A production company shaped by studio floors and live galleries
Since 2011 we have planned camera, lighting and audio systems for television and media events from our base in Durham. This page explains how we work and who does the work.
How a Durham crew became a full broadcast production company
actiora was founded in 2011 in Durham to give producers a technical partner that planned carefully and stayed calm under pressure. It began with studio work and grew to cover live events and workflow planning. The company is still built around a small, experienced core team.
The early years were mostly studio days: setting up cameras, balancing lights and mixing sound for programme makers who needed dependable technical support. The work taught us that most problems in broadcast are not equipment failures but gaps in planning, and that has shaped our approach ever since.
As clients asked for more, we added live event production. Running a gallery on location demands a different discipline, with limited rehearsal, shared venues and an audience waiting. We learned to survey sites in advance, write call sheets that people actually read, and keep every crew member clear about their role.
Workflow planning followed naturally. Footage, graphics and audio have to travel from the shoot to playout or delivery without confusion, so we began documenting ingest and delivery chains as carefully as we plan cameras. Callum Reid now maintains that documentation so it stays accurate between jobs.
The studio space for interviews and portraits came from the same thinking. Many clients need a well-lit room, a camera and a competent crew for a day, not a full production. Offering that as its own service keeps smaller commissions simple and well run.
Today Helen Marsden, Daniel Thorpe, Priya Nair and Callum Reid lead the work, each owning a technical area. We still prefer to keep teams small, communicate plainly and write down what we have agreed, whether the job is a single studio day or a multi-day event.
The habits behind every production we crew
Principles only matter if they change what happens on a Tuesday morning in a cold studio. Ours are tied to specific tasks: how plans are drawn, how crews are briefed and how information is recorded. They explain why clients tend to return for later projects.
Precision
Precision shows in the preparation. Camera plots, lighting layouts and audio routing are drawn up and shared before the day, with exact positions and equipment named. Crews test every signal against those plans during setup, which means problems are found early, while there is still time to fix them without affecting the schedule.
Calm crews
Calm crews are built through briefing and rehearsal. Before each shoot, everyone knows the running order, who is on talkback and what happens if a cue slips. Priya and Daniel train their teams to report faults quietly and early, which keeps the gallery steady even when a live programme does not go entirely to plan.
Clear workflows
Clear workflows come from writing things down. Callum records how material moves from camera to ingest, graphics, playout and delivery, and updates those notes after every job. Clients receive handover documentation, and the next production starts from known settings rather than from memory or guesswork.
The stages that shaped our way of working
The company did not arrive with a fixed method. Our approach grew job by job, from studio days to live events, with each stage adding a habit we still keep. These chapters describe how that happened and what clients see today.
Founded2011
actioraToday2026
Starting in the studio
Early commissions were single studio days, which taught us to rig quickly, test thoroughly and leave nothing to chance. That habit remains: every job begins with a written plan and an early call time, however small the production.
Taking the gallery on location
Moving to live events meant working in unfamiliar venues with little rehearsal. We learned to survey sites, agree roles in advance and keep talkback short. Clients now get a clear call sheet and a single contact on the day.
Planning the whole workflow
Requests for help with graphics, playout and delivery led us to plan material from shoot to air. We now document each chain, so productions that return months later can reproduce the same set-up without delay.
Opening a space for interviews
Clients with smaller needs asked for a lit room and a competent crew. The studio hire service grew from that, offering a straightforward way to record interviews and portraits without commissioning a full production.
What producers and organisers tell us
The crew arrived early, rigged the set exactly as the plan described and kept the gallery quiet throughout a long recording day. We received clear handover notes afterwards, which made our second series much easier to organise.
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Martin Holroyd · Events manager, professional associationOur conference was broadcast live from a venue none of us knew well. The team surveyed it first, and the day itself ran without confusion.
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Sophie Granger · Commissioning editor, independent productionLighting and sound for our interview series were handled with care. Guests looked comfortable and the audio needed very little repair afterwards.
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Jonathan Pryce · Head of communications, charityThe written quotation was clear about what was included, and the invoice matched it exactly. That made approval simple on our side.
Talk to us about your production
Use the contact page to describe your programme or event. We will respond with questions or an outline plan, and any commitment is confirmed in writing.