MigSolv Data Centre
Two bold promotional films for a UK data centre company. Delivered on time, built on creative trust, and talked about at sector conferences.
Corporate Video Production That Made a Data Centre Unmissable
MigSolv was a UK-based data centre company operating at the higher end of the sector. By 2013, they had recently acquired, gutted, and fully upgraded a facility in Norwich, transforming it into a state-of-the-art data centre with advanced environmental accreditations and critical security infrastructure.
The sector was crowded. Most competitors communicated in the same register: technical, functional, and forgettable. MigSolv's Managing Director wanted something different. He wanted the company's voice to be heard: not as one of many, but as a company ahead of its industry.
Two films were commissioned across 2013 and 2015. The first would announce the new data centre with authority and visual impact. The second would introduce MigSolv's consultancy offer, doing it in a way the industry would remember.
Film 1: The Data Centre Launch
Film 2: The Consultancy Positioning
The brief was to position MigSolv as a unique player in the data centre market. Not just to showcase the facility, but to communicate its leading environmental credentials, its security infrastructure, and its relevance to businesses looking for a trusted co-location partner. The film would also document the official opening of the facility by the Mayor of Norwich.
Crucially, the environmental accreditations were not to be presented as optional features. The brief positioned them as integral to the industry's future: a signal that MigSolv was ahead of the curve, not simply compliant with it.
Success, from the client's perspective, meant new enquiries, increased sector visibility, and a film the sales team could use with confidence to open conversations with potential clients.
The second brief was to communicate MigSolv's consultancy capability: specifically, their role in advising organisations on co-location strategy within their data infrastructure. The message needed to reach senior decision-makers and land with the kind of weight that a conventional talking-heads piece never could.
The MD was known in the industry for being outspoken and willing to take a position. The film needed to capture that personality and use it to say: we are worth listening to.
The goal, at a business level, was to establish consultancy as co-equal to the data centre itself: not a secondary service, but a primary reason to engage with MigSolv.
Two things brought MigSolv to Sparkly Light. The first was the team's BBC broadcasting pedigree: a track record that gave the client the reassurance that broadcast-quality production was not an aspiration but a baseline expectation.
The second was visible passion for the work. In early conversations, MigSolv saw a team that didn't simply execute briefs, but questioned them: politely, constructively, and at every stage. The aim was always to make sure the message was framed correctly and the production approach was serving the client's actual goals, not just their initial request.
The MD was someone willing to take a risk to stand out. He needed a team willing to take it with him.
Why MigSolv Chose Sparkly Light
Film 1: Making a High-Security Facility Cinematic
A data centre is, on the surface, a demanding subject for compelling corporate video. The visual environment is controlled, sterile, and uniform: rows of server racks under fluorescent light, with little obvious drama to draw from.
From experience of producing content in technically demanding environments, the Sparkly Light team knew the answer lay in pre-production planning, equipment selection, and editorial intent established before the first camera was set up.
Before the shoot, the team spent time building access arrangements with the data centre's security team, negotiating the right to film in areas that most production companies would never reach, including the roof, where the facility's environmental technology was installed. Getting there meant navigating eye-scanners and weight-controlled entrances. The team and their kit were weighed on arrival and exit: a real-world security protocol that the team described at the time as very James Bond. The planning that went into access was as considered as any other element of the production.
The direct relationship with both the MD and the head of marketing, with no briefing chain between Sparkly Light and the decision-makers, meant production and logistical decisions could be confirmed immediately. In a high-security operational environment with no margin for misunderstanding, that directness was as important as any piece of equipment.
For the shoot itself, a mini-jib was deployed to allow the camera to move through the space in a way that felt weightless: almost floating. This was a deliberate decision made in pre-production. The data centre needed to feel like a world of its own, not a building. Shot selection on the day was made with the edit already in mind: angles and frames chosen specifically to build a science fiction quality that no fixed camera could have produced.
The edit leaned into this deliberately. Grading, pacing, and sound design were all shaped toward a cinematic, drama-led feel rather than the conventional corporate format. The official opening by the Mayor of Norwich was also captured, handled carefully to ensure the ceremony was respected while the production's own requirements were met.
"I remember delivering it and being nervous. It was so far away from a traditional corporate film. But I was so happy with the overall effect: very dramatic and spy-like. They loved it." - Glenn Barton, Director
That willingness to present something unfamiliar and stand behind it came from accumulated experience: knowing what the edit could do, and knowing the client well enough to trust them to receive it.
Film 2: A Disused Factory, a Bound MD, and a Point Worth Making
The second production called for a different kind of boldness entirely.
The concept: film MigSolv's MD in a disused factory, seated in a chair, with his hands bound and gaffer tape across his mouth. The visual metaphor was the point. This was a man known for outspoken industry commentary, silenced. Until he wasn't.
Translating that concept into a safe, deliverable production required careful planning on two levels: the formal health and safety considerations of a bound-subject scenario, and the interpersonal work of ensuring the MD felt comfortable throughout. Both were addressed before the shoot.
The location needed set dressing and lighting that created a specific emotional register: threatening and tense at the outset, then opening into something resolved and assured. From experience of drama-style production, the team knew that lighting and grading would need to carry the emotional arc the concept required. Drama-style lighting rigs were brought in. The grading in post-production was built to match the arc of the film, not simply to correct the image.
The more nuanced work was managing the experience for the MD himself. Agreeing to appear on camera in this way represented a real professional risk on his part. Sparkly Light's approach was to have many conversations before and during the shoot: keeping him closely involved, reassuring him that final sign-off remained entirely with him, and demonstrating throughout that the team understood the stakes and was treating them seriously.
The partnership built during Film 1 made this possible. Having worked together, having delivered something the MD had loved, having demonstrated that Sparkly Light would always keep the client's reputation at the centre of every decision: the confidence required for Film 2 already existed. It didn't need to be built from scratch.
The moment the gaffer tape came off: surreal, memorable, and exactly right.
Results: Films That Created Industry Visibility
Both films were delivered on schedule. The editing process was managed with regular client updates, keeping the team at MigSolv informed and confident throughout post-production: particularly important given the distance both films took from conventional corporate video.
The client's reaction to Film 1 was unambiguous: they loved it. And that reaction mattered beyond the immediate brief. It gave Sparkly Light the latitude to be bolder in future suggestions. The confidence generated by a strong first delivery compounded into a partnership where increasingly ambitious work became possible.
Film 2 achieved what the brief set out to do. Staff at MigSolv reported that the company was being talked about at industry conferences. In a sector where most companies communicate in the same generic register, that kind of recognition is the result of content that stands apart.
The content was deployed across MigSolv's website and social media channels, giving the sales team material they could use with confidence to demonstrate the company's positioning and personality. Both films were the centrepiece of a broader ongoing content relationship that ran from 2013 to 2018.
For any organisation whose sector defaults to functional, forgettable content, these films show what becomes possible when the production team is trusted to apply bold thinking at every stage: from brief to screen.
A Five-Year Partnership Built on Creative Trust
MigSolv and Sparkly Light worked together for five years. That duration is its own testament to how the relationship functioned.
The foundation was consistent communication and honesty. The team kept MigSolv informed at every stage: not with formal status reports, but with the kind of ongoing dialogue that meant nothing on the day was ever a surprise. Deliveries were on time. Production directions were explained before they were presented. The client was never asked to absorb something unexpected.
The collaboration ran in both directions. Sparkly Light earned latitude by always placing the client's reputation at the centre of every decision: never pursuing an idea for its own sake if it put the brand at risk. MigSolv responded by giving the team the freedom to do their best work.
The result was a five-year body of work, and two films that showed what a data centre company could look like when it decided to be different.
Planning Corporate Video Production That Needs to Do More Than Fill a Page?
If your organisation needs a promotional film that positions you clearly, stands apart from the sector default, and gives your team a commercial asset to use: this is the kind of work Sparkly Light builds.