Facilities for Media Production and Filmmaking

Find out about our facilities and learning spaces for Media Production and Filmmaking students.

  • Video transcript

    Welcome to the Media, Arts and Humanities Technical Facilities. In this short video, we will walk you through the wide range of resources and facilities available to students of Creative and Critical Practice, Journalism, Music and Drama here at the University of Sussex.

    Available to students is our equipment store, which will be able to collect equipment you have booked online. We have a broad range of equipment, depending on which course you are on from photography, video and cinematic cameras, professional lighting, microphones, tripods, rigs, follow focus and much more. The equipment store also supplies more specialised items such as light boxes, Wacom pen tablets and displays, and a range of physical computing kits. There is a dedicated photography and TV studio on site featuring a white infinity curve and lighting rig with the ability to mount up to five flash heads along with accessories. There is also a green screen available and various other backdrops.

    There are three audio recording booths equipped with audio interface and microphones for voiceover and podcasting.

    Music students have access to three professional quality studios for composition, recording, production and mixing. Studio A features a vintage Neve 66 recording console originally made for the BBC alongside outboards and more. It also features a live room with drum kit, piano and amplifiers, and a studio with a large modular synthesizer.

    Studio B features a modern SSL console and a live room with a baby grand piano. The newly opened Jonathan Harvey Electronic Music Studio features a Trident desk, outboard from SSL, API and more, all in a purpose built production suite with vocal booth. Performers have access to five practice rooms, each with a piano and workstation and a recital room featuring a Steinway grand piano, drum kit, amplifiers and more. And for your final performances, there is the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, a world class arts venue right here on campus.

    We also have two animation suites equipped with Wacom Cintiq 270HD creative pen displays.

    The Makerspace is a dedicated facility for 3D printing and soldering. The 3D printing workstations include two PCs connected to Raise3D Pro2 3D printers. The Pro2 is a professional, large format 3D printer which includes dual extrusion, a built in camera and much more. There are two soldering stations with a rework station a de- soldering station and a wide range of soldering accessories to help you work faster and smarter.

    Onsite, there is also a Foley studio for audio production. This has a dedicated control room and a separate live room.The control room is fitted with a Toft Audio ATB24 desk and Genelec 8040A monitors with a subwoofer. The Mac computer in this room also runs the Adobe Creative Suite and is fitted with Avid's Pro Tools as well as iZotope RX 7. The live room is spacious and offers a variety of different surfaces and props to create Foley sounds. Professional microphones and support equipment required to record a session are supplied by the equipment store.

    We have dedicated Mac and PC computer labs with the full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite installed, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition. Da Vinci Resolve is provided on a select few workstations for colour grading your films. We have

    dedicated multi-screen editing booths available to book for individual and group use. For those studying music our Mac computers across our facilities run a suite of software including Sibelius, ProTools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and lots more. Most of these facilities are available to you 24 hours a day.

    Journalism students have exclusive use of our custom built newsroom. The news studio has a dedicated research room and production room featuring a Blackmagic ATEM 4K Switcher and Sonifex S1 audio desks. In the main set, there are Sony Z-150 cameras, autocue, an LED Lit set and much more. This dedicated studio contains all the equipment you need to create high quality broadcast standard video and audio productions, using professional equipment and skills mastered throughout your time at university.

    Based in the equipment store, and supporting all of this is a team of technicians with subject specific expertise. So if you need any technical advice or support to keep everything running smoothly, you can always find help.

    Thank you for watching this video, and if you have any further questions regarding any of our facilities, please feel free to get in touch with the Media, Arts and Humanities Technical Team at our email address.

Facilities and resources

You can access: 

  • Foley Studio - The Foley studio has a dedicated control-room with a separate live-room, which can be used for audio production and post-production. The control room features a Toft ATB24 mixing desk, a MOTU 16A audio interface, Sonifex RB-HD6 headphone distribution amplifier, and five Genelec 8040 monitors with a subwoofer. There is a 21” iMac and two extra screens. Installed on the computer is Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools, Apple Logic Pro and iZotope RX8, as well as other applications. The studio can be set up for stereo recording and mixing as well as 5.1 surround sound

  • Video/Photo Studio - The video and photography studio is equipped with a range of studio lights and accessories for creative lighting design. The video side features a wrap-around black curtain, Hollywood flats for set design, and the use of a green curtain or pop-up green screen (bookable). There is also a range of grip equipment including dollies, tracks, and jibs. The photography studio benefits from a hi-glide lighting rig with pantograph mounted Bowens flash heads, an array of soft-boxes and accessories, and a permanent white infinity curve with additional black paper backdrops.

  • Video edit suites - We have seven editing booths and two editing workshops. Each dual-monitor workstation is equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes Premiere Pro. You can also access other software packages.
  • Voice over booths - We have three audio post-production booths used for voice-over work, radio documentary narration, or one to one interviews. Each booth has a large diaphragm condenser microphone, high-quality channel strip, audio interface and iMac.
  • Equipment and Store - We have a variety of equipment for you to use while you study with us which you can book using our online booking system called SISO. The equipment and facilities you have access to depends on what course and/or module you are enrolled on. The equipment store is open every weekday and during these times the School Technical Services team are on hand to provide you with any technical assistance you may need. We also provide you with technical demonstrations to help you learn and understand various equipment and software
  • Digital Suite - The Digital Suite is a dedicated facility for Animation, Illustration and Graphic Design work. It also has two workstations, which are bookable 
  • VR Suite - The VR Suite is a dedicated facility for virtual reality and 3D scanning
  • Maker Space - The Maker Space is a dedicated facility for 3D printing and soldering
  • Mac and PC Labs - We have a number of teaching spaces equipped with a suite of computers which can be used for editing work, written work, research and other project work
  • Print Room - this houses a range of professional printers, so you can produce high quality projects throughout your degree.

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