A state-of-the-art digital film, conference and broadcast facility has opened in the Shrub Hill area of Worcester. Midland Road Studios is part of a multi-million-pound investment made by a local media, events and marketing services group in its new headquarters.
The official ribbon cutting ceremony was conducted by the new Lord Mayor of Worcester, Cllr Adrian Gregson, and David Broster, Head of School of Arts, University of Worcester. It was attended by key representatives from Worcester University, Worcester City Council, the Chamber of Commerce and leading local businesses. The main event was recorded and will be available to watch online from the 10th June at 11am.
Roland Renshaw, company CEO, comments: “I’m really excited to launch our film studios, which allow us to do cool things like livestream conference presentations into virtual venues built by group company, V-Ex. The facility has the latest cameras, video wall, advanced lighting, editing and broadcast technology installed. It is also available to local companies to hire, for everything from a professional space for a single project to a full-scale online event.”
David Bedford, company COO adds, “We are working with Worcester University to support the School of Arts, in fact several members of our creative team are recent graduates. We have also been supported by the WINN Worcestershire Innovation Hub, so a move to Worcester has been a long-term goal for us. Our new Worcester offices have allowed us to expand our international marketing services company DMA Europa, our translation specialist company MTT and create a fantastic working environment for our video, CGI and graphic creatives. I’m also proud that we are bringing a state-of-the-art broadcast service into the city.”
The company received 40% of the funding towards this project from Worcestershire County Council via the Proof-of-Concept grant. Councillor Marc Bayliss, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills said: “I am delighted that we have been able to support such an innovative company investing in Worcestershire. As well as supporting the company to develop its new site, the grant has part-funded its digital project, making V-Ex a one stop shop for complete digital or hybrid events. This is a fantastic resource to have in Worcester City Centre and will look forward to seeing this business grow and develop over the coming years.”
Another key aspect to the move was to become more sustainable and reduce the company’s carbon footprint. A large solar array powers much of the building, including the studios and conferencing rooms. For group company V-Ex it has accelerated its mission to becoming a carbon negative business. The external V-Ex platform servers and cloud delivery service are hosted by UK based Carbon Neutral providers. As a result, the company’s virtual events are proven to reduce carbon emissions by 99% when compared to an equivalent live event.
The 2.6-acre site is located less than ½ mile from Worcester Shrub Hill station and includes 15,000 sq. ft of studio, meeting and office space, as well as 50+ car parking spaces. Studio One offers 100 m2 of digital recording and broadcast space incorporating a permanent installed LED video wall and flexible lighting arrangements. For anyone interested in working at Midland Road Studios, or any of the other group companies, the management team invite you get in touch directly via the websites.
