Timeline TV expands MediaCity UK post production centre

Facilities company Timeline TV has expanded its new post-production centre at MediaCityUK to cope with increased demand from broadcast clients on the Salford Quays site, including BBC Sport. Five more edit suites have been added, nearly doubling the facility’s capacity, while an existing video room has been adapted to accommodate track-laying and ADR.

Timeline TV North opened at the beginning of May in the Blue Tower above MCUK’s main Studios block, which was recently rebranded as dock10. This 20,000 square feet space established a base in the northwest of England for Timeline TV, which has post-production, production and outside broadcast facilities in Soho and Ealing, London. The Ealing centre was also extended this year with the addition of five transmission/studio galleries for horse racing TV specialist Racecourse Media Group.

The MCUK facility is now using additional space on the 17th floor of the Blue Tower, opposite the existing areas. Timeline TV operations director Eben Clancy comments that when the company moved in it “did not know how things were going to go” and so took one amount of floor space to begin with. “After six months here business has been going relatively well, so it’s good to be able to expand,” he says.

Clancy explains that the majority of work coming into Timeline TV North has been MUCK-based, with a mixture of drama/entertainment and sport. “We’ve been doing quite a bit for BBC Sport,” he comments,” but there have been projects for non-sports production companies like Lime as well.”

The new edit suites are based on a combination of Final Cut Pro and hybrid Avids running on Mac Pros. The editing/track-laying room features a Pro Tools 10 digital audio workstation, alongside a FCP/Avid system. All areas at Timeline TV North now run off a recently installed Avid ISIS 5000 online server.