Nugen Audio Provides Workflow Efficiencies For Halo Post posted: 11/09/2020
Production Studio Utilizes Loudness and Upmix Plug-Ins for TV and Film Projects Such as Bulletproof and Ghost Stories
Simon Hill, senior dubbing mixer at Halo Post in London, has worked on some of the biggest dramas for television and streaming outlets. Included among these is Bulletproof, which airs on Sky One in the UK and CW in the U.S., as well as the British film, Ghost Stories. With audiences craving more and more content, post houses must turn out projects at increasing speeds. To help streamline its workflow, Halo Post relies on the Halo Upmix, VisLM and ISL plug-ins from NUGEN Audio.
Bulletproof has been my favorite TV show to work on, says Hill. For that show, I run the Halo Upmix on all of the strings that come in from Lorne Balfe, the composer. He delivers very wide stereo stems, up to about 22 tracks. Sometimes the strings are specifically split out to low strings, high strings and snap strings. I find that Halo Upmix is much better than its competitors at helping spread out the strings around you. I like to create a feeling of having the strings come out of every speaker, but with a different sound in each. So, it's not just about summing up to a phantom center, it's about finding the sweet spot. I have about six instances of that running in my session at any given time; the software is particularly useful.
Typically, Hill has roughly five days to produce an episode of a TV show. I start by pre-mixing dialog and foley, he explains. I have two screens, with a set up that is quite simple. The first has my edit window and the other has few NUGEN plug-ins open, primarily my VisLM2. Even though I traditionally use VisLM for shows with EBU R128 or ATSC 85 loudness specs, I also like using the meter in a dialog intelligence fashion while I'm pre-mixing. This gives me a good base for everything to sit on - including music and sound effects. Since dynamics don't really matter in this case, I set my VisLM boundaries quite high and low. That gives me an anchor to start with, and then I can see where I'm going from there.
Before he dives into the final mix, Hill swaps over to adjusting loudness settings. Another thing that is very useful with VisLM is the ability to provide a visual to a producer or an exec that we are in loud' territory, he adds. That red zone is very useful - it allows us to clearly show execs the loudness levels. It's one of my favorite tools.
Hill has also adopted a new style of mixing where he mixes quite heavily into ISL; an approach he used most recently on Bulletproof. I have ISL set low for quiet or talking scenes. That keeps my overall loudness tight throughout the program. Then, when I need something more dynamic for loud portions, I start automating ISL and pull back on the limits at negative three or four. The show has so many car chases, gun showdowns and punches. When I reach those sections, it's nice to pull the limiter back and just let those sections kick off. I can push harder into it while still maintaining my overall true peak because it's such an invisible sounding limiter. Plus, being able to set it up right next to my VisLM window and click and drag the automation is gold. I used to think mixing into a limiter was sacrilege because some manufacturers' limiters have a compressed sound' to them, but it's actually very useful in certain situations.
As Hill enters the final stages of his mixes, he changes his focus over to NUGEN's Halo Upmix plug-in. Though upmixing stereo music to 5.1 has been done for years, Hill says that the newer stereo to 10-channel Atmos format has been a bit more of a leap. Halo Upmix does that for me quite seamlessly, continues Hill. I generally set it and forget it, for each stem. I don't touch it for the rest of the episode, because it does exactly what I want it to do. I don't know any other loudness software that operates as seamlessly as NUGEN.
Hill credits NUGEN's quality as being a major factor in the studio's decision to utilize its plug-ins. NUGEN is very good at letting customers know what solutions they have, what the software does and how it's going to help. It seems like they are always the first in the market to come up with a new feature or entirely new solution - especially with the VisLM software. I think a few people followed suit in terms of upmixing plug-ins once we had to start mixing to Atmos, but NUGEN had something useful with Halo Upmix before everyone else did.
Halo Post is considered one of London's busiest independent post houses. Its clients range from TV dramas, entertainment and documentaries to feature films, commercials and animation. Halo Post is also a consistent finalist, and the 2019 winner, of UK's Broadcast Award for Best Post-Production House. The company is well-suited to dry hire scenarios and has worked on many large Hollywood films - including the silver screen adaptations of Les Mis rables and Cats - as well as TV and streaming productions for Netflix, Sky One and BBC. Originally hired by Halo Post as a runner, Hill has spent his career at Halo Post, where he graduated to short-form projects and more recently to film and TV drama.
About NUGEN Audio:
The world's top names in post-production, music and broadcast use NUGEN Audio's award-winning loudness metering/correction, surround audio, mixing/mastering, tracking and audio analysis tools. For audio professionals, NUGEN Audio's products offer market-leading fidelity and unrestricted creativity in every situation, providing a direct and intuitive way to work with sound. The company's tools make it easier to deliver high-quality, compliant audio while saving time, reducing costs and preserving the creative process.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
Thomsons Climate Crisis Toolkit is already being put to work, helping journalist...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
Nugen Audio Provides Workflow Efficiencies For Halo Post posted: 11/09/2020 
