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A company that is probably unknown to through to the final production. We can come in
the public at large yet which is respon- sible for an immense amount of domestic television output, Molinare celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. A division of The Television Corporation, it was founded in 1973
by Australians Robert Parker and Stefan Sargent who, finding a lack of affordable recording facili- ties in which to work on a documentary they were planning, simply found a studio of their own.
Setting up their base in a building owned by cel- ebrated photographer Michel Molinare, from whom the company took its name, Parker and Sargent had unwittingly identified a gap in the market that they went on to fill with exceptional success.
And, with new Managing Director Hugh Waters now at the helm, the success story seems set to continue as a company that began as a temporary measure these days solves problems for a broad range of clients within the television industry.
Occupying three separate buildings, equipped with state of the art post production and trans- mission facilities, the company employs 150 peo- ple and is responsible, on average, for 100 hours of television per week.
“Molinare itself has two elements to it,” Waters explains, “post production - which is everything involved in making programmes - and transmission. We really specialise in launching channels. The very original Sky went out from here, and we’ve done something like 21 or 22 dif- ferent channel launches in 15 years.”
An engineer by training, Waters, 41, has been with Molinare for nine years and before that was with Telecine Ltd, which he joined straight from college. Bringing an engineering background to a top management position, he clearly relishes the analytical nature of his job.
“If you need help with your schedule we can help you with that, right through to putting a programme out. If we take a post production scenario, we are right there from the storyboard
at any stage. Or if you need help with graphics, or a tele-cine job, it’s not at all unusual to have the guy that’s going to transfer the film or the graphics right there as soon as you have an idea you’re doing it, so they can be there during sto- ryboarding and anticipate your needs. We like to be involved as early as possible, but that does not apply to each and every production. In pure transmission terms we are capable of coming into any stage of a client’s production.”
Charged with finding solutions for the pro- gramme maker, Molinare invariably find the near impossible request - on closer examination - is eminently possible and usually quickly solved.
“A complex project is only complicated if you can’t quite see how you’re going to do it,” Waters agrees. “It actually breaks down into lots of small things that you can actually do. On one occasion we were asked by a client if we could provide transmission facilities from a completely bare room and have them up and running in eight weeks. We said yes, and we did. A complete go-to- air channel in eight weeks is frightening really. Before that we thought 13 weeks was hard, before that four and a half months was hard. But the tech- nology is constantly changing, and we’re learning from each one that we do.”
The Molinare success story sounds almost too good to be true. Lucky even. The company found its niche in the market almost before that market existed, and has looked beyond the narrow horizons of an industry where technology can leave the unwary behind. As such key investments have been made at every step, ensuring that Molinare was able to meet the demands of the satellite television boom in the mid 80s, and the deregulation of radio stations which has resulted in a proliferation of new networks. This is luck that the company has made for itself.
“Technology is continually changing and that’s the pleasure of it really,” Waters smiles. “None of us got into this because we wanted real jobs, which
by our definition would be jobs that don’t change week in, week out. I guess in my role now I do some things that I also did last week, but not many. Most days are different to the ones that went before, and that makes it extremely interesting.”
With recent programmes as varied as The Truth About Footballers, I’m Alan Partridge, Moby Dick, The Human Body, Viacom’s Sci-fi Channel and Jo Whiley passing through their doors in some form or other, Molinare have a huge influ- ence on the quality of television that we all watch.
Hugh Waters, Managing Director
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