Rosnick MacKinnon gets new name, new digs

The times they are a changin’ for the audio shop formerly known as Rosnick MacKinnon. The company has relocated to a new larger space at 410 Adelaide Street West in downtown Toronto. In the process, it has renamed itself rosmac and redesigned its logo.

‘We needed to move a good five years ago because we were cramped, but it took us five years to find a good location with cement floors,’ says Ted Rosnick, president and partner at rosmac. ‘We decided now would be a good time to change our name, because with the move and our whole new look, we thought it was time to put a whole new spin on things.’

As part of the revamp, rosmac has also added a couple of new employees. Scott Boyling has joined the company as a producer and Jim McGrath has signed on as a writer. Boyling has more than 15 years experience working as a sound engineer, and McGrath, formerly of Einstein Bros., has also worked in the audio business for years.

The company has expanded from a 3,000-square-foot space to one with 6,000 square feet. They have plans to put in a recording studio within the next 12 months.

-www.rosmac.net

Voodoo Arts and Tube Images partner up

Montreal-based commercial production company Voodoo Arts has formed a strategic partnership with visual effects company Tube Studios.

According to Richard Ostiguy, president of Voodoo Arts, a relationship with Tube Images, a leader in 3D animation and visual expertise, will reinforce Voodoo Arts’ financial stability. It should also provide them with a competitive edge in the commercial industry. He is looking forward to making use of Tube’s resources to speed up their turnaround.

The two companies are located just a few blocks from one another in Montreal’s City of Multimedia, which Ostiguy believes will make working together easy.

-www.voodooarts.com

-www.tubeimages.com

New deal for commercial actors

The Canadian ad industry, represented by the Association of Canadian Advertisers and the Institute of Communications and Advertising, has come to terms on a two-year agreement with ACTRA and its 18,000 members.

The National Commercials Agreement averts any possible strike actions for an industry only now beginning to regain its footing following a deep production slowdown over the last two years.

The deal, which took two months to negotiate, gives professional TV and radio performers a 5% rate increase (2.5% per year) and also contains stronger language with regards to the protection of children in commercials.

Once ratified by ACTRA, the new deal will hold until June 30, 2004.

-www.actra.ca/actra