Groundbreaking Mixed Reality Film & TV Studios Completed
The pioneering and immersive mixed reality studio and facilities we designed for global motion picture media specialist, ARRI has been completed and handed over by Brac Contracts.
Situated alongside ARRI’s existing facilities in Uxbridge, West London, the 13,272 sq ft new facility incorporates a LED volume stage capable of supporting specialist curved screens, screed flooring, AHU and AC installations, and associated lighting and electrics together with mezzanine split level viewing galleries, green room, dressing rooms, hair and make-up facilities, washrooms and catering facilities.
“The ambition for this project was to create a top of the range, mixed reality studio that was capable of suspending a 343m² LED wall in a variety of configurations to suit short and long form productions including films, TV and advertising as well as for events and educational purposes,” explains our managing director and co-founder, Jon Ackroyd. “The studio space needed to be completely immersive, with the screens displaying 360⁰ imagery, so the technical specifications were extremely complex.”
Working with ARRI, the screen specialist, Creative Technology and with support from mechanical engineers, we devised a design to retrofit and extend the existing former storage warehouse.
Jon continues: “One of the challenges for this site was designing around the limitations of the existing building; it had to incorporate a steel frame structure that could hold the weight of the LED wall and be entirely flexible to create any shape. This meant the entire studio space had to be optimised; by creating a split level mezzanine we could provide the required ancillary facilities and leave the main stage space clear. To support the steel frame structure, we specified spreader beams, which would not only safely reconfigure the panels during shoots but also meant we avoided piling the foundations. The result is now one of the biggest permanent mixed reality production spaces in Europe.”
A phased construction at ARRI began in November 2020 and was handed over earlier this year. Our work with ARRI continues as we masterplan a further expansion of the firm’s facilities at Uxbridge to include more studio space, viewing cinema and research labs.
