The post-production company has added an office in Fitzrovia and opened a third building in Glasgow

Serious Facilities has opened its first London facility. The Scottish post-production house, which has operated out of Glasgow since 1998, now has an office in Fitzrovia, at 37 Percy Street.

The building was previously home to post-production house The Joint, which closed in August last year. 

Serious has taken over the whole building, with the five-storey office housing 10 hybrid edit suites, a grade/online room, an audio dubbing studio and voiceover booth.

Simon Cull, CEO of Serious Facilities, is running the facility. He told Broadcast Tech: “We are set up with client comfort in mind and aim to make post-production as painless as possible. Offline-wise, we are offering comfortable suites with sit-stand desks. The rooms are all very airy with big windows, lots of natural light and editors can either work here or from home, remoting back into our HQ in Glasgow.” 

The idea for the Percy Street facility is for all the heavy lifting to be looked after by the Serious team and equipment in Scotland, where the company’s ingest/MCR and edit assist team is based. The Glasgow facility is equipped with a “large Avid Nexis estate and a very broad finishing department with lots of bandwidth,” adds Cull.

As well as opening in London, Serious has also added another building in Glasgow, where it now occupies three buildings.

Its new building – called The Loft – was previously home to Arteus, which went into administration last year.

In total, across all its facilities, the company now has 55 physical offline suites, 130 remote suites, 10 online suites, 10 audio dubbing rooms, and four grading suites. 

Cull says: “We are offering a split workflow where we can final post between Glasgow and London. The idea being that we charge Glasgow rates for any work done there then London rates for when we are attended at Percy St, for things like final reviews. 

“This allows us to work to tight budgets and give productions more bang for their buck and also allows us to offer in person reviews for many of our clients who are based in London, saving unnecessary travel and time.”

Those working in Serious’s new London facility will also literally get a taste of Scotland. “We are bringing a wee bit of Scotland to London, including a fridge full of Irn-Bru, Shortbread from my local factory on Loch Lomond and a bar showcasing Scotch Whisky, Gin and Tennents lager on Tap,” explains Cull. “We are also introducing our clients to joy that is Square sausage and Tattie Scones which we import from Glasgow.”