Lime Picture’s production Hollyoaks has completed a lengthy high-definition upgrade project at their Liverpool HQ. Lime, who produce Channel 4’s successful soap virtually continuously 52 weeks a year, began a thorough overhaul of their video and audio production and editing facilities in 2007 to enable the show to be produced, edited and broadcast in high definition.
The completed upgrade has involved buying new HD Sony HDC-1500 cameras, building a new Central Apparatus Room (CAR) with a 102 Terabyte Data Direct video production SAN, and added six new-build HD video editing suites based around Apple’s Final Cut Pro. The re-fit also saw the design, construction and installation of six new audio dubbing suites, each with Merging Pyramix audio Post-production DAWs, VCube HD high-definition video playback systems, and Merging Ramses control surfaces.
Under the guidance of its now-retired former Head of Technology Graham Deaves, Lime Pictures installed one of the first centralised video production servers in the UK in 2001, and one of the aims of Lime’s Group Head of Production Jamie Hall was to retain the server-based approach to production when the systems were eventually upgraded to HD. When UK broadcaster Sky began pushing Channel 4 for more HD content for its satellite services, money became available to upgrade the Hollyoaks production systems to high definition, and Jamie Hall chose to make this part of an extensive reorganisation at Lime, introducing tapeless operation (with the exception of material filmed on location, which is still ingested from XDCAM) and bringing formerly scattered video and audio editing and dubbing suites and staff together on one completely reconstructed corridor at Lime’s headquarters. This approach also allowed the new audio and video systems to be constructed while the older SD systems were still in operation, which was logistically important given Hollyoaks’ continuous production process.
The decision to upgrade the audio post-production systems to Pyramix had already been decided by this time. In 2006, before the far-reaching HD upgrade, Lime’s Head of Dub Chris Lovgreen had begun talks with eMerging’s Paul Mortimer about the replacement of Lime’s old AMS AudioFile audio editing and dubbing systems with Merging Pyramix DAWs. “We looked at all the other systems, but pretty quickly, the consensus was that Pyramix was the way to go,” comments Lovgreen. “I fell in love with it, really — it integrates fantastically well into the post-production process.”
VCUBE
When Jamie Hall announced the expansion and scope of the upgrade, Lovgreen and Lime’s Installations Project Manager Andy Murray saw a greater role for eMerging in the project, and settled on the VCube HD and Ramses control surfaces as the best means of integrating with Pyramix. Lovgreen explains: “It’s all about integrating well with the network, basically. We didn’t want work to tape at the dubbing stage any more, we wanted to stream all the pictures straight from the production SAN, and, put simply, the VCube HD is the high-definition video playback tool that integrates best with Pyramix. Similarly, with Ramses, I liked the integration with Pyramix.
“Also, integrating an untried desk into a Pyramix system could have caused a lot of heartache,” adds Andy Murray, “whereas we knew the Ramses would work. And of course, the other thing that’s beneficial about that kind of arrangement is that you’ve got one set of people supplying your kit, who you can go to for help if it’s not working. Naming no names, but we’ve all heard of situations where there are two manufacturers supplying equipment that turns out not to work properly together, and all they do is point the finger of blame at each other. The guys at eMerging, by contrast, have been great. During the install, if we’ve had a problem, they’ve just dealt with it, which is what you want from a supplier.”
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