How showfyzo came to be
showfyzo was founded in Winchester in 2014 by producers and engineers who wanted broadcast work to be calmer. Planning was often rushed and the crew met the brief on the morning of the shoot. We set out to change that.
Helen Marsh had already spent years producing television and live event work, and had seen how often problems on the day came from decisions made too late. A camera position chosen without checking the lighting, a microphone plan that ignored the room, or a handover that nobody had agreed. She started showfyzo to put planning at the front of every job.
The first projects were small studio recordings and presentations, run by a handful of people who knew each other's habits. That mattered more than the equipment list. When the camera supervisor, lighting designer and audio engineer have worked together before, a rig goes up quietly and problems are caught early.
Over the years the work grew to include live broadcasts and media events, where signal routing, graphics and vision mixing add another layer of coordination. We kept the same approach: write the plan down, test everything before the audience arrives, and agree fallbacks while there is still time to arrange them.
We also began writing guides on broadcast workflow, because clients often asked how a gallery should be laid out or how files should be named for handover. Those answers were useful beyond the people we were working for, so we published them for anyone planning a production.
Today the company is based at Tanner Mews in Winchester and works with producers, programme makers and event organisers who need a crew they can rely on. We stay deliberately small, so the people you speak to at the start are the people on set.
What we stand for
How a small crew handles large productions
Our team is small by design. Helen leads client planning, Daniel specifies and rigs cameras, Priya designs lighting and Tom looks after audio. Each person owns one part of the technical plan and presents it to the others before anything is sent to the client.
This review step catches conflicts early. A lighting stand that blocks a camera path, or a microphone boom that casts a shadow, is easier to fix on paper than during a rig. It also means the client receives one joined-up plan rather than separate documents from different departments.
When a job needs more hands, we bring in freelance crew we have worked with before and brief them on the same plan. They receive the technical document, the running order and the contact list, and join the rehearsal. We do not send people to a set who have not seen the brief.
We keep notes after every production: what was rigged, what changed on the day and what we would adjust next time. These notes feed back into our guides and into how we plan similar jobs. They are also the basis for the short crew report we send with each handover.
Working this way lets us take on anything from a single interview setup to a multi-camera live broadcast without changing the method. Only the size of the plan changes.