LONDON — Envy (www.envypost.co.uk), here, has relocated its short-form department to a brand new facility on Mortimer Street. Situated between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road, the new office gives the post facility plenty of room to accommodate its busy advertising arm. With the move, all of Envy’s advertising operations are now housed under one roof.
The new space accommodated 32 suites for offline, VFX and Dolby Atmos audio. It’s just a stone’s throw away from Envy’s headquarters at Rathbone Place.Facility director Natascha Cadle is the owner and designer of the new space.
“We knew we’d found the perfect building when we came across Mortimer Street,” says Cadle. “It was in a terrible state but I saw the potential. It’s got a fabulous art-deco style exterior like the ones you see in Miami and I suppose that’s where my inspiration came from. I’m not an ‘official’ interior designer but I wanted people to feel comfortable and create a ‘non-office’ environment that encourages creativity.”
Cadle’s vision of a cosy industrial setting was the driving force behind the decision to install an enormous ground floor window that envelops the main entrance and reception area in a glow of natural light. The ground floor, which hosts several meeting rooms, the production team, and a bar, channels a laid-back industrial vibe. The floors above house a Baselight grading suite, Baselight Assist and five Autodesk Flame Premium suites, as well as the expanded VFX studio support area. The VFX space can accommodate up to 18 artists using Flare, Nuke, Maya, After Effects and Cinema4D.
Envy installed a Dolby Atmos premix studio at the new space, which senior dubbing mixer, Arge, dubs the “future of surround sound in the cinema and the home.” With over a decade of experience mixing Dolby Digital 5.1 for the cinema, and hundreds of high-profile trailers and commercials under its belt, Envy can now mix projects into Dolby Atmos for the home or premix projects ready for Dolby Atmos in the cinema.
“With this new suite, we can place 128 different sound objects anywhere in a three-dimensional space with pinpoint accuracy that - putting you right inside the action, with nothing short of breath-taking results,” adds Arge. “Our clients have been absolutely blown away when we’ve taken their pre-existing cinema or TV ads and remixed them into Dolby Atmos. Their faces light up as we immerse them in the ultimate sound experience from our custom 9.1.4 Exigy sound system.”
“The move has been an exciting opportunity to completely revamp our internal systems,” says Daniel Sassen, head of technical services. “Mortimer Street is now equipped with three new Pro Tools sound studios each with a VO booth, Avid S6 mixing desk and DAD AX32 routing systems which give us the ultimate in flexibility for setups and workflow.”