422 Manchester has bought a third Autodesk Smoke editing and finishing system and added an HDcam SR deck capable of dealing with data from digital cameras such as the Red One and the Phantom.

The new Smoke replaces a Quantel Hal and will be used as a graphics station, serving other suites with end-frames, logo animations and other core on-screen information.

“All of our Autodesk systems are networked to an InfiniBand high-performance architecture, which makes the shuttling of data incredibly fast,” said managing director Martin Dixon.

“We're primarily running the new Smoke as a graphics station to serve the other suites with graphics. We'll dedicate design to the new machine, produce VFX on Flame and bring the whole job together for finishing in one of the other two Smokes.”

One of 422's existing Smokes features Batch nodes imported from Flame which, says Dixon, makes that system a “bridge between a Smoke and Flame.”

422 has also taken delivery of a new Sony HD SR deck complete with a new interface card that will allow fluid workflow with digital cameras such as the Red and Phantom.

The new HKSR-5804 network card allows DPX file transfer to and from SR format, or alternatively the storing of uncompressed files from HD to 4K (4096x3112).

422 Manchester provides visual effects, motion graphics, animation and sound design services to broadcast, corporate and advertising clients.

Credits include the titles for Ladykillers (pictured), a Free At Last production for ITV3.

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