Fountain focus on HD

Fountain Studios, the largest purpose-built production studio in the UK, has so far invested £1.1million to upgrade its cameras and vision mixers to HD. The equipment installation, including ten Sony HDC1500 HD cameras, a Sony MVS 8000G video switcher, a Pro Bel router and Ikegami monitors, was completed in September.

The purchase is part of an ongoing investment program to enable Fountain Studios, the largest independent studio in the UK, to offer fully integrated HD facilities. Among the first HD projects to use the new equipment are the highly anticipated sitcom Clone by Roughcut TV for BBC3 and Nike Live: The Cesc Fabregas Show by Remedy Productions for Sky.

"We have chosen this equipment to enable us to do full HD work and the new and more powerful technology also allows us to provide an improved service for SD projects," comments Chris Cooper, chief engineer.

Mariana Spater, managing director at Fountain said, "This investment is key for us as the industry moves towards HD production as a standard. We are already working on HD projects and our technical team is fully trained on the new equipment to offer the expertise and support that our clients have come to expect from The Fountain Studios."

Fountain are currently playing host to Simon Cowell et al for this year's UK X-Factor.