Back To The Days When A Good Service Counts

Everyone has a Solid Mate they can rely on and everybody needs one; this is exactly the ethos behind Solidmate Ltd. Solid also relates to Solid State Media which is also exactly what they do.

After spending 15 years as a senior hire co-ordinator at a well known equipment rental house, Paul Parsons recognised a gap in the market which was yet to be serviced, along with the ever expanding needs of the TV/ broadcast industry.

First port of call
For many years Paul was the first port of call for many production companies and camera operators when needing camera kit. He soon soon spotted a rise in the requests for more media as the camera technology advanced. Even though the memory cards were a vast improvement on its predecessor (the loyal old tape), the capacity of the cards were not moving as fast as the camera technology, hence the need for more memory cards. In 2013, Solidmate Ltd was formed and the industry had a place to go which solely supplied Solid State Media (memory cards and drives). As there was no competition and Solidmate wasn't stepping on anyone's toes, business quickly took off just from word of mouth and recommendations.

Pride of service
Extremely high on the agenda (referring back to your Solid Mate!), Paul and his staff pride themselves on the personal, helpful service they offer. It's more about giving clients what they need; helping with budgets and logistics, offering the best possible service they can.

Paul stipulates: "I don't want us to be a rigid organisation where clients think they can't ask for better deals (although the deals we offer would be pretty hard to beat anyway). We want and expect clients to ask for help, not everyone can afford endless amounts of media so we always try to make it look a viable option. We are always here and happy to help."

Solidmate now offers free next day deliveries and free same day deliveries within our terms (which can be found on the website). With a dedicated Solidmate motorbike, you can forget the London traffic and rely on the fact that the cards are on their way. It's all about making it easy for clients on costs and logistics.

Award-winning
Over the past few years, Solidmate have been supplying media to the biggest players in the industry as well as the one-man band. Working closely with big productions such as ITV – The Voice, BBC – Strictly Come Dancing, Shine TV – The Hunted, David Attenborough – Galapagos, Endemol, Wall To Wall, Maverick TV, and Disney, and servicing as far afield as Australia proves that Solidmate Ltd not only has the stock capabilities but they do what they do very well.

Paul explains: "We have the systems in place where we are able to keep track of hundreds of memory cards, drives and readers so we are extremely organised. We give clients a confident, down to earth and to the point explanation of how things work so they know they are in safe hands. We now also offer a Data Recovery service via LC Technology International should the need arise."

Giving back
Now offering a tremendous two-day charge for one week hire on all cards – which means you can now hire memory cards and drives for a whole week and only pay for a mere two days. Surely that's giving back to the industry and an offer which will certainly save a few production pennies! Now Solidmate has established itself as the industry's leading UK supplier we can see things going from strength to strength.

www.solidmate.co.uk

This article also features in the September edition of Broadcast Film & Video.

(JP)