Despite the economic doom and gloom, UK studio and acoustic design consultancy White Mark Ltd is reporting an exceptionally busy end to 2010, with 17 major projects under construction on four different continents.
Among these are new radio studios in Egypt, a film production and post production complex in Moscow, multimedia facilities for an international advertising agency in New York, a music recording studio in Mexico and three different projects in London, all involving the design and installation of television post production facilities.
White Mark’s Managing Director David Bell says: “We are noticing a definite trend for larger projects that involve a number of different recording, editing and post production facilities in the same building. It is not uncommon for us to be designing and installing up to 20 rooms at a time for just one client. Most of this work is for film and television production and post production customers but we are still tackling the occasional music studio, although most of these projects are currently overseas.”
Established in 1997, White Mark Ltd specialises in production facilities for music recording and the film and television industries. Over the last decade it has designed and supervised the construction of over 170 audio production suites worldwide. Among these are facilities for more than 40 companies in London’s Soho, including Grand Central, Hackenbacker, Envy, Scramble, Lipsync, Molinare, Ascent Media, Wave and Boom.
“The size of the projects we are undertaking has changed the way we operate,” David Bell adds. “We are increasingly finding that clients want us to project manage the entire construction of a facility, not just the acoustic design. This does present some interesting challenges and we have had to adapt quickly to this new business model.”
Projects completed during 2010 by White Mark include a new London headquarters for German national broadcaster ARD, a Dolby certified audio suite for Factory Studios and the installation of an in-house post production facility at the London offices of advertising agency JWT. Alongside its commercial projects, White Mark is also involved in designing and installing recording, broadcast and multimedia facilities for the educational sector.
“It has been an exceptionally busy year for us,” Bell adds, “but we are well positioned to cope with the demand and, despite reports to the contrary, we are seeing very little evidence of global economic meltdown.”
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About White Mark:
Established in 1997 by David Bell, John Dunnill, Derek Buckingham and Alan Cundell, White Mark Ltd specialises in production facilities for music recording and the film and television industries. Over the last decade it has designed and supervised the construction of over 170 audio production suites worldwide. The company’s impressive client list encompasses some of the world’s most famous music recording facilities including Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the UK, Hit Factory in New York (for which the company won a coveted TEC Award for Best Acoustic Design), Hit Factory/Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, Strongroom in London and private studios for producers and musicians such as William Orbit and Damon Albarn. In the area of audio post production, White Mark has completed over 100 studios for more than 40 companies in Soho alone. The list includes Grand Central, Hackenbacker, Envy, Scramble, Lipsync, Molinare, Ascent Media, Wave and Boom. This impressive achievement means that a significant proportion of mainstream British television output passes through rooms designed by White Mark. www.whitemark.com
