The Ellenbogen Group Inc.
721 Broadway, in the 721 Media Center
Midtown Kingston
845-331-5849
The family-owned Ellenbogen Group—Jeremy is the CEO, his father Henry is the president, and his mother Alice is the vice president—has earned a reputation as the place to get your old home movies, tape cassettes, video, reel-to-reel audio tapes and any other obsolete media converted to digital. Accredited by the Federal Government Library Restoration Service, the company has converted hundreds of tapes for Marist College and has been hired by the FDR Center in Hyde Park to convert Roosevelt’s 500 fireside chats as well as thousands of 16 mm films. It has even converted rare wire recordings— a type of recording that preceded reel-to-reel tapes and was done from the 1920s to the 1940s. “We get a lot of business over the Internet. People with money did home audio, and we have the original wire recording machines,” says Jeremy. The company also converts helical scan video tape, which predated VHS video cassettes and was widely used in schools. “It looks like a kinescope. People send their reels in from the late 1960s and early 1970s.”
The company traces its roots back to 1964, when Henry, a radio and TV engineer, started converting film to video. Today it has seven employees, including Ryan Rocap and Zoltan David in duplication and James Granell, who does the color correction, editing and conversion. The Ellenbogen Group also creates new content and produces it for multiple purposes (web, instructional video, DVD, and broadcast). For example, it created a video about the new birthing center at Health Alliance and recently pitched a TV show to the Bravo Network.
The Ellenbogens invested their own money into purchasing and renovating the old RNN building and creating the 721 Media center, which opened in 2006. Besides launching the media incubator, they also display artwork in the building. “Our belief and our mission is to foster creativity in the media arts, to be inspirational,” says Jeremy.
I bet you didn’t know
1. The building was built in the 1950s as a Chevy dealership. (The ramps inside the building still exist.)
2. Ellenbogen is an old Kingston name. One branch of the family ran a popular variety store in the Rondout from the 1930s to the 1960s.
3. 721 Media Center started from the basement of Henry’s house in 1984.
4. The business then relocated to a building on St. James St. before moving to the former RNN Building, which at 30,000 square feet was six times bigger, in 2006.
5. The 721 Media Center currently houses 18 media businesses, with approximately 120 people working in the building.
6. The company has so far transferred almost three million feet of film, including numerous home movies of different families vacationing at the Catskill Game Farm and North Lake. “We’ve probably done 400 families who’ve gone through the Catskill Game Farm,” says Jeremy.
7. The 721 Media Center is home to the recording studio of rock band Mercury Rev, which is very popular in Europe and has garnered several gold records.
8. The center also hosts the monthly meetings of the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, which is webcast.
9. It has perhaps the largest collection of artwork in Kingston, with more than 300 pieces displayed on the walls.
10. 721 Media Center was the first building in Midtown to have a roof garden, where many kinds of vegetables, vines, and trees were grown.
Discounts and special services: People working out of their home who want to use the media center occasionally to meet a client can become a member and rent a virtual room equipped with high quality printers, copy machines, and a fax and get discounts on other services in the building, such as film and audio editing, studio rentals, and equipment. The annual cost for individuals is $100, $300 for businesses. Members can also host events and attend monthly tech forums. “It’s a way for people to mix and learn,” says Jeremy.
