New York Post

Oct 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Gary Eskow

Regardless of the pressures raining down on New York City — and there have been many in recent years, including the strike, 9/11, a general dispersion of production dollars away from the main hubs and, most recently, a blackout — the audio post community has managed to shift with the tides and find ways to survive, and even thrive. Mix spoke to several houses, looking for a purely unscientific sampling of how the commercial audio post market has changed in the past year or so.

Marc Bazerman, chief mixing engineer at Pomann Sound Productions, says, “In the past six months, we have seen business improve 20 percent to 30 percent over the previous year. We are not back to where we were a few years ago, but we are seeing the first signs of the industry turning around for the better.”

Bazerman says that editing houses and, to a lesser extent, advertising agency personnel continue to keep large chunks of work in-house. As a result, file compatibility, always an important issue, has grown even more vital. Bazerman says, “We are seeing more jobs that start in-house at an advertising agency or editing facility come to us in finished form. File interchange has become more and more important. Clients want to walk over with their Avid drive, pull up an editor's work and use that as a starting point. File sharing has become an everyday practice. Clients want MP3 previews of their radio spots and QuickTime movies of their TV spots so that they can view them from anywhere at anytime.”

Gail Nord, general manager at Sound Hound, also sees the past year as a rebounding period in the industry. “2003 has been a really good year for us. In a strange way, all of the mergers, closings and movement within the audio post facilities here in New York have actually helped to solidify and expand our client base. I think there are a handful of other studios that have also done well as a result of the consolidation.

“Our Avid room opened up last year, and this spring, we added our seventh studio, a 5.1 surround mix room for our new mixer, Frank Cabanach,” she continues. “The addition of the Avid suite has enabled us to package together our audio and video services for our promo clients. They seem to really appreciate the convenience and consistency of cutting and mixing in the same facility. At the present time, we're building our ninth room, another Fairlight mix room.

“Our business model has changed in a fundamental way, at least in a sense,” she adds. “We hire freelance video editors now on what you might describe as a permanent freelance basis. A person will come onboard for three months or so to work on a project. Right now, for example, we're working on a huge series for USA [Networks] where we're cutting and mixing all of the promos. Once that project is completed, the room where the video editor is working will convert back into a nice voice-over studio until the next Avid project comes in.”

Sound Hound has multiple Pro Tools and Fairlight workstations. “We're a mix of the two,” says Nord. “We invested a chunk of money into Fairlight, and the guys who are on it really like the system a lot. Fairlights are easy to operate and network, and they're very reliable machines. Some guys like Pro Tools, and more power to them. I'm happy having both systems. In L.A., there aren't too many Fairlights, but there are lots of them here in New York.”

Broadway Video and Broadway Sound have undergone some significant changes during the past year, but Broadway Sound's VP and senior mixer Mike Ungar says that talent remains the distinguishing element. “Business is actually pretty good, considering how bad the economy is and how everyone is trying to find ways to cut back production budgets,” he says. “For one thing, most of our work revolves around the specific talents of the sound designer and sweetening engineers. All of our suites come equipped with samplers, keyboards and various instruments for cool sound design-y stuff. Each mixer/designer can build his or her own unique catalog of sounds, and the result is a product that is never run-of-the-mill. Our client base has remained strong because the added value our people bring remains very high. You just can't replace high-end chops and out-of-the-ordinary talent and experience with a new box. Our support people also have had to adapt by being very responsive to scheduling needs on a moment-by-moment basis. They have done a great job.”

WHERE THE WORK IS
On a percentage basis, Sound Hound's advertising work has dropped dramatically, says Nord. “Our advertising base is not very large anymore. The agencies we did work with have pretty much all gone under due to layoffs and mergers, and many of our longtime producer clients are now looking for work. I don't get the feeling that the industry is going to rebound any time soon. Our ratio has continued to move more toward cable work, both promo and long-format. Our ad work is probably no more than 20 percent of our business now.”

The experience at Pomann Sound has been quite different, according to Bazerman. “From our perspective, the advertising business seems to be improving,” he says. “I heard that a couple of agencies are going to start hiring again after a two-year freeze. Those were the lucky agencies that didn't have to fire anyone. We are seeing a significant increase in our ad work again. In the last year or so, we have had a huge increase in the amount of promo and advertising work.”

Ungar says, “We have moved somewhat into longer formats from commercial and promo work, which is still the bulk of our sales, and have built rooms without the expensive booth part to meet technical and budgetary needs of the new client base, which revolves around smaller series work and indie films and docs. We use top-notch talent both here and on a freelance basis. Many of the freelancers have their own work, so it is a happy meeting. They bring us stuff, and we give them work. Again, the key here is that although you may need to bring down the price of the room, you never bring down the level of service. You don't have to because the overhead is considerably lower in these rooms.

“Although we have avoided dropping rates, we can offer some help to the budget-minded by having such things as direct ISDN hookups with talent and phone patches slide at cost,” he continues. “It hurts that profit center somewhat but makes clients feel like they are not getting hit hard on every front. Ya gotta give where you can, but never treat your talent cheaply.”

Pomann Sound has also been renovating its space. “We just finished remodeling our lounge and reception area, which now includes an original steel sculpture and several Internet stations,” says Bazerman. “We also built a kitchen and a conference room that features antique wooden doors from China. We are in the process of changing digital audio workstations. There are features in all of the major systems that we like, but not one is the ‘be all, end all’ machine. We are looking forward to seeing what new products are available at the upcoming AES convention.”

NEW MARKETS
Finding additional niches can help keep the cash flow positive. Ungar touts the digital restoration work that takes place at Broadway Sound. “We are experts at the process of digital restoration,” he explains. “We have some of the best engineers around doing that work, Grammy^™ Award-winners who are now turning their attention to restoring and remastering the movie soundtracks for DVDs that our large duplication department has been going after. That is a great combination. Service from soup to nuts, and the work involves large corporations with some decent dollars to spend. It gives them incredible added value to their ‘A’ titles at a minimum cost. It is good for them and us, and has become a great income generator that helps us reach a bottom line that continues to be healthy. We have two new 5.1 rooms now that are used in the restoration and remix process. These rooms are balanced to the high standards that our client base now expects.”

Broadway Sound's close relationship to Broadway Video is another valuable asset, says Ungar: “Broadway Video's recent successes as a production company have kept us busy in series land, and the two companies are able to create the type of symbiotic relationship that can only occur under the umbrella of one-stop shopping.”

Sometimes, reacting to adversity can lead to a healthier business. Nord says that Sound Hound's way of responding to the challenges of the past several years have left the company in a stronger position. “In the days when we relied on advertising revenue, the work was centered around the sweeps. But today, we're catering much more to the cable networks and their work doesn't center around the sweeps. In fact, they work five days a week, 52 weeks a year. In a sense, the cable stations are economy-proof: When people don't have a lot of disposable income, they stay at home and watch television.

“Cable networks are very competitive with one another, and those that survive put real money into promoting their shows,” she continues. “We've also found that people who work in promo departments are very loyal. We've kept almost the entire client base of cable people who have worked with us. We began with just a couple of people, and as these kids grew up, they kept coming back to us. Suddenly, we found that we have the Food Network as a client, then Lifetime, Discovery and, eventually, many others as well. It's worked out very well for us.”

Audio production houses have long understood that having an in-house composer can make their facility more attractive to clients. For the past three years, Stuart Kollmorgen has worked as an independent contractor with offices at Pomann Sound.

“I had my own studio with a full live room for several years,” says Kollmorgen. “I made a percentage deal with Bob Pomann, who's posting the two cartoons [Stanley, Jojo's Circus] that I'm scoring. Bob brought me in on Stanley and I brought Jojo's Circus here, so the relationship's been mutually beneficial.”

After graduating from the Berklee School of Music in 1987, Kollmorgen came to New York and knocked around in bands for a while, and eventually scored several experimental theater projects on the Lower East Side. “I became involved with some filmmakers who edited commercials for money. I've wanted to do long-form for quite some time, and I feel that I was born to score Stanley. My clients say that I do a good job bringing out the emotions in cartoon characters, and I enjoy it a lot.

“These days, clients want as much flexibility as they can get,” Kollmorgen concludes. “The beauty of the deal that I have here is that if a client wants a last-minute revision, I can jump into my room, re-score and send them the changes while they're still working on a mix. I produce about 44 minutes of music every week — not including the spots that come in — and record at 16-bit in Digital Performer. Working out of Pomann Sound is a real advantage for me, Bob and, hopefully, the clients we serve.”

Gary Eskow is a contributing editor to Mix.