Three major London post companies have upgraded their facilities with the purchase of Discreet kit. Among the orders are the first installations of the manufacturer's new Smoke and Flame on the SGI Tezro workstation. Discreet did not reveal how much the deals are worth, writes Farah Jifri.
Three major London post companies have upgraded their facilities with the purchase of Discreet kit. Among the orders are the first installations of the manufacturer's new Smoke and Flame on the SGI Tezro workstation. Discreet did not reveal how much the deals are worth, writes Farah Jifri.

Pepper Post is the first facility in the UK to install a Flame v8.5 system on Tezro to boost its HD operations. The new Flame will be operated by Pepper's Jamie Russell.

"Investing in HD and supporting the projects graded in the new Spirit Datacine HD suite is an important strategic decision for Pepper," managing director Patrick Holzen told Broadcast. "We were looking for a high performance visual effects system that allows for effective data flow between the various systems."

New Soho facility Absolute Post, which will open its doors this week, has standardised on Discreet systems and purchased two Flame v8.5 systems on Tezro, networked with four Burn background renderers and two Combustions to get itself up and running.

Absolute, which was set up by former special effects director at The Mill Dave Smith, aims to specialise in high-end TV work and has already been commissioned for a number of projects both at home and abroad. 'With the Burn background renderer you can turn things around much faster and it makes us a lot more efficient' said Smith.

The Mill has also purchased new kit from Discreet including its fourth Smoke and 27 upgrades to the latest versions for its existing Discreet kit - the biggest

software-only order won by Discreet to date.

Roy Trosh, technical director at The Mill, said the upgrades and the purchase of a new Smoke are a response to increasing demand for the facility's Mini Mills - off-site facilities currently held within major client sites including BBH, Ogilvy and Lowes.

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