Winkler Consulting Inc. was founded in 2009 by Dean Winkler to produce digital imagery and provide engineering services for films, television and immersive experiences. WCI also provides post production and visual effects supervision for film and television as well as engineering design, testing, and visualization for image and sound projects. Based in Lower Manhattan, WCI works with an international roster of artists, engineers, and crafts people to help clients manage technology in the service of creative projects.
Winkler started working with analog video synthesizers in 1976. As an undergraduate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute he co-founded the Video Synthesis Laboratory, dedicated to building video synthesizers and bringing artists and engineers together to create video art. He was awarded a U.S. Patent for a unique digital-to-analog converter developed as part of a synthesizer control system. After receiving his M.S. degree from RPI he joined the engineering team at VCA Teletronics, NYC’s first independent post production facility.
From 1985 through 2000 Winkler co-founded, designed, built and operated Post Perfect, a groundbreaking post production facility in Manhattan. Post Perfect set a new standard for excellence in post production service by uniquely blending artistic vision, strong technological capabilities and exacting quality standards. While there he designed and built Mixed Nuts, the first all digital non-linear audio post production facility. Winkler began the trend of relocating post production for scripted television programs from Hollywood to New York City. Highlights included shows for Dream Works SKG (Dear Diary, Spin City) HBO (Sex and the City, The Corner) CBS/Paramount (Now And Again) Paramount (Late Line), and others.
From 2000 through 2009 Winkler was the Executive Producer of Crossroads Television and the CTO of Crossroads Films, a bi-coastal production company known for its distinct creative approach. While there he oversaw production for broadcast and cable networks including Bravo, CBS, ABC, NBC, HGTV, Disney, WE, Lifetime, ESPN, GSN, MSG, Univision, TrueTV, Hallmark, Animal Planet, and others.
From 2013 to 2019 the Doha Film Institute engaged WCI for Winkler to be their Senior Engineer, Production and Post Production. He supervised the production, post production and display of nine boundary-pushing immersive films for the new National Museum of Qatar
Winkler has continuously worked on video art projects, beginning with “Modulated Horizontal Lines” (1976) to most recently “In C, Too” (2023) which premiered at the 2024 Slamdance Film Festival. He’s collaborated with many artists, musicians and engineers including Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley, Donald Butler, Tom DeWitt, Bill Etra, Phillip Glass, Jon Kane, Maureen Nappi, Nam June Paik, Steve Rutt, John Sanborn, Vibeke Sorensen, and others.
In 2023 Winkler completed a six month state-of-the-art HD remastering of “Perfect Lives,” Robert Ashley’s 1983 avant-garde opera for television. All seven episodes premiered at Roulette in Brooklyn and can now be streamed at: Perfect Lives HD Remaster. He just completed the archival video image restoration of “Max Roach Live – by Kit Fitzgerald” which premiered at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan.
Winkler and Sanborn are currently working on a new 15 minute, non-narrative film set to the seminal spiritual jazz composition of the 1970s. (Details soon.)
Winkler’s work has been recognized with over 37 Emmy, BDA/Promax, Monitor, ACM Siggraph, Telley, film festival and other awards. He is also a skydiver who has earned a USPA Professional Exhibition rating and a private pilot with Rotorcraft-Helicopter and Glider ratings. When not working he can often be found several thousand feet above New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley.
Photo above shot by Igor Pilepic at 12,750 feet above ground level.
