rural business
Hart and soul I
The Business Quarter meets a firm at the forefront of the revolution in media and communications
n just two decades there has been a revolution in the world of media and communications. These dramatic developments are mirrored closely in the
activities of Monmouthshire-based White Hart Multimedia, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Today White Hart specialises in multi-media
work with a modern, documentary approach. Face-to face-interviews are interspersed with
film footage and graphics to further illustrate the story and maintain the snappy pace demanded by a modern audience. The programmes produced have a multitude of applications – interactive graphics, CDs, DVDs, presentations, websites, YouTube, social networking sites and e-learning. The ‘messages’ they contain can be concisely and speedily conveyed to a small, in-house gathering or a global audience. The days when piles of video tapes had to be
labelled, boxed and posted to locations across the globe are just a distant memory. White Hart is run in partnership by its two
directors, John and Chris Brooks. As a former print and media newsman, John has always ensured that good journalism and compelling story-telling are at the heart of the company’s work while Chris has specialist knowledge of training and youth work which are both important sectors for the business. Another key team member is production
manager Tim Aston, a graduate of Newport University who has been with the company for eight years. Over the years the company has trained
numerous young graduates who have gone on to pursue careers in broadcasting.
While White
Hart can cover any topic it has tended to specialise in utilities, construction,
Tim Aston, Sarah Harris, Kirsty Cheney, Chris Brooks, Charlotte Moore and John Brooks
specialist care, education, health, transport, environment, training and induction John Brooks explains how the business has
developed. “Around 2000, people were turning away
from video and putting their resources into websites – but it’s gone full circle because they have found they can use video to make websites better or to put video on YouTube or other social networking sites. “A short video, for example, might be used
as a web-link to a newspaper article – something unheard of ten years ago. “It was ever thus! People said the arrival of
radio was the death knell of live entertainment, and the arrival of television the death knell of radio. Instead, all these means of communication now enhance each other. By looping across different platforms, we can be part of everything! “Because I brought my background in
newspaper, radio and TV journalism to the business, our corporate videos tend to reflect a ‘story-telling’ approach. “I had been working on the BBC’s
Wales Today, reporting and sometimes producing, when I decided to turn freelance. Welsh Water had a corporate, magazine-style video
programme which mirrored Wales Today and I was taken on to produce that for them. It was groundbreaking stuff, which in 1990 won us a national award. “The only way we could distribute the
programme was on VHS tape. Initially we were responsible for despatching the tapes to the company’s offices around Wales then, when Welsh Water became an international company (Hyder), we were flying them out to mainland Europe, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, the Middle East, the USA and Australia. “It’s a completely different story now. A few
years ago when Hyder Consulting wanted staff to see a video message from their chief executive, we simply put it up on a webspace so that everyone could access it simultaneously all over the world.” The changes in methods of communication
are no less astonishing than the changes in the equipment. “Everything is smaller, from the cameras
we use to the edit suite itself. In our early days, the editing process was linear: you edited from the start through to the finish and, to change anything, you had to ‘rebuild’ the story (like a reporter with a typewriter). Now everything is quicker and more dynamic – and the whole team is multi-skilled.”
40 THEbusiness QUARTER
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