In the first of an exclusive series of interviews, Broadcast Tech talks to the co-founder of one of the UK’s biggest studios providers
Versa Studios has been making waves in the UK’s TV studios sector for several years now.
In that time, it’s opened major studio complexes in London and Leeds, and its most recent studio launch – Versa Manchester Studios – has brought new life to the former Granada Studios in the city centre.
Meanwhile, Versa London Studios has just been announced as the new home of Big Brother. Other big wins for Versa include BBC’s Morning Live, which has committed to a long-term studio space within the Versa Manchester Studios complex, and high-profile projects including ITV’s Martin Lewis Money Show Live, Channel 4’s Naked Attraction and BBC’s Dragon’s Den have all recently been housed at Versa.
Versa London Studios is a 200,000 sq ft studio facility in West London, Versa Leeds Studios is in the city centre with three sound stages and one 27,000 sq ft event stage, while the just-opened Versa Manchester Studios is the city’s biggest city centre TV and film studio facility and formerly the iconic home of Granada Television.
The studios at Versa Manchester Studios have been extensively refurbished and expanded, including the installation of two new TV galleries. It also offers ‘pop-up’ virtual production studios, motion capture, and VR/AR studios.
Broadcast Tech caught up with Charlie Ingall, executive director and co-founder of Versa Studios at the launch event for its latest venture, Versa Manchester Studios.
He explained: “We wanted to bring back these world-renowned studios in a fantastic way, where they are refurbished to a very high level. We’ve invested in two new TV galleries for the broadcast studios here and have created spaces including a high-spec podcast studio. We’ve a great mix of clients and uses, including an immersive experience, a motion capture studio, and a pop-up virtual production stage.
“We already have a lot of long-term deals in place – our motion capture studio partnership is a long-term deal, and we’ve been working with BBC Morning Live for three years now, in our Versa ABC building in Manchester. We built the studio on the top two floors of the office building, so they have a fantastic view over the city. We built it bespoke for them. It’s a full TV studio with TV galleries, and it’s their home.”
During the opening launch event, Versa Manchester Studios showcased a virtual production wall that had been created in partnership with SilverScape. The studio included a 14m x 4m LED wall. It isn’t a permanent facility at the studios complex, but was showcased as an example of what can be housed in the studio space.
Ingall said: “The VP studio is a great example of what we can do. We want to embrace the innovative future of media and content making and encourage and help productions to understand how technology like that can be used in a light entertainment show. We love to support that and work with partners such as SilverScape to achieve that – we’re very much about partnerships and collaborations.”
Versa Manchester’s podcast studio is similarly versatile, being switchable between podcast recordings and a music recording studio.
“I think the podcast industry is really interesting – the way it’s grown over the last few years is phenomenal,” says Ingall. “It’s gone from a conversation people listen to, to a conversation they want to listen to and view and have more of an interaction with. And this podcast studio is a perfect space for it, with a fantastic viewing gallery. But if a client wanted to come and use that space for music recording rather than podcasts, then we’d be absolutely fine with that too.”
Versa Manchester is also keen to bring audience shows back into the centre of Manchester, continuing the legacy of Granada Studios. “There’s been decades of audience shows here in the past. It’s very well known for having audience shows, and we’ve done a few audience shows here already. We built them as TV light entertainment facilities and we’ve put a big focus on the experience for the audience as well, which is obviously really important.”
In common with other Versa studios, Versa Manchester has a large lounge area for production companies to use to work, for meetings and so on. Ingall believes this area will encourage collaboration and repeat business. “It’s a space for media people to come in and collaborate, to work together. Within our group we have some creative workspace businesses, and we wanted to bring part of that philosophy in here, because we know how powerful it is,” he said. “We want to create a home for productions that they want to keep coming back to, so they become returning clients.”
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