Crawford Renews Dome Accord Crawford Renews Dome Accord Crawford Communications, Inc. and the Geo. L. Smith Georgia World Congress Center Authority negotiated a five-year extension of their partnership and co-venture, Venue Productions Management (d/b/a/ Georgia Dome Productions). The co-venture provides in-house production services and staff management for all Georgia Dome events. Georgia Dome Productions' recent work on the USA Track & Field event and the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament was successful and helped seal the deal.

Tom Sears, Facilities Manager and Producer for Georgia Dome Productions, says that Georgia Dome Productions has been successful over the past five years, from every Falcons game in the Dome to monster trucks and entertainment elements, and gets the fans pumped up during the events. Sears and Production Manager Beverly Wilson manage the video control room, edit suite, and production staff at the Georgia Dome. The Crawford team is responsible for every element of fan entertainment, custom animation, and show enhancements to television production and coverage that appears on the JumboTrons, the concourse monitors, and in the private suites.

Khalil Johnson, General Manager for the Georgia Dome, says the partnership has served the Dome's customers and fans well, and he anticipates continued success in the next five years. Georgia Dome Productions' works include: NFL Football, the Super Bowl, the Centennial Olympic Games, the Peach Bowl, NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments, NBA Basketball, SEC Football and Basketball, the Billy Graham Crusade, the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta Hawks, AirTran Video News Release, and the FOX 97 Ultimate Oldies Concert.

Crawford was also recruited to do work for Grammy-nominated Matchbox 20. The band's production company, Melisma Productions, asked Crawford to produce two video transitions for the band's national tour which started on January 29 in Pensacola, FL. DESIGNefx, Crawford's design group, teamed with other Crawford service groups, FilmGroup, Vuja de, and Crawford Digital, to make the 55-second introduction and the 95 second interlude videos. Working from audio tracks created by Matchbox 20 Producer Matt Serletic, the creative teams at Crawford took the original audio collages and incorporated video through various systems including the Quantel Henry, Adobe After Effects software, and Discreet Logic's Flame. Key Crawford personnel on the project were Mark Falls, Creative Director, Compositing Artists Scott Balkcom, Jay Bellissimo, and Curtis Elder, and Coordinating Producer Jennifer Eidt. Jason Ett designed the type treatments for the "Interlude" and other graphic elements, and directed location photography, which was shot by Jason Maloney.

The FilmGroup, a service area of Crawford, has also been busy, positioning itself as a leader in the HDTV field by launching a fully operational HD telecine. Crawford was the first facility in the US to introduce the Spirit Datacine. The new HD telecine service is based on the Philips Spirit Datacine and includes the Sony 2830 HD monitor, Digital Vision HD grain reducer, engineering scopes by Leader Instruments and the Panasonic HD-D5 VTR. The upgrade compliments Crawford's existing Film Laboratory and Telecine Service (the FilmGroup), which is now fully networked with Crawford Digital.

Crawford Satellite Services, has been doing such great work that recently it was awarded a Bronze "Uplinker of the Year Award" from Loral Skynet¨. The company demonstrated satellite uplink perfection (100% error free accessing) in the calendar year. Congratulations to Jim Schuster, Vice President , Satellite Service. Crawford Satellite Services provided 151 error-free accesses in 1997.

Crawford Communications, Inc. has added James Peebles to its cel animation and design studio, DESIGNefx. Peebles serves as Senior Animation Director and joins DESIGNefx after working as Art Director for Mercury Animation. Peebles also worked at Fresh Caps illustrating animated characters for a line of baseball caps and as an Animator for Warner Animation-Startoons on such projects as Animaniacs, Tazmania, and Tiny Toon Adventures.