Lights, camera, action – the race for studio space

9th November 2022

Oscar Chester-Roberts

Studios need to quickly expand to keep pace with the booming demand for production space. Quick to build, Paragon Structure’s cost-effective studio and sound stages are the ideal solution.

The UK is enjoying unprecedented growth in film and TV production. According to official statistics from the British Film Institute (BF), there was a record £5.64bn spend on film and high-end TV production in the UK in 2021 – that’s the highest ever reported and £1.27bn more than for the pre-pandemic year 2019.

Additional research this year, commissioned by ScreenSkills – the training body which manages the Film Skills Fund – and supported by the BFI, says that this growth is likely to continue at an annual average rate of 7.3 per cent between 2022 and 2025, with spending predicted to reach between £7.07bn and £7.66bn by 2025.

This is great news for the industry as well as the UK economy, but means that studios must quickly expand to accommodate this once-in-a-generation growth. In fact, property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton estimates that 2.3 million sq ft of new sound stage space will be required by 2033 to keep pace with production demand.

Paragon Structures are the ideal solution partner to facilitate this growth. Our sustainable Sprung structures provide the most cost-effective studio and sound stages in the world thanks to their unique qualities. Constructed using patented technology, our tensioned membrane buildings can be built in as little as six months, providing the most advanced studio space available at a fraction of the cost of traditional builds, with a typical 50 per cent saving.

Designed to meet your specification and tailored to the set you want to create, Paragon’s flexible film studios and sound stages can accommodate productions of any scale with unlimited bespoke lighting and set capacity.

Our permanent buildings benefit from a 50-year warranty on the frame and 25-year warranty on the membrane, and can be relocated, reconfigured and repurposed to suit production needs.

They also deliver a superior internal environment thanks to our specifically designed, 50mm thick sound insulation, which absorbs sound reflection reverberant noise. Our Insul-quilt insulation allows you to mitigate sound and echo problems in large spaces, resulting in a noise reduction coefficient of 0.90.

Paragon’s solutions can help studios to reduce their environmental impact too. Designed and manufactured offsite, our superstructures are delivered in 40ft shipping containers, which dramatically cuts vehicle traffic during construction.

The buildings comprise a high proportion of recyclable components, while their lightweight aluminium construction significantly reduces the size of the concrete foundations needed and the associated earth removal.

Our structures also have excellent thermal properties with u-values and energy loss well below similar building types, reducing both capital and operating costs for studios. This is due to our superior insulation, which exceeds current building regulations, and the outstanding air tightness of the structures, which boast air permeability of less than 10 per cent of the building regulations standard. All of which helps our structures to achieve a BREEAM rating of Excellent.

So, whether you need a single studio or a full soundstage campus, our unique structures can meet your needs to ensure you can capitalise on the boom in UK TV and film production.