(L-R) Martin Wieser, Willi Reschke, Andreas Kost

Synchro Film, Video & Audio Bearbeitungs GmbH of Vienna, Austria has become the first laboratory in Europe to reach a KODAK IMAGECARE Program accreditation score of 231 points, or 100%, the highest possible form of compliance.

"This result represents an outstanding example of good teamwork," comments Reinhold Thiel of Kodak Entertainment Imaging Customer Technical Service & Product Planning for the DACH/Nordic Cluster (Germany/Austria/Switzerland/ Nordic countries). "Congratulations to Martin Wieser and his team at Synchro for a great job in the pre-accreditation year and for achieving such a brilliant outcome. Kodak technical rep Dieter Krinke facilitated this project with a great deal of competence and passion and was the main driving force. He personally motivated the Synchro team and prepared supporting documents that contributed to this success."

"Special thanks are also due to KODAK IMAGECARE Program accreditor Pascal Bony of the Chalon-based Kodak Customer Technical Services centre for his great co-operation, feedback and careful auditing. Without his first visit six months ago and his subsequent assistance, we would never have achieved this result," he notes.

From Pascal Bony's perspective, "The lab was very well organised and operations ran smoothly. The operators were perceived to be handling daily routines in a very professional way and all the staff were strongly committed and extremely involved from the outset. They really believe in the KODAK IMAGECARE Program."

Martin Wieser managed the implementation of the KODAK IMAGECARE Program from the beginning in an outstandingly ambitious way," adds Rudolf Möstl, sales manager, Entertainment Imaging, Kodak GmbH, Vienna, Austria.

IS & Logistics official Wieser states: "Foreign customers frequently asked us if we were a Kodak-certificated lab and this factor alone was adequate reason for us to take part in the KODAK IMAGECARE Program and accreditation process. We easily convinced our staff of the importance and value of the Program and kept administration to a minimum to allow them to become fully involved in the development of all the schedules. They have commented that it is now straightforward to maintain top quality thorough standardised and exact procedures as they have a visible benchmark and an official confirmation of the quality of their output which can be objectively measured."

"The apparent additional expenditure is more than recovered because the results are always as expected and there is no need for anything to be reworked," continues Wieser, confident that Synchro will be able to attract customers who place importance on certificated quality.

Synchro is the only post-production facility in Austria that is capable of providing a complete spectrum of services in the areas of film, video, digital data and sound under one roof. It introduced a number of technologies into Austria, including 3D animation, AVID, 2K scanning and recording and 2K real time colour correction. In 2007 Synchro worked on 30 national and international features, including Oscar-nominated Darwin's Nightmare.

For details of post-production services at Synchro, visit their website www.synchrofilm.com. Tel: +43 (1) 524 93 10-0, email office@synchrofilm.com