Deluxe Toronto Ltd.—a division of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc., global supplier of a broad range of services and technologies to the entertainment industry—has completed a major upgrade of its mixing rooms.
Improvements include the introduction of Dolby Atmos® technology to Mix 1—Canada’s largest film mixing stage. Among other upgrades to its mixing rooms, Deluxe has added JBL M2 Master Reference monitors.
“The introduction of Dolby Atmos, complemented with speaker and amp upgrades from Harman’s JBL Professional and Crown Audio brands, makes our new mix theaters the most technically complete in Canada for film and TV sound re-recording,” said Nick Iannelli, VP of postproduction operations at Deluxe Toronto.
The new additions “allow us to state unequivocally that you will hear a difference in fidelity and sound clarity when mixing at Deluxe,” Iannelli added.
“Dolby recognizes the importance and value of having a strong presence in Canada’s vital postproduction community,” said Curt Behlmer, senior VP of content solutions and industry relations at Dolby Laboratories. “We couldn’t be more pleased and know that this respected Dolby Atmos mixing stage—our first in Canada—will help filmmakers realize their creative visions going forward.”
Said Peter Chaikin, director of recording and broadcast at JBL Professional: “Incorporating new patented JBL technologies, the innovative JBL M2 monitor was designed to deliver a level of sound clarity unmatched in the postproduction industry….We are delighted Deluxe Toronto has become a flagship location for the M2 in Canada.”
Deluxe is a key supplier to the Canadian post-production and media services industry. Its tech upgrades coincide with Deluxe’s recent relocation to a new, state-of-the-art facility in downtown Toronto. Recent projects at the facility include feature work on Atom Egoyan’s “The Captive” and David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars,” and Deluxe soon will start postproduction on Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak.” Recent TV projects include work on “Vikings,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Penny Dreadful.”
More Than A Game: Bringing Sincere Representation Of The Shawnee Tribe To Civilization 7
Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes grew up playing video games, including "probably hundreds of hours" colonizing a distant planet in the 1999 title Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
So when that same game studio, Firaxis, approached the tribal nation a quarter-century later with a proposal to make a playable character out of their famous leader Tecumseh in the upcoming game Civilization 7, Barnes felt a rush of excitement.
"I was like, 'This can't be true,'" Barnes said. "Do they want us to participate in the next version of Civilization?"
Beloved by tens of millions of gamers since its 1991 debut, Meier's Civilization series sparked a new genre of empire-building games that simulated the real world while also diverging into imaginary twists. It has captivated nerdy fans like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and a young Barnes with its intricate and addictive gameplay and rich historical context.
Choosing among leaders that can range from Cleopatra to Mahatma Gandhi, players build a civilization from its first settlement to a sprawling network of cities, negotiate with or conquer neighbors, and develop trade, science, religion and the arts. Circana, which tracks U.S. game sales, says it's the bestselling strategy video game franchise of all time.
But things have changed since the early days of Civilization. Of course, video game technology has advanced, but so too has society's understanding of cultural appropriation and the importance of accurate historical framing.
Firaxis dropped plans to add a historical Pueblo leader in 2010 after tribal leaders objected. The game incorporated a Cree leader in 2018 but faced public criticism in Canada after its release.
Developers knew that to properly represent the Shawnee leader, they would... Read More