Resources
BNMI Co-Production: Resources & Facilities
The BNMI Co-Production Lab Program is facilitated by the resources, staff and faculty of six areas of specialization and focus in the production of new media works. All departments are equipped with up-to-date resources and equipment and facilitated with the expertise of The Banff Centre’s full-time staff and work study participants.
Please find below a detailed summary of the resources available to artists applying for the BNMI Co-Productions.
Interactive Media
CEE’s interactive media department is built around a professional programming, animation, and design team with operating system experience in Unix, Linux, Windows, and MacOS environments. We assist in the production of installations, net-based art, and other interactive and digital art pieces. Besides programming solutions in-house, our production team is experienced in all the leading creative production applications from companies such as Alias, Apple, Adobe, and Macromedia. Artists’ projects are hosted on our own Linux web servers, which include multi-format streaming services. The interactive media environment also features a multi-platform computer lab with web access, CD burning, printing, and comprehensive digital imaging support including slide/film scanning, flatbed scanning, image-editing software, and technical support.
Television and Production
The Creative Electronic Environment’s (CEE) television production facilities include a fully equipped 2,500 square foot television studio space with a hard wall Chromakey green cyclorama computerized lighting board. Our post-production facilities include an Avid Adrenaline HD, Avid Media Composer 1000 and Avid HD-Xpress. DVD authoring and encoding is done using Spruce Maestro software, duplication is handled with Primera dual DVD burners and printer. The photographic area provides complete support in all areas of photography.
Audio
The Music & Sound recording production facilities include a primary recording/mixing studio with two adjacent recording venues (a 1600 sq. ft. live space and a 450 sq.ft. studio) as well as a post-production studio complete with a narration booth and a server-based sound effects library. The main control room is home to a Euphonix digitally controlled, fully automated, analogue console capable of surround mixing. The principle recorder and editor is a ProTools HD digital audio workstation. Our post-production studio includes a Yamaha digital console and a second ProTools HD workstation. The 200 seat Rolston Recital Hall is used as an additional performance and recording venue and any resulting recording and post-production is carried out in one of two Pyramix audio workstations.
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Visualization Lab
This lab is equipped with a virtual reality passive stereo cave with 5.1 surround sound, and a motion tracking system that detects absolute position and orientation of handheld sensors. All of the components of the cave (projection, sound, sensors) are controlled by a cluster of eight PCs. Virtual environments developed in Maya or 3DX Max can be imported into software such as Virtools or OpenSceneGraph to display in the cave. The lab has copies of Maya Unlimited, Multigen Creator, Matlab, Max/MSP, Adobe, and Macromedia suites. An assortment of wireless and wired sensors can be used to experiment with tangible interfaces and responsive environments.
Mobile Technology Lab
This lab brings together facilities for content production, software development, electronics prototyping, and small-scale 3D prototyping. Our test equipment enables out-of studio prototyping and a variety of wireless networking and micro-electronics manufacturing (for small volume), providing a comprehensive ability for the development of rich, mobile experiences.
Collaboration Lab
This lab contains a large three-projector display enabling remote and co-location collaboration. With up to four different camera/video inputs, the room can stream video conference feeds over the high speed research network. We use many different software services to allow bridging between multiple types of computer conferencing systems.