NEW AT HOOTENANNAY is executive director Don Avila, who joins from JWT, where he had been director of JWTwo, the agency’s in-house editorial facility, a creative director and senior producer.

Says Liz Tate, Hootenannay co-owner (with Smoke artist Jim Annerino ), “Don came on board just as we needed him” – meaning the post house they opened in April is a’buzz with biz.

Hootenanny is located in 5,000-sq. ft. of space in what was now-defunct High Tide’s space at 211 E. Grand Ave.

ORCHESTRA HALL RECORDING STUDIO owned and operated by long-standing musicians Lanny Grilly and Jeff Kier, holds a grand opening Aug. 21 at its new, bigger, better studio at 2341 N. Milwaukee.

Formerly Swing Odyssey Studio of Evanston, the new facility caters to classical and jazz markets, and producers original music and sound design for theatre and dance companies, film and video.

A reason to boast: Their concert Steinway was judged to be "one of the finest recording pianos in existence," by a Steinway representative.

MEET THE VEEPS: At DraftFCB, they are studio manager Tarek El-Mofty, a 10-year agency veteran, and executive producer, Qwest Sam Ciaramitaro, who joined the agency in 2006 as a senior producer.

Side dish: Ciaramitaro recently produced a six-part TV series, “The Show,” about six Minor League Baseball players trying to make it to the Majors.

*At National Cinemedia, Pam Biederman was promoted to SVP/central division where she leads the Midwest national sales team. National Cinema operates the biggest digital in-theater network in North America for cinema advertising, alternative entertainment and events.

ADD “AUTHOR” to award-winning film director/agency art director Scott Smith’s many creative achievements. His first novel, “Like Dizzy Gillespie’s Cheeks,” was published by iUniverse and is available in print at Barnes & Nobel at Clybourn and Webster Place.

Smith describes “Cheeks” as a humorous look into the life of Sam Greene, a Chicago jazz pianist, stuck playing dingy bars, museum benefits and Nordstrom’s half-yearly sales.

Smith will be reading from “Cheeks” Oct. 15 at the Book Cellar on Lincoln Ave. as part of a local author night there.

THE RECENT “CITIZEN KATE” FUND RAISER at Schuba’s generated just enough green to help send citizen reporter Kate Soglin to the Aug. 25-28 Democratic Convention in Denver, and the following Sept. 1-4 GOP Convention in Minneapolis.

Producers Cary Lundin and Chris Peppey, who also shoots, will accompany Kate and video capture for her webisode adventures.

AN OFFICE MAX CAMPAIGN, consisting of three spots and 11 webisodes from agency Escape Pod, is the #1 subscribed-to video on YouTube.

Credit goes to Escape Pod’s CDs Greg Nations and Vinny Warren who headed the creative team and SmugglerFilms’ director Henry-Alex Rubin. Sound was provided by Peter Erazmus of Audio Producers Group.

TWO NEW SONY CAMERA SYSTEMS, the F23 and F35, will be introduced Aug. 19 at Fletcher Chicago by Jeff Cree, Band Pro's renown digital cinematography expert. His presentation will include performance comparisons and a production using both systems that was captured by ASC cinematographer Sam Nicholson. —Ruth L Ratny

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