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Happy Endings for David + John After 30 Years David Woodley-Page and Terry O'Brien agree someone must be looking after them. After months of uncertainty for David trying to sell a building, and Terry trying to find new premises, the best solution for both was just around the corner. So on February 1st, Audiobrien took over David + John Recordings, took on their staff and moved just around the corner into their Eden Street studios. And both sides of the deal couldn't be happier. For his part, David says he's very happy leaving the legacy of his studio to Audiobrien. "They're more than neighbours. Both Terry and Brad Grisaffe used to work for me so I know them both very well. And I know Robbi (O'Brien) very well too, so we've been very close even though we were in opposition. "And they're keeping Jen and Jeremy so the setup with their staffing will be very good, very powerful. It's actually pretty perfect," David says. Terry also says it's all gone very smoothly, from the actual deal to the physical move - and they were able to take a fortnight off over Christmas to have a break. "Everybody is very happy, you can feel this real sense of teamwork and people excited that there's a new thing happening," Terry says. "It's good for the clients, good for Audiobrien and good for Jeremy and Jen. "It all just fell into place. Someone somewhere is looking down on us saying I'll give you a break." The logistics came about because David wanted to sell the building and scale down by leasing space elsewhere. At the same time Audiobrien's landlord had decided to turn the studio building into units, so they were planning an expensive relocation and re-build. When Terry found out David was selling it seemed like an ideal solution: David could sell to an investor, who would get an instant tenant and Audiobrien wouldn't have to re-build their studios, they could simply move in. Then David asked Terry if they'd like to buy the business. "So we got two things," Terry says. "We got a place to go to round the corner in the same area for clients and we got a chance to buy a successful business for Audiobrien, and to keep the staff. So we did the figures and everything looked good and we said yes and we went ahead and did it all." A couple of weeks after Audiobrien moved in, David tidied up the last of the paperwork and took off for London on holiday. Naturally, David said he was sad to be leaving the industry. "Oh yes I am because I've made so many friends - I've been there so long. The studio itself's been going 35 years and prior to that I've been in the industry since 1960. "We started with one studio with a rented house in what used to be Crows Nest and is now North Sydney. "We started there with a six month lease, Ross Linton and myself and the place just went from strength to strength. John Taylor joined and the two of us just had to keep building studios to keep up with the amount of work we kept getting." The studios in Eden Street Crows Nest opened for business in September 1971 and the first job was a spot for Rothmans National Sports Foundation voiced by Kev Golsby. Another early visitor to the studios was Keith Scott, who was just starting his voiceover career. Keith says David really helped him get established. "At that time I was just a kid," Keith remembers. "I could do all these impersonations but I didn't know what to do with them. David actually must have seen something in me and did some free demos for me which is kind of unheard of. He did that for me in '73 and '74 and he worked with me and refined what I was doing. So I've always been grateful to him for doing that mentor-like role which really got me quite established in the voiceover field." In 1975 John Taylor replaced Ross Linton in the business and the name changed to David + John. Keith Scott remembers the studios were always packed with three studios all recording sessions and another half dozen agency people and talent in the green room waiting. "For a certain point there for about 15 years, I was at David + John's almost three or four times a week, it was truly one of the leading places in Sydney in those days." The studios threw legendary Christmas parties with invitations sent out on cassette. "One thing I do know about David + John is that they did genuinely like some of the top voiceover people because we were all very professional and they were too," says Keith. "I think they appreciated the fact that we were very precise. We could still have a lot of zaniness and throw a lot of silly impersonations around, but we really got the job done and were very professional, as were they, and I think there was kind of a mutual respect there from both sides of the glass." There was certainly a who's who of voiceover talent at David's farewell drinks in early February. It was also a reunion opportunity for some of the engineers who began their careers at David + John's. It's a long list including Paul Evans, Brad Grisaffe, Chris McCallum, Ben Crabbe, Paul Taylor. And of course, the new owner, Terry O'Brien started there as well before moving on to start Audiobrien.
Terry's taking the move in his stride and says the week after the move was actually quite smooth. "It's like another era, starting off again. Or rather, the third era. This is the fifth building in 25 years," Terry says. The Audiobrien studio interiors were pulled down on Friday and while the new owners were carting most of the bits away on Saturday Terry was around the corner patching and wiring. "By 5-30 (Friday) we had it around here and all the studios were around here with all the bits," Terry says. "The removalists were moving all the other stuff, lounges and speaker boxes etc. I didn't let them take any of the equipment; we took that around ourselves in the cars, because it's only around the block. "I had spent hardly any time looking at their patch bay but I had to get one studio up and running for the Monday because it was booked up all day, and when I figured out all the wiring and got all that working, I spent all day Saturday doing that, just to get one room running. "Jeremy, who was already here, his room was fine, he's happy there so I didn't have to touch him, and then on Monday I started doing my room and putting in the dSPs and changing them over and trying to learn the desk and the gear so I could do a session. "Brad was happy and confident and worked all day, which gets you right up to speed. We're using the O2R desks and once he was familiar with their stuff he was pretty confident so it all worked pretty well. I'm just surprised that it fell into place so easily," Terry says. Terry says he's planning to do less administration and more recording. "I'm very experienced at radio and know how to cast and won many awards in the past but haven't really pursued that much. So there's some new areas to get into. There's a lot to learn on the computers because of the way you can do things now, so it's all very exciting and I like to learn, I'm a quick learner. Young Jeremy's very into that and showing me the stuff I don't know, so that's all good. "There are a few little technical things here and there that I want to modify... but it's pretty good already the way it is."
New Studio Applying Animal Magnetism Former Rowlands studio manager Paul Gildea has a new business venture in audio production ... and web design and film-making. South Melbourne-based Monkeesee is aimed at smaller agencies and clients who want access to the full range of marketing tools with a smaller price tag. "Literally we opened our doors on February 1st. We've retained lots of Rowlands clients and that's great but we're out there pitching for more," Paul says. "We're looking at agencies who are probably streamlining and saying they need a bolt-on production company that does web and can record ads and shoot ads. "I think there's a changing model and we're just trying to react to that and probably scale back - instead of having three recording studios we have one - and we've gone back to 5.1 which is great." Former Rowlands engineer Matt Bauer and Greg Cheeseman from Choice Audio complete the audio trifecta at Monkeesee. The two other partners in Monkeesee are website designer Gordon Bye and film-maker Richard Gray. "So the idea is we chase down in our individual areas as many ground breaking communicative tools as we can and try to apply them for the clients, and feed each other work obviously as well," Paul says. He says the concept of sound and vision and web working together isn't new but it is relatively ground-breaking to have them physically all together, to suit the client. "I decided to get really focused on it so that people who come in here and get their website designed and want a little bit of sound for it - we'll record the sound. Then the step from there to a radio commercial isn't that great because you'll have already recorded a whole bunch of sound effects and you'll have some script. Then the step up from there to use static photos and put a retail television commercial together isn't that great again. "Or if they want to come in here and make a great television commercial we can do that, and then break it down to a radio commercial and put components on the web. But we wanted to be able to work both ways," he says. The new collaboration has just finished two large installations for the Melbourne Museum, one of which was a Marine exhibit which comprises a virtual 'ride' and realistic exhibitions. And there's a new project on the way to coincide with the Commonwealth Games. www.monkeesee.com Your Bits - Studio news
Our Bits - AudioNET® News We have recently added three changes to AudioNET® that are designed to make your life easier, reduce errors and to help you look fantastic in front of your clients.
1. No More Duplicate Key Numbers/File Names Most of you would have seen warning pop-ups from time to time, if you've accidentally typed in or copied the same key number, or attached the same audio file twice in the one dispatch. We've changed the wording of this warning pop-up to remind you that if you type over the key number/file name, you will also need to change the file attached. In the case of duplicate files the system will not let you complete the delivery, until you have attached a new audio file and hit the orange copy-down arrow to copy in the correct key number. The reason for this extra precaution is that some studios have been changing the name of the key number/file name as prompted by the warning, but forgetting to change the attached audio file. This creates major problems for the radio stations because they get the wrong audio. So, we're just trying to make everyone's job a little easier by making it harder for human errors to slip through. 2. Agency and Client Name Presentation This change is for those of us who can't spell and those of us who type too fast to be accurate. Some poor agencies and clients have ended up with five or six different spellings in the system. The record is held by a government department with a five word name (and no wonder!) If you send delivery confirmations to your agency clients, this means that they're seeing different spellings of their name, depending on who's doing the dispatch at your studio. With the prevalence of predictive text it also means you may only have one spelling, but you spelt it incorrectly initially, then your web browser will keep repeating the mistake. So, we've done a summer clean up so all your clients now only have one -hopefully correct - spelling. To maintain consistent presentation, you'll be prompted to select your agencies and clients from a drop-down list. As with all things AudioNET® your agency and client lists are YOUR list, no other studio can see your drop down list. And when you are doing a dispatch for a new agency or client, you can scroll to the bottom of the list a select the "other, pleases specify:" option. 3. Easier Distribution Lists (DLs.) If you don't use DLs you don't need to read this. If you use Distribution Lists, you'll now see your DL information on the first page. You'll be asked how many key numbers as usual, and then you'll also be asked if you want to use a DL. If you select a DL, when you click to enter your delivery details, all the stations or receivers on your DL will already be pre-ticked for you. You can then easily add or delete receivers or stations to suit the current delivery, if it differs from the DL list. So that's it for now. As always if you have suggestions for improvements please let us know. Vaughan gets bored if he thinks the system's perfect. AudioNET® Thought For The Day "Your mission in life is not to be without problems, your mission is to be excited." - Andrew Matthews, Australian cartoonist and author.
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Killer Bits: March 2006
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