Birmingham’s specialist audio post-production company, The Audio Suite, has appointed Engineer, Mixer and Producer, Marcus Byrne as its Director of UK audio post-production.

As well as being an experienced studio Engineer, Byrne has recorded and played on albums with acts such as The Sugababes, Cleopatra, One Republic, Mika, The Saturdays, Anastacia and Annie Lennox; he has also been 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.’

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 Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) service, by being able to offer a larger workspace for artists recording or replacing dialogue. It now has a 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.

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.

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 as a sound editing and mixing facility and 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’.