Industry veteran and former group financial director of audio integration company Autograph, Duncan Bell, has completed a management buyout of immersive audio specialist Sonosphere, in a move which will see him join the company as commercial director.
The transaction was completed on October 31, with Bell set to work alongside existing director Jamie Gosney.
“I became a shareholder and director of Sonosphere last year and I could see the huge potential the company had,” said Gosney. “When the opportunity to take over the ownership was presented, I knew that it was too good to miss. But I needed to have the right team in place to take it forward and make the most of all the opportunities that are presenting themselves.”
Over the past 18 months, Sonosphere has been a central part of the upcoming first ever 5G Festival. The project will harness the 5G network to expand the concept of what can be done in the world of live events, while creating new commercial opportunities for the arts and providing artists and audiences with new ways to interact with each other.
Furthermore, its work with 5GF partner Metropolis Studios has also helped create one of the highest resolution Dolby Atmos certified studios in the UK.
“I’d learned about Sonosphere with great interest and followed its progress, and it became clear it had quickly built a name synonymous with spatial audio,” Bell commented. “Theatre productions have been immersive for many years, but developments in the last few years, coupled with ultra-low latency 5G technology have come together to provide great opportunities to deliver object based spatial audio to all audiences far and wide.
“The work with Metropolis and the other 5GFestival partners is exciting in itself, and Jamie’s vision and enthusiasm is infectious, so when he told me he was buying the company and wanted me to be part of the new structure, I jumped at the chance.”
The first project that Gosney and Bell worked on together was delivering the spatial audio for the album launch of a major artist at the end of October.
“This was an amazing first job for the new company structure,” concluded Gosney. “The results were fantastic and we’re looking forward to many more projects that are equally exciting.”
You can read our interview with Gosney on what the first ever 5G festival will look like here.