PostWorks acquires Tapehouse and more - Post News

Post, June, 2003 by Matthew Armstrong

NEW YORK -- In a move that will radically change the size and scope of its business, PostWorks (wwwpwny.com) has purchased the Tapehouse Companies and all of its affiliates including Tapehouse Editorial, Tapehouse Digital Film, Tapehouse Broadband, Black Logic and The Anx, as well as SMA Real time and 50 percent of audio post house Caterini Studios. All of the companies' locations will be consolidated into one except for The Anx, which will remain in its present location. The new location is in the building where SMA Realtime operated and the new PostWorks location will be housed on the 10th, 11th and 12th floor of 100 Sixth Avenue.

The move was spurred by two major forces says CEO Billy Baldwin. 'Trying to operate with all of our multiple locations was grating and we were looking to purchase a building to consolidate when these opportunities presented themselves," says Baldwin. "To really do HD right you have to have the infrastructure. We were doing a lot of HD work but it just wasn't working the way it should. SMA Realtime was the forerunner of HD and already had an amazing infrastructure."

The acquisitions transform PostWorks in a variety of ways. First, the equipment and personnel broadens the spectrum of its services to make PostWorks an end-to-end facility capable of handling any aspect of post. This includes new capabilities to do advanced color correction via the acquired da Vinci 2K and sound services via Caterini Studios.

"A client doesn't have to shuffle between facilities," notes Baldwin," In the world of HD that means everything. I had found that every facility was telling clients a different story about how to handle HD. We eliminate that If you're doing your mix right upstairs, no one can tell you there's problems with your audio sync.

Second, PostWorks had been mostly a four-wall business. While the company aims to continue servicing this market, it adds a pool of talent to attract clients, The real assets are the people," says Baldwin, These people include longtime Tapehouse director of HD/data services Tim Spitzer, who will serve as the new company's VP of operations; Todd Ruff, director of graphics; senior editor Peter Heady; Henry artist Jay Tillin; senior visual effects designer/supervisor Brian Benson; broadband manager Scott Ettin; CG artists Doug Johnson and Kuan Lin; and colorists John Crowley, Eric Alvarado, Alex Berman, Scott Olive and Sam Daley, among others.

The third significant change will be in clientele as the services and the talent opens the door to commercial work "Tapehouse and SMA had a significant client base so that will allow us to move into that market," explains Baldwin. "Our experience in creating film and broadcast deliverables lends itself to commercials now that those folks are getting into HD. A lot of people say they can do HD because they have a box that can handle it, but meeting all the deliverable requirements is something else."

The new entity offers clients 25 Avid offline edit suites; two Discreet Inferno compositing suites; numerous Flame, Smoke and Maya 3D workstations; two Spirit DataCines with Pogle MegDefs for color correction; one Quantel iQ and Sony-equipped HD linear bay; one Cintel Millenium Machine; one da Vinci 2K; and two Avid IDS HD suites.

In addition, the company will also house six Pro-Tools mixing suites, a live recording room, a LaserGraphics film recorder, an Arri-Laser film recorder, and aTeranex standards converter, allowing finishing in numerous HD formats. There is also a high-def screening room.