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Band Pro Munich - The Home of High Definition in Europe

HD technology and the rising of Band Pro as High Definition specialist is very closely related. If there was an HD pioneer in Germany, cinematographers would name Gerhard Baier, the managing director of Band Pro Munich, first.

Germany and Europe indeed needed a person with pioneering spirit, who was well acquainted with the landscape of film acquistion media. The film industry in Europe was almost paved at that time; there was no sign that this would change in favor to HD technology. Pioneering spirit means obsession paired with expertise and creativity on the one hand and practical experience and contacts to the film industry on the other hand. Characteristics, which Gerhard Baier - in his modesty - would never claim for himself. However, looking back at his career, one can proof his outstanding abilities.

Learning by doing
When Gerhard Baier started to study media consulting at the technical university of Berlin (TU Berlin) in 1994, HD video technoloy was almost unknown in Europe. During his studies, Gerhard Baier had been working as war correspondent in the yugoslawian crisis for CNN, BBC, ARD and ZDF. You can not imagine a greater contrast between the lessons of Prof. Dr. Friedrich Knilli in the post-cold war media metropolis Berlin and the urban warfare in the perishing town of Sarajewo. Later on, Gerhard Baier gained first hand experience on various acquistions formats as media consultant for Robert van Ackerens documentary “Deutschland Privat”. Scanning, editing and archiving of vast material was a very useful experience in order to find out the advantages and disadvantages of various film formats.

Experience becomes know-how
Having gained lots of experience will ultimately result into know-how. This critical moment had passed when Gerhard Baier became managing director of the Munich-based rental company mediarent in 1998. There, he first got to know that the best technology is of no use if it is not profitable. As managing director, Baier was not only responsible for organizing and scheduling cameras and presentation techniques. The acquisition of new technologies was also part of his job. Making decisions for new acquistion formats had to guarantee a good return.

Sony and Baier crossing roads
In the spring of 2000, Gerhard Baier had done a momentous decision: he had ordered the first SONY F-900 HD camera in Germany. This has been the beginning of an everlasting era. However, success did not come overnight. The classical 35-mm film sytems would not automatically render market share in favor to HD technology. Cinematographers had to be convinced by means of technical and economical arguments. The solution was to make a film in HD technology – in order to demonstrate the technical and economical interoperability of the new technoloy. The idea, was to proof that an HD movie meets the performance respectively the competitiveness requirements. Baier simply had a hunch that the time was ripe for a paradigm shift in acquistion technology.
He was therefore very eager to have people with a reputation in his film crew. The fact, that he was able to commit the internationally decorated cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, was crucial for the success of his short film “Gone underground”. The film had become more than a demo tape for the Sony F-900; it was decorated repeatedly p.ex. with the “Deutsche Kurzfilmpreis” (German Short film award); it was also running successfully on international fim festivals like p.ex. in New York. Finally, HD technology had passed the line: it had confirmed digital acquisition media under real production conditions. Further HD productions such as “Komm wir träumen” (Com’on let’ s dream) directed by Leo Hiemer and “Rave Macbeth”, directed by Klaus Knösel, soon followed.

The industry started to pay attention
Much more precious than the vote of the jury for Baier/Sony
was the vote of the technology leaders in the converter industry. One day, Gerhard Baier got invited by ZEISS to hold a speech about the perspectives of digital cinematography. On this occasion, Gerhard Baier became to know Amnon Brand from Burbank, California, founder and managing director of the US-American HD technology house, which was dedicated to digital acquistion formats ever since 1979. Shortly after that encounter, Band Pro Munich with Gerhard Baier as manging director was established. On top of this, the exclusive development and sales partnership between Band Pro and ZEISS had been sealed. A successful cooperation which ultimately resulted in the generation of the CARL ZEISS DigiPrime® Lenses und DigiZoom Lenses™ portfolio.

Know-how transfer as sales and marketing force
„HD technology needs to be evangelized in order to make it successful,” has always been the credo of Gerhard Baier. Consequently, Band Pro Munich began to extend it’s portfolio beyond pure hardware selling. Seminars, workshops were soon established; cooperations with universities and film academies initiated. This clever mix resulted in Band Pro’s successful company strategy and European-wide reputation “sales, support and seminars”.

3xB – Ballhaus, Baier, Band Pro
“Hands on HD” has become the most important HD workshop in Europe. Together with nordmedia, Band Pro Munich is organising this unrivaled event with participants from all over Europe. In 2007, star cameraman Michael Ballhaus took over an decisive role again: he conducted a “masterclass” in order to familiarize cinematographers further with High Definition techniques.

Scholarships and Sponsorings
Many scholarships have been granted to film students throughout the years. Eventually, equipment sponsorings for film productions complete Band Pro’s ambition to further push the breakthrough of HD technology.

Strong partnership with Band Pro Burbank
Band Pro Burbank, the US-American headquarter, is a powerful partner to Band Pro Munich. Since 1979, Band Pro Burbank plays an exceptional role in the worldwide film and TV industry. As biggest SONY dealer after SONY, Band Pro Burbank possesses an enourmous pool of HD know-how.
Years of HD experience stand behind this deep understanding of High Definition; a treasure which is any time available to the European HD team at Band Pro Munich. www.bandprodigital.com


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