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ESV and Pro Tools fight the fight for Les Misérables at Halo Post

Halo Post, one of the finest audio post facilities in the UK, situated in Soho, has recently completed final mixing for the award-winning Les Misérables film, which has been a huge box office success. When they needed more Pro Tools systems for the project to cope with the complexity of the audio mix, they called Richard Eastwood, Managing Director of Eastwood Sound and Vision Ltd (ESV).

The Les Misérables project at Halo is typical of the projects Richard supplies equipment for, "David Turner, Director of Film Post Production at Halo Post, called me as he required additional Pro Tools HD systems for the three-week duration of the mix. We were up against another top rental house, but our emphasis on quality well-maintained equipment, 24-hour support and our reputation in the business won the day."

The rental included two Mac Pro 8-core Pro Tools HD3 Accel systems, each with SYNC HD and SSL Delta Link MADI HD Interfaces for MADI connectivity to the AMS-Neve DFC Gemini console. Waves Restoration plug-ins, iZotope adaptive real-time noise reduction, and some Digidesign 192 interfaces were also supplied. "There was also a need for additional mixing capability", added Richard, "so we also rented them an Avid D-Command ES Main 8-channel control surface – we ran out stock so I needed to buy another one in a hurry – Halo got a brand new D-Command. Finally there was a request for a legacy Lexicon 960L surround reverb, the post mixers really like these classic industry-standard reverbs and we’re fortunate enough to have several units in our rental stock for situations like this."

Attention to detail is what ESV are all about and Richard is very vocal about his dedication to the success of each project, "A rental like this is not just about shipping them the goods, it requires us to be able to offer continual support and in this case they wanted some older PCI-X HD cards and other stuff as mix progressed. And of course we are always available on call round the clock if they need help, it’s what we are all about. It's very satisfying watching a great movie like this and knowing we played a part in its creation."

ESV has an extensive list of audio post clients including Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, Twickenham Film Studios, Synxspeed Post-Production, Warner Bros. De Lane Lea, Goldcrest Post London, and Technicolor Creative Services London.