12 August 2011
All Eyes on Portakabin - Creator of the New 'Big Brother' Village at Elstree Studios
Portakabin, the UK's leading modular building specialist, has created a state-of-the-art interim production village for Endemol, the world's largest independent production company and creators of the popular reality TV series 'Big Brother'.
The production village at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire accommodates around 200 Endemol staff working on the new series of the TV show, which has just returned to television screens after the company signed a two-year deal with Channel 5.
Located next to the famous 'Big Brother' house, 38 modular buildings of varying sizes totalling 1,000sqm were sourced, fully fitted out and installed by Portakabin in just four weeks from receipt of order to meet strict TV pre-production schedules. The project included air conditioning and furniture plus some landscaping around the village with a series of red pathways.
The production village is being hired from Portakabin for just over a year. It accommodates 24 Endemol departments including workshops, editing suites and offices for story producers, executives and directors. One building features the Reality Gallery - an extensive production suite containing large banks of TV viewing screens for the team monitoring the show.
Portakabin has also provided some modular buildings for the studio where filming is taking place for the spin-off TV series, 'Big Brother's Bit On The Side'. Endemol plans to use the facilities to produce three series of the reality show in which a group of contestants live in isolation from the outside world in the famous 'Big Brother House'.
Commenting on the project, Philippe Luzy, Line Producer at Endemol, said, "As a TV production company working across multiple sites, we have a considerable number of projects which require interim accommodation. This is the first time we have used Portakabin and they have performed extremely well. The buildings are high quality and the customer service we have received has been excellent."
"This type of production facility is only in use for a limited time, so it's essential we have a flexible solution that meets our specific requirements. Portakabin demonstrated a real understanding of our needs and has been highly responsive in delivering an outstanding state-of-the-art working environment, to a challenging schedule and both on time and on budget."
Portakabin has the widest network of hire centres in the UK and has the resources to deliver purpose-designed accommodation solutions in the most demanding timescales, with less disruption and less impact on the environment. Its modular buildings can also be easily extended, reconfigured or relocated to meet an organisation's ongoing needs.
For further information about modular buildings for interim applications, visit www.portanews.co.uk, email information@portakabin.co.uk or call 0845 459 1054.
Editor's Notes
1. Portakabin modular buildings offer a range of advantages over site-based construction, including:
- Programme times reduced by up to 50 per cent
- Highly flexible and innovative accommodation solutions, such as Ultima Vision - a fully glazed modular building available for hire, and Titan - the largest single modular building in Europe
- Enhanced quality and a robust steel-framed construction
- The provision of buildings with significantly less disruption
- A wide variety of aesthetic and fitting out options to reduce procurement time.
2. Portakabin is a registered trademark.
