June 20, 2005

COOPER BROTHERS ACQUIRE NOVASTAR DIGITAL SOUND

Matt Cooper

HOLLYWOOD - The Cooper Brothers have purchased post production sound company Novastar in a move that provides enhanced audio services through their collection of allied post facilities. The Coopers purchased The Post Group a few months ago and are uniting that company's audio capabilities with Novastar Digital Sound, blending the complementary talent and technology of the entities into a new audio resource.

Matt Cooper is a graduate of UCLA Film School, and is a writer, producer and director with feature films to his credit. He is also a licensed attorney in the state of New York and a former stand-up comedian. David Cooper has been an executive producer and has historically been responsible for securing financing. Based in New York, David is CEO/chairman of ProHealth Corporation.

The Coopers also own Lightning Media and The Vault production company, and co-own iO Film. Together with The Post Group, and now Novastar, the companies provide a creative campus for the film and television communities with services including DI film finishing, color correction, telecine, editing, visual effects, digital audio, conversions, duplication, DVD replication, and Internet design and development.

Novastar, acquired on June 1st, and The Post Group began sharing resources during the premiere season CBS's "Numb3rs" series, at a time when Matt Cooper and Post Group CEO Stephen Buchsbaum were looking to enhance The Post Group?s sound services.

Novastar was co-founded by Greg Geddes and Bob Sky. "We've already been sharing support and it's great to no longer feel like an island," says Geddes.

The companies will operate as individual entities, specializing in their unique areas of service, but are geographically close enough to encourage collaboration. The expanded Novastar services will include three mixing suites featuring sound design/editorial for 5.1 re-recording/mixing for film, television, commercial, special venue or inter-active gaming clients. A fourth suite will focus on reality programming. Sound restoration and DVD pre-mastering services will also be offered.

Novastar features THX-certified dub stages with 35mm film projection or high definition DLP digital projection. It also offers virtual digital mixing consoles for two mixers per dubbing stage supported by Digidesign's Pro Tools|HD systems capable of over 200 play back tracks per mixer.

A build-out of the existing facility will incorporate new ADR, Foley and re-recording stages as well as a dedicated suite for DVD commentary tracks.