Toronto-based Imarion has been on the move – literally. Only three years ago the post-production facility, then known as Digital Post, operated out of ceo Alex Olegnowicz’s one-bedroom apartment. But in recent months it has moved into a new office space metres away from its last one, opened an online Avid Symphony editing suite and appointed Dan Johnston senior editor.

The Symphony suite is being used for the documentary Quest for God, which is to be broadcast on tvontario and Vision tv, and for finishing on the yap (Yorkshire Television and Associated Producers) series Penn & Teller’s Magic’n’Mystery Tour. The magicians’ three one-hour specials were originated on pal digital Betacam and will be distributed by cbc in Canada, Channel 4 in Britain and The Learning Channel in the u.s.

The Symphony allows Imarion to accommodate the various delivery methods clients require: tape; streaming files for the Internet (usually promotional trailers); and dvd, as it plans to soon add a dvd authoring system. Imarion expects to receive the next version of Symphony by the end of August, with plans to eventually upgrade to an hd system.

Imarion’s other suite is equipped with a Discreet edit plus system, which will be working overtime on 65 half-hour episodes of Red Apple Entertainment’s Singles Court series, the Canadian answer to u.s. ‘real life’ courtroom programs, for ontv.

The fully uncompressed suite was also employed on the Associated Producers doc Quest for the Lost Tribes; the six-part History Television series Scandal! Then and Now; and Drag Kings, a report on Highway 7 drag racing that aired on an episode of a&e’s Investigative Reports.

The name Imarion is intended to conjure up words such as ‘images,’ ‘imagination’ and ‘marionette’ as the company plans to break into original 3D cg animation content. Full collaboration within the company is facilitated by a high-speed network linking the online suites to its graphic workstation, where 2D and 3D animation are created.

Regarding the recent name change, Olegnowicz comments, ‘It reflects a new identity and the future development of our company, and it distinguishes us from all other shops with ‘digital post’ in their names.’ *

-www.imarion.com