| Coming Full Circle |
An Interview with Sai Prasad, Technical Director
Ten minutes with Sai Prasad should be enough to convince anyone of the fact that the future of Prasad lies in its orientation towards state-of-the-art technology... Interview Here |
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The Prasad One-Stop Shop
The Prasad establishment, headquartered in Chennai, occupies a unique place in the Indian film, video and audio industries. When Prasad Studios opened in 1965, the country's film industry found access to a new world of facilities.
A Wealth of Talent and Technology
An Extensive Facility
Where Ideas Come Alive
India's Largest
State-of-the-art Digital Duplication
EFX
And there's been no looking back. With every new division the Group has started, there's been an emphasis on providing the best and most modern technology as part of a convenient one-stop shop infrastructure. Constantly keeping abreast of international developments is no easy task - but one at which Prasad has excelled consistently over the years. It's difficult for the present generation to imagine that L.V. Prasad, the remarkable founder of the Prasad Group, began his career as a junior artiste...
Prasad Video Digital: A Wealth of Talent and Technology
This decade-old high-tech facility caters to video post-production. It is known all over India for its reservoir of editorial talent, three inter-format editing suites, three computer graphics suites, a digital audio facility, multi-camera packages and a telecine suite. (See box for details)
Prasad Recording Studios: An Extensive Facility
The Prasad Group has recording, dubbing and mixing studios in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. All the studios have Rock and Roll dubbers and recorders for 35/16 mm film formats and 24-track 2-inch recorders and 24-track mixing consoles for state-of-the-art multi-track recording. Prasad's 70 mm recording theatre in Chennai, the only one of its kind in Asia, offers 70 mm 6-track and 35 mm 4-track mixing, striping and transferring, all in the same location. Chennai's Recording Theatre I, where the music maestro Ilayaraja records most of his music, went digital in 1996, and uses Digidesign Pro Tools. Prasad Recording Studios also has facilities for DTS and Dolby stereo mixing.
Prasad Studios: Where Ideas Come Alive
Our tour of the Prasad facilities also takes in Prasad Studios in Chennai where it all began in 1965. In a little over three decades, the facility has grown considerably in both size and scope. On offer here today are three large shooting floors, four sophisticated recording theatres, an advanced dubbing theatre and editing suite equipped with the Synclavier digital audio workstation for video and audio post production.
Prasad Film Laboratory: India's Largest
This massive facility came up in 1974 in Chennai, and marked a great advance for the film industry. Sixty thousand square feet of built-up area witness the processing of ten million feet of film here every month! This makes Prasad Film Laboratory the largest lab in India. It is also the only lab equipped to handle all formats from 16 to 70 mm. Prasad has a name in the international film market for consistent quality, and has branches in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar and Noida.
Prasad Digi Audio: State-of-the-art Digital Duplication
A new facility, Prasad Digi Audio offers a digital duplication unit with state-of-the-art digital machines from Gauss, and digital mastering facilities for high quality, large volume audio reproduction. The facility assures its customers that their original recordings on spool, cassette tape or CD will be turned into perfect digital masters that remain unaffected by the number of duplications. On-line quality control checks ensure reliable quality at every stage from input to cassette loading. The main objective is to give the end user the same clarity of sound available at the time of recording.
EFX
The only combined laser quality, high resolution, high-speed colour film recorder and digital film scanner service in Asia is to be found at EFX in Chennai. The services offered at this four-year-old facility also include tape to film transfer (reverse telecine), special effects and graphics for feature films. The facility is equipped with Silicon Graphics machines, an Oxberry scanner with liquid gate, which cleans the negative while scanning, and Softimage, Illusion and Alias softwares. EFX also has a Research and Development unit that constantly develops software to enhance picture quality and to complement existing software.
