The Briefing Room

Hollywood Center Studios has launched a nearly $2.25million upgrade to its existing high definition production facilities. The move is being made to accommodate several current Disney Channel productions, including The Suite Life On Deck and The Wizards of Waverly Place, two popular series making the move to HD for upcoming seasons.

Hollywood Center Studios operates one of the largest independent production facilities in Hollywood, and currently provides sound stages and other facilities for numerous television productions. “We determined that now is the right time to expand and upgrade our HD facilities as many of our clients, including Disney, are making the transition to HD,” said Hollywood Center Executive Vice President and COO Tim Mahoney. “We have long-term relationships with most of our clients, so when they want to make changes, we choose to be ready, willing, and able to accommodate them.” Other shows recently on the Hollywood Center lot include HBO’s True Blood, Comedy Central’s Chocolate News and MTV’s Starmaker. Upcoming shows include a children’s game show being produced by Stone and Company for Nickelodeon.

As part of the upgrade, the studio is installing Ross Video QMD/X multi-definition switchers and Yamaha PM1D digital audio mixing consoles. Additionally, the studio has acquired several Sony HDC-1500 multi-format HD cameras, the preferred camera for HD television production. The multi-format equipment will allow Hollywood Center clients to produce in standard definition or in any HD format including 1080/50i, 1080/60i and 1080/24P.

“Designing a production environment that accommodates all HD and standard definition formats was a complicated challenge,” noted Hollywood Center Vice President of Engineering David Maxwell. “Our environment also gives us the ability to mix and match monitoring systems so that productions can monitor their projects in HD or standard def, and in different aspect ratios-4X3, wide screen or anamorphic-to suit their specific requirements.”

“That kind of flexibility is a hallmark of Hollywood Center’s approach to new technologies,” added Harvey Buchbinder, the studio’s Executive Vice President of Marketing. “It allows us to meet our client’s changing needs in a timely manner.” All of the upgrades are expected to be completed by March.

Planned and constructed under Maxwell’s direction, the HD facilities are designed to accommodate fully tapeless production’ as that technology develops. Future upgrades include the ability to deliver data media off-site directly from Hollywood Center sound stages.

Hollywood Center Studios is located at 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90038. For more information, call (323) 860-0000 or visit www.hollywoodcenter.com.