Input Media Expands with Studio People

As one of the UK's leading production companies, Input Media's clients include UEFA, the FA, BBC and the French Tennis Federation. Nick Symes, Director of Technology for the London-based production outfit, details the company's role in some of the most high-profile sporting competitions around…

“We work with UEFA on both Champions and Europa Leagues, delivering a live, rolling highlights channel. We also work with the FA producing international match programmes and programming for the FA Cup. With tennis we deliver The French Open International Super Signal, World Feed Highlights for The Australian Open, and Roland Garros coverage for ITV.”

“I would say that we attract a high-quality client roster because we are independent and offer a unique facility. Our Production Centre is state of the art with facilities for multiple live productions. And our post production operation is fully integrated with the live operations and offers a robust and efficient platform for programme creation and delivery.”

More expansion
It's a philosophy that clearly works, and has seen Nick oversee a large expansion to their facilities, for which Input Media drafted in Studio People.

“We wanted to expand our facilities to be able to service more live sports productions. The Studio People developed an existing design of three new live galleries within our Production Centre. The project involved the repurposing of  existing space, and then completing the building works and finishing for three new voice over booths and two new galleries. In total we added three new galleries and four new VO booths.”

And as Nick reveals, the project had some strict timescales to adhere to.

“It needed to be completed for the first round of the FA Cup. Across that weekend there are multiple matches with different kick off times and several concurrent. All international programming was now HD and our new facilities needed to deliver that.”

“The project progressed well and the on-site teams were professional, polite, quick and efficient,” Nick continues. “There were some adjustments to the designs that needed to be carried out, but changes were agreed and made efficiently. For example, the layout of one of the rooms needed be to significantly changed at a late stage and this was handled very well.”

“We are generally very pleased with the finish and the quality of the rooms,” Nick concludes. And with the project complete Input Media now has the flexibility to deliver a range of different programming out of the new galleries.

“The design means that turnaround between jobs is now very much reduced,” says Nick, “which affords bookings to be closer together to ensure that the rooms can be in use as much as possible. They also provide a pleasant and comfortable working environment for the programme teams who like them so much that they want to use them all the time!”