Birmingham’s long-standing specialist audio post-production company The Audio Suite has appointed industry-renown and widely respected Engineer, Mixer and Producer Marcus Byrne as its Director of UK audio post-production.
Byrne is not just a highly experienced studio Engineer, recording and playing on albums with acts such as The Sugarbabes, Cleopatra, One Republic, Mika, The Saturdays, Anastacia and
Annie Lennox; he also has an enviable CV as a live musician that reads like a Who’s Who of modern touring performers, being engaged as the on-stage Programmer and Keyboard
player for the likes of Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Take That, Gary Barlow and Cliff Richard.
The Audio Suite’s Managing Director, Dr. Neil Hillman, commented: ‘We are obviously delighted to welcome Marcus on board, to help steer the company’s future. His almost 25
years of studio Engineering and Pro Tools Mixing experience is an amazing fit for the direction we see the studios moving in; and the fact that our long-term relationship with
each other has always been as Birmingham-based creative collaborators, rather than rivals, makes this a logical and easy next step on both The Audio Suite’s and our own personal
journeys.’
New Location
The appointment also coincides with a change of address for The Audio Suite’s UK studios, to new premises housed within a Grade II listed building in Birmingham’s iconic Jewellery
Quarter. The move will see a master control room offering Avid HDX2 running Pro Tools Ultimate 2021.3 through an Avid D-Command ES console, coupled to the Avid MTRX Studio
audio interface, NLA Video Slave 4 ADR hardware and software, SSL and Focusrite microphone pre-amps, with Neumann and PMC monitoring.
The studio move has also provided an opportunity for The Audio Suite to upscale the capability of its signature Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) service, not least of all by
being able to offer a larger workspace for artists recording or replacing dialogue: a roomy 4.2 metres long by 2.5 metres wide dedicated voice studio, with sufficient headroom for
artists to be recorded by a boom operator as they move, if required; a rare and valuable option for drama ADR work.
The move to new premises comes at a time when The Audio Suite continues with its plans for an expansion of operations into the southern hemisphere, which will bring with it the
prospect of a round-the-clock, integrated audio post-production workflow for clients from a new Queensland facility, planned for 2022, in close proximity to the Australian Gold Coast
film production hub.
Vision of The Audio Suite
Hillman continued: ‘We have a very clear vision for the future of The Audio Suite, as a Birmingham digital company serving a global client base; but also, as a trusted partner for Post-production Managers and Dialogue Editors who know that they can rely on us to deliver essential components to help them create great soundtracks. The addition of Marcus to the team massively strengthens that proposition; and our new investment in the facility itself and choice of location for the studios, demonstrates our confidence and commitment to Birmingham as great place for us to do business from, in the film and television sectors. The city motto of Birmingham is ‘Forward’; and that neatly sums up The Audio Suite’s intended direction of travel.’
The Audio Suite was founded in Birmingham by Hillman in 2001 and it has been an enduring sound editing and mixing facility in the city, relentlessly adapting to change even through the economic challenges and severe commissioning drought that has blighted the production of film and television content in the West Midlands region during the intervening years. In bucking the trend, the company has quietly built a reputation not only as a sound editing and mixing facility, but also as an ADR studio, servicing feature films such as Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’, Disney’s ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ and Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’, as well as high-end television dramas such as ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Beecham House’ and ‘Line of Duty’.