should be 48kHz, bit-depth set to 16-bit at 25fps.

Full specifications and preferred track-layouts are supplied as part of our preparation and planning with you and your editors, but as a guide for SD TV projects we would suggest:

• Tracks 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 are for stereo music tracks only
• Tracks 7&8, 9&10, 11&12 are for stereo effects tracks only
• Tracks 13,14,15,16 are for mono synchronous dialogue tracks only
• Tracks 17,18,19,20 are for mono effects tracks only
• Tracks 21&22 are for the 'a' and 'b' Voice-Over tracks only

Master tapes and off-line play-outs may be supplied on all professional formats, including DigiBeta, Beta SP and DVCam, although our preferred method of tape-less ingest is now through on-line delivery of QuickTime files. As such, we reserve the right to charge for ingest from tape.

QuickTime files should be at a sample rate of 48kHz, 16-bit and encoded to MPEG-4

(The file conversion facility Zamzar is an excellent resource).

Our television mixes are supplied to you in Dolby Surround (Pro-Logic II) as standard, and may be layed-back to your chosen professional tape format by us, or supplied as a frame-accurate finished 'Broadcast .WAV' file (.BWF) for direct import to a Video 'on-line' device's time-line; either from CD/DVD or as a download from our secure Virtual Dubbing Theatre server.

Our Dolby Surround mixes deliver perfect mono and stereo compatability, as well offering suitably-equipped viewers an engaging Surround Sound experience.

Naturally, for film, HD-tv or DVD projects, we offer Dolby Digital (5.1) mixing.