I recently visited Southpoint Films who are based in Ocean Village, Southampton, to carry out their PAT Testing. As soon as I walked through the door, I realised that I had my work cut out for me. I was surprised at how much equipment they had and in conversation learnt how advanced it is and how costly most of it can be. It was a real eye opener and when I learnt they always record to broadcast standards, as used by the BBC, I can admit, I was amazed!
Whilst PAT Testing their equipment, I had a conversation with Paul French, Southpoint’s Executive Producer, about why they were having their equipment PAT Tested and about their business.
He told me they often attend venues such as; Royal College of Music, Conference Centres in London and more locally Hospitals, Skin Care Centres, Security Companies, Estate Agents, Community Projects and Art Studios, who again all have their equipment PAT Tested, so need any visitors to have it done to comply with the their Health & Safety and insurance policies. This then enables Southpoint to gain access onto location. They not only cover the whole of England, but also have customers globally and just come back from a visit in Marseille and another in Panama, so they seem to get around a lot.
However a lot of their business is not just about music festivals and the like but about filming for companies of all sizes to promote their products and services for the customer’s websites and marketing. I had a look at a promotional video they were working on for an Engineering Company. If you have read some of our previous blogs, we worry about how to make PAT Testing informative and how to keep people’s attention. I feel this is also relevant to an industrial engineering video I saw, but I must say Southpoint Films managed to do this and do it well.
Paul also told me that often Southpoint Films helps customers with suppling all the background services to include make-up artist, narrators, from both celebratory and non-celebratory backgrounds and much more.
When leaving, Southpoint Films thanked us for not disturbing their busy schedule and for working round them. So we look forward to seeing them again next year and see where and what else they have been up to.