Shinfield Studios is changing the landscape, with unmatched sustainability, innovation and potential, reports Robert Shepherd
By Contributor
Published: August 17, 2023
Shinfield Studios is changing the landscape, with unmatched sustainability, innovation and potential, reports Robert Shepherd
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Image courtesy of Earth Grid The UK's reputation in the movie business precedes itself, boasting a mastery of unrivalled production values coupled with a cost advantage over its Hollywood counterparts. From the grand Pinewood and Shepperton to the bustling Leavesden and the once-mighty yet intimate Ealing, these illustrious studios have taken lots of business from Tinseltown giants over the years.
A new addition to that distinguished list is Shinfield Studios, a colossal expanse of 120 acres (with the potential to take more) and 1M. sq ft, strategically nestles along the M4 corridor, a few miles from Reading.
The brainchild of former Pinewood Shepperton commercial director, Nick Smith, Shinfield was initially a reaction to the lack of space afforded streamers owing to the fact so many big budget movies were taking the space.
Now, just finishing the second of a five-phase construction programme, it's taking orders on the scale of the aforementioned competitors. We're not focused on any particular area, Smith tells TVBEurope. We're able to take the biggest global productions around. Streamers and features are welcome.
Shinfield has just started on its fourth production with two others winding up. Smith explains how it's a real achievement in what has been a very short existence to date.
Phase one only finished in Autumn 2021 and the site has been fully used up until now, he says. Phase two is made up of four phases due to the scale of the project with phases 2A and 2B both opening at the end of June. Phase C will be open in September and deliver another four sound stages and the whole of phase two will be completed in February next year.
Upon conclusion of Phase Two, Shinfield will boast an impressive total of 18 sound stages, nine of which are currently available for immediate use. Among the grandest is Stage Three, nearing completion: a colossal, 42,000 sq ft stage and being fully soundproofed and fully air-conditioned with 50 feet to the working gantry it makes this soundstage one of the UK's largest.
We didn't want to cut corners, Smith adds. I've worked on soundstages around the world where budgetary issues meant we had to cut corners. I said with Shinfield, we're either going to do it properly or not at all.
However, do not let the two-year purple patch fool you into thinking it's been an easy process. It took nearly six years to secure the land and get the project to where it is today that is set to house the UK's fourth largest studios.
We probably spent the first couple of years just looking at different sites not because there were many, but quite the opposite. It was hard to find a site within the designated area - close to London - with 100 hundred plus acres that allowed us to build what we wanted, Smith adds. We looked around north London and here, weighing up all the pros and cons. Then we saw they were upgrading the M4. The Elizabeth Line comes out to Reading Green Park station, which has just opened. We looked at the crew data bases and lots live on the M4 corridor between Slough and Reading, so it trumped anything we found in north London.
Moreover, the purpose-built studio enables it to provide facilities and services that older ones simply cannot match. With modern technology at our disposal, which might prove challenging to incorporate into older structures, we have the advantage of concrete aprons between stages, allowing convenient parking for vehicles, explains Smith. Unlike other studios that lack such features due to their original construction limitations, our facility was designed with this functionality in mind.
Nevertheless, amidst the marvel of this state-of-the-art studio construction, a tense atmosphere pervades the film industry, as writers and actors in Hollywood united in a profound strike. While an immediate solution remains uncertain, Smith maintains a pragmatic outlook on the situation.
It's not a great time because it's has meant there's a significant production hiatus, he says. However, I look at it with my glass half full hat on in that it would be even worse if we finished everything this year and then in 2024, when we're ready to go, the industry goes on strike.
Shinfield's green credentials also make it stand out against the other film studios. Nothing is powered by gas, solar panels have been installed and there are air source heat pumps peppered across the complex.
Sound Stage 3 We've tried to think about it in an innovative way but still give the producer what they need, Smith says. We try to be as green as we can, full in the knowledge that the productions require a lot of power. We've been surprised when we turn on the biggest stage and see the air-con only uses up 50 per cent of the energy we were told we would burn. We're greener than we thought we were going to be at this point.
AI has started to gain traction in the movie business in recent years, but Smith says it's too early for Shinfield to be thinking about that right now. Everybody is still talking about video walls, so that's how it's going to be for the foreseeable. That said, we will adapt when the time comes.
Although the sound stages are slated for completion within the first quarter of next year, that doesn't mean the construction will come to an end. Building the media hub and commercial space that will be leased out to production houses, facilities companies and edit suites
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
15/07/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
15/07/2025
L3Harris put its CORVUS-RAVEN counter-small UAS capability into the hands of soldiers at VANAHEIM, showcasing its ability to provide passive signal detect, enha...
15/07/2025
Netflix Viewing Up 13.5% vs. May, Represents 42% of Monthly Gain for Streaming
...
15/07/2025
SAN FRANCISCO and BENGALARU, India Sangeeta Chakraborty has been named chief revenue officer at Amagi, a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology pro...
15/07/2025
As part of its mandate, the Advanced Television Systems Committee the U.S. organization tasked with developing advanced broadcast TV standards promotes ATSC 3.0...
15/07/2025
QuickLink, the leading global provider of multi-camera video productions and remote contributions, announces the launch of two innovative control panels Studi...
15/07/2025
Chris Kontopanos has joined leading high-quality microphone solutions manufacturer, DPA Microphones, as the company's new Regional Sales Manager for the Mid...
15/07/2025
Magnifi by VideoVerse, a global leader in AI-powered video automation, has launched a major platform upgrade built to simplify live and archival video editing f...
15/07/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will preview its latest innovations at IBC2025, Stand 7.B21. This year's showcase highlights how...
15/07/2025
IBC2025 is set to transform the onsite experience for its global attendees with the launch of a pioneering new feature: full integration of Amsterdam's GVB ...
15/07/2025
Music, sport and technology collided in spectacular fashion as ASB GlassFloor powered the debut of Beats N Buckets, Germany's first Basketball meets Hip-Ho...
15/07/2025
The Collectv, the Emmy award-winning broadcast solutions and workflows consultancy - and winner of Broadcast Tech's Team of the Year is delighted to announc...
15/07/2025
SipRadius, the expert in secure, low latency media transport, will showcase how broadcasters and media companies can take control of fragmented IP workflows at ...
15/07/2025
Appear, the global leader in live production technology, today announced its strategic partnership with beIN ASIA PACIFIC, a leading multi-platform sports media...
15/07/2025
Company marks 15 years of innovation at the show
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and monetization at scale, will return to IBC (Hall 1, Stand F83. RAI, Amster...
15/07/2025
New software solutions extend trusted timing measurement across broadcast, venue, and professional AV applications
Hitomi Broadcast, the market leader in audi...
15/07/2025
SHENZHEN, China Telycam has added control options for its portfolio of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with a new plug-in for Elgato's Stream Deck family of con...
15/07/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron said its Chyron LIVE cloud-native live production solution has successfully completed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Foundational Technical...
15/07/2025
PHILADELPHIA The Xumo streaming platform joint venture between Comcast and Charter has announced the nationwide launch of a new line of Xumo TVs from Westinghou...
15/07/2025
LONGMONT, Colo. DPA Microphones said Chris Kontopanos has joined the microphone solutions provider as its new regional sales manager, Mid-Atlantic....
15/07/2025
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN THE UNIT...
15/07/2025
News Corp Authorizes New $1 Billion Stock Repurchase Program and Intends to Acce...
15/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Announces the Start of Production of Los secretos de l...
15/07/2025
Harmonic's Hybrid, AI-Powered and Live Sports Streaming Innovations are Key ...
15/07/2025
The well-known and well-loved 4099 has been completely revamped. It features amazing CORE+ technology, which eliminates distortion and extends dynamic range, a ...
15/07/2025
Comscore Partners with HyphaMetrics to Launch Advanced Person-Level Audience Mea...
15/07/2025
Peak audiences of over half a million tune into both Kerry v Tyrone and Donegal ...
15/07/2025
PROTON Announces Production Facility Expansion Ahead of IBC2025 posted: 15/07/2025
Proton Announces Production Facility Expansion Ahead of IBC2025
Alongs...
15/07/2025
Submissions for NVIDIA's Plug and Play: Project G-Assist Plug-In Hackathon a...
14/07/2025
The Royal Moroccan Air Force hosted a C-130 award ceremony with L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert a...
14/07/2025
UK launch set for September, following on from recent US and Germany releases
London - UK, July 14, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, da...
14/07/2025
SHENZHEN, China Telycam has added control options for its portfolio of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with a new plug-in for Elgato's Stream Deck family of con...
14/07/2025
The awards are open to IBC2025 show exhibitors and offer a valuable platform for companies to raise awareness for the new products and solutions they will be la...
14/07/2025
Clear-Com is excited to announce a significant expansion of the award-winning Arcadia Central Station with new software updates. Together, these releases dram...
14/07/2025
Grass Valley and Daktronics today announced a strategic technology partnership that unites Grass Valley's live production expertise with Daktronics' lea...
14/07/2025
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset, and swXtch.io, provider of cloud-based multicast and reliable networking solutions, are partnering to deliver multicast...
14/07/2025
Tintri , a DDN subsidiary and leader in AI-powered data management solutions, today announces a game-changing and award-winning refresh to its global Partner P...
14/07/2025
HighField AI, the broadcast industry's first agentic and multimodal AI platform for automating graphics production, is now commercially available. Developed...
14/07/2025
Encompass Digital Media has today announced that it has been delivering a complex global services project for DAZN, the world s leading sports entertainment pla...
14/07/2025
MASV (massive.io), the fastest, most reliable large file transfer platform trusted by over 10,000 global organizations, announced today it will showcase its nex...
14/07/2025
Calrec is introducing a series of usability, customisation and system enhancements across the entire range of Argo consoles at IBC 2025, on Stand 8.C47. Look ou...
14/07/2025
Fincons Group, IT business consultancy and systems integrator company with more than 40 years of experience in the market, is proud to announce a new engagement...
14/07/2025
Intinor returns to IBC to present the latest updates to its Direkt series. A key development on show is Intinor Direkt Management (IDM), a web-based interface f...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
Trailer Out Now! Netflix and YRF Entertainment's Mandala ...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
25 Former Athletes Seek Redemption in Final Draft,' Japan...
Shinfield Studios is changing the landscape, with unmatched sustainability, innovation and potential, reports Robert Shepherd
