CHEAT Expands Studio to Become London’s Largest Dedicated Colour Grading Company
Leading London colour and finishing company, CHEAT, has announced the expansion of its offices, adding three new state-of-the-art grading and finishing suites, a production studio, and a client lounge-bar space. CHEAT now has four large broadcast colour suites and services two other colour suites at Jam VFX and No.8 in Fitzrovia and Soho respectively, making it the largest dedicated colour grading company in London.
Located in the Arthaus building in Hackney, CHEAT’s expansion offers clients greater efficiency across its services and access to industry-leading technology. While all four colour suites have calibrated projection or broadcast monitoring, the new suite is also equipped with cutting-edge hardware for HDR and working with 8K. CHEAT was an early adopter of being able to work with this resolution, becoming the first colour company to complete a TV series in 8K, on Netflix’s The End of The F***ing World in 2017. Having invested in improved storage and network infrastructure during this period, the facility is well-equipped to take on 8K and HDR projects.
The new HDR grading suite is also the first in London (outside of Dolby itself) to offer HDR mastering above 2000 nits. It includes a new gold standard for video monitoring - a flagship Flanders Scientific XM310K reference monitor that can master up to 3000 nits. CHEAT is now also a fully-fledged Dolby Vision certified mastering facility.
Founder of CHEAT, Toby Tomkins, comments: “Improving client experience was of course a key consideration in shaping the design of the renovation. The new colour suite is our largest yet and comfortably seats up to 10 people. We designed it from the ground up with a raised client platform and a custom-built bias wall. This allows everyone to look at the same single monitor while grading, while maintaining the spacious and relaxed feel of our other suites. The new lounge and bar area also offer a relaxing area for clients to feel at home.”
He continues: “With talented new additions, CHEAT’s senior colour team has now doubled in size and it makes sense to support the growing team with larger, state-of-the-art studios. In addition to the new colour and Flame suites, last year we added online capabilities to facilitate greater control over the final finishing aspects and to ensure a high level of quality control in house. This will also allow projects to be seamlessly passed from colour to online and streamline the process for our clients. For larger VFX jobs, we continue to partner with Jam VFX and No.8 and we have developed a seamless connection between facilities that ensures as much time as possible is spent on creative work. Between the new studio capabilities and our expanding team, it gives us the ability to serve long-time clients better than ever before and have the capacity to take on bigger and more exciting jobs.”
