Wired for Sound

SURPRISES can often be found on your very own doorstep and the Sound House on Manchester’s Quay Street is no exception to this rule.

Upon leaving the lift on the tenth floor of Astley House the first surprise to greet visitors is the awe-inspiring view of the city, taking a dramatic perspective on the region’s skyline.

The next unexpected revelation is the dynamic and extensive catalogue of productions that have passed through the Sound House doors since the company wass set up in 1998.

Facility Manager, Susan Keen, explains: “We’ve worked in post-production on a spectrum of TV shows and films, including Shameless, Life on Mars, The Royle Family, Max and Paddy and Lord of the Rings.”

Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy, recorded some of his vocals for the films in the Manchester-based studios.

As Dubbing Mixer, Mike Stewart, explains, many directors are surprised by the amount of production that’s carried out at the Sound House, and within the Northwest as a whole.

“Up until only a few years ago, there was nowhere to compare with London’s Soho but now, with organisations such as ourselves, Sumner’s, Flix, 422 and Editz, the Northwest has a real strength to compete.”

He adds: “As we like to say about our services: we’re big enough to handle anything but small enough to care.”

The extensive range of TV, film and digital media services available in the Northwest can be found on North West Vision’s facilities database at /facilities.php4

The Sound House studios incorporate six impressive edit suites, with two online suites, two audio suites, a graphics / rostrum suite and a tracklay suite. For sound design, an ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) stage and a Foley stage (for sounds related to objects / movement) are also available.

Although the emphasis is on sound, with software such as Adrenaline, Symphony and Pro Tools all readily available, the Sound House is also a fully equipped production facility catering for all post-production needs.

Mike says: “We have strong connections with the States and have connected with Australia, and other countries, to do live link-ups. A recent example of this was the work we carried out for the special DVD, the Osmond’s Reunion.

“There’s always something happening over at least twelve hours of the day here and if needs be, we will run into the night to get jobs done.”

Susan adds: “The company has always been innovating and moving forward. We invest in training wherever possible and as a UK Post member (the trade body that represents the film and broadcast industries) we have taken on three work placements and been able to offer full-time positions for two of those.”

The Sound House is currently working on a range of programming for BBC Religion, projects for Scarlet TV and Baker Media, including a range of adverts (Panasonic, PG Tips, the Post Office, Iceland).

Contact the Sound House

10th Floor, Astley House, Manchester,
0161 832 7299