A pioneering video production specialist with over 30 years experience in the entertainment industry.

born

1972. London, England

LIVES

Ratingen, Germany

background

Chris Bird was born in January, 1972 in London, England.

His mother was an interior designer and father a graphic designer who later ran a thriving antiques business. Chris grew up surrounded by old furniture and clocks in various states of repair. Whilst helping out the workshop, learning engraving, french polishing and various cabinetry techniques, he later helped his father run the business, with a keen eye on maximising profit and managing the sales inventory and repair calendar.

Chris cut short his Bsc Hons degree in Biology at Leeds University after his father’s unfortunate early death in 1991. He started looking out for new opportunities in his career, when he entered the early Electronic Music scene in the UK.

In 1992 he started touring the country with a rack of VHS players and a Seleco CRT video projector, jamming together loops and live mixing on a Panasonic MX-50 to the tunes of LTJ Bukem, Fabio, SS and Groove Rider.

By 1999, he’d built the worlds first touring computer-based media server and was the first person to projection map on a 3d stage sculpture.

Career Highlights

2002 - 2018 Chris was a Founding Partner and Director of Multi-Disciplinary art studio United Visual Artists (UVA). Initially responsible for all aspects of technical production, his hands-on practical role evolved into Production Director and General Manager.

Key daily tasks covered, amongst many other things, technical production, business management, client liaison, opportunity qualification, budgeting, finance, legal, and HR.

2009 - 2017 Originally named ‘Mosquito’, UVA’s in-house software was first created to drive the real-time pixel perfect LED screen for Massive Attack’s 100th Window Tour in 2003. Chris was deeply involved in the software’s conception and development from the very beginning.

From within UVA, Chris was integral to road-testing the various iterations of Mosquito, whilst also overseeing and managing all aspects of the legal, financial and resourcing required for the on-going development as it matured into d3.

Eventually the software and hardware split out into a separate company, d3 Technologies. Chris ran the business side of d3 in parallel to his role as Director of UVA, driving sales by 200% year on year and expanding the client base into many new geographical territories.

d3 Technologies was eventually acquired by another party, and renamed disguise, at which time Chris decided to step back from the day to day business of running a company, and look out for new ventures.

2018 - Present Day Chris spent a year travelling with his family, eventually relocating to the Düsseldorf area of Northern Germany where he is restoring a late Bauhaus style house in the Rhine/Ruhr region. He returned to furniture making, started downhill mountain biking, whilst always working on selected projects with like-minded people in the entertainment industry.

Chris has an enviable contacts list, excellent communication skills, is highly experienced in sales, networking, problem-solving, and people management. He is an inspiring leader, a team player, he works fast and plays hard.

Specialties

Business Planning and Development, New Business and Networking, Executive Producer, Entertainment Technologist, Project Management, Projection and System Design and Planning, Stage Manager, and occasional Show Caller.

Journey

1972

Born, Twickenham, London, England

1976

St. Winefred’s Convent, Shrewsbury

1980

Kingsland Grange, Shrewsbury

1982

Adams’ Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire

1989

Bsc Hons, Applied Biological Sciences, Leeds University

1992

Vivid Image - A live vision mixing company focussing on EDM events nationally

1994

Visuality - A visual production company specialising in corporate events and live musical performances

1997

HUB AV - A business partnership between Chris Bird and Lawrence Oakley specialising in 2D and 3D animated visual content with musical scores

1999

Amoeba AV - A visual production team specialising in content creation, interactive, and live musical performances

2001

Creative Technology Ltd. - Multimedia Engineer, responsible for presentations, interaction, and animation

2002

Bird Clark Creative - Immediately on working for CT, Chris learned that Massive Attack were to tour the following year. Along with his long term friend and future partner, Matt Clark, he developed the concepts, mood boards and technical solutions for Massive Attack’s ground-breaking 100th Window Tour. Chris and Matt went on to work with the band for the next 15 years

2003

United Visual Artists - During the 100th window tour Chris and Matt formed UVA Ltd with both as directors, with Chris looking after the business and production, and Matt leading the creative. Software development was by Ash Nehru as a sub-contractor. Later, Ash joined as a 3rd director, with many other talented team members joining the company as the years went by

2009

d3 Technologies - Software and hardware development at UVA was part of it’s original DNA. UVA eventually split the software/hardware development out into a separate company, d3 Technologies, with Chris driving the business, sales and marketing, and Ash leading the software development team

2017

Owing to it’s success an exciting offer was received from a 3rd party, and Chris and Matt decided to exit the d3 business, which was shortly after renamed ‘disguise’. disguise has since gone on to become the de-facto media server of choice for video professionals and gone on from strength to strength, winning multiple awards for it’s innovation, much of which was originally designed and conceived within the UVA studio

2018

Chris and Matt eventually decided to part ways as Matt focussed more on his artistic endeavours. They remain firm friends to this day

2019

After travelling to Costa Rica, Australia and New Zealand with his family, Chris relocated to Germany and began a full house restoration project with some occasional Furniture making, (and don’t forget COVID happened!)

2022

Chris has kept his strong relationships with his industry contacts and along with working on various projects, Chris recently started working with Bild Studios, being in charge of Strategic Partnerships