Located in the busy backstreets of Soho, London, Rainbow Post is a studio specializing in High Definition (HD) post production for broadcast and corporate projects. For over ten years, the studio has developed strong relationships across the pond rather than at home, with 85 per cent of its work being 5.1 Surround Sound HD programmes for American channels such as National Geographic, and the History Channel. Now, with the UK’s switch to HD TV, the Rainbow can only get bigger and brighter.

Rainbow Post was created 13 years ago by an Italian film editor who worked on London’s Carnaby Street. He decided to expand his editing business into audio post production and hired Nick Rogers, now managing director, to set up an audio division in a different location on Brewer Street. After two years, the two bases merged within the current address at Ingestre Place.

Since then the company has added a second theatre and the business has grown organically, with two HD dubbing theatres, a graphics division and a recent expansion in Hammersmith with five Final Cut Pro editing suites.

With the industry’s shift to digital technology, the studio’s HD dubbing theatres are surprisingly spacious with full Pyramix workstations, 160 channel DPC mixing boards and Genelec 5.1 surround sound monitoring.

The success of the studio is partially due to its involvement in National Geographic’s Womb series, which provided great exposure and a chance to flex its creative muscles.

“The sound design for the Womb programmes was pretty much created from scratch. The show was narrator led with music set to computer generated imagery inside the female body from conception to birth. We had to recreate the digestive system, and every sound that could go on in the body, although we are completely unaware of what they actually sound like,” laughs dubbing mixer Matt Faulkner.

“We had to take all the amazing pictures and scans and bring it all to life. It is very subjective, but if it is not right then it is awfully wrong. That is what I enjoy most, taking someone’s ideas and making them come to life.”

Creative vision is what Rogers feels is the key to Rainbow’s continued success. He explains: “With all the digital technology available today, the equipment is relatively inexpensive to own, but people come to us for our expertise and creativity. The producers we work with want to hear things from a different perspective, and we are good at creating sound design for scientific and data programmes.”

The creative input of Rainbow’s engineers and editors has certainly established a good reputation for the studio and business has continued to grow and expand with repeat business, working on an ongoing programme called Naked Science, now in its sixth series, as well as many projects for the Smithsonian Institute.

With many other areas in the industry scaling down, especially in shadow of the current financial squeeze, Rogers is confident that Rainbow will not be effected as harshly as others.

“Business is good. The credit crunch might effect our relationship with the dollar, which may help us out a bit, but people are always watching TV and the credit crunch is not going to stop people from buying TVs or wanting original programmes to watch,” says Rogers.

“The main problem is getting good rates for what we do. Our rates have stayed relatively static over the last five years, but our overheads go up every year, our staff wants more wages and the equipment needs regular upgrades. Making the programmes gets easier all the time, but it becomes difficult to give each project the time that it needs and deserves and still fit into a client’s budget.”

While Edwards admits that it is hard to predict the future, the expertise of its mixers and editors, interns making their way swiftly through the ranks and plans to create prep rooms to make the dubbing theatre’s more profitable will only enhance the potential of the studio. Rainbow Post will continue to do what it does best and expand where it sees necessary and most profitable.
www.rainbowpost.com