London post-production house Halo Films has upgraded its facilities in several key areas in preparation for large forthcoming studio productions that will be mixing with Halo over the summer.

The Soho-based facility has recently completed sound mixes on Stephen Frears’ Lay The Favorite [pictured], Disney Nature’s African Cats and Chimpanzee, and Lynne Ramsey’s short The Swimmer commisioned to mark the London 2012 Olympics.

Halo will be upgrading the AMS Neve Gemini console in their large dubbing theatre from 48 faders to 72 faders and the mixing desk will be overhauled with a new set of TFT screens and migration to the new DFC Version 8 software that will support Dolby Atmos panning, among other features.

Halo’s Studio 1 is the only Dolby Premier certified dubbing stage in Soho, so the company has been in talks with Dolby about their new Dolby Atmos technology. Dolby Atmos is a new immersive sound technology aiming to dramatically increase the realism of the viewer’s experience. Peter Jackson has been entertaining the use of Dolby Atmos for The Hobbit.

Halo is also installing a ION/ATOM Series 8000 studio controller with 8 Serial Ports and 2 VIRPADs, aiming to improve the facility’s machine control and to bring the studio in line with setups at the big LA dubbing stages.