Steve Knee MA PGCLT BSc(Hons) - Managing Director

A promising career in music production beckoned as Steve embarked on his degree in Music, Acoustics and Recording at the University of Salford, however he soon got blinded by the bright lights of TV. Starting as a 'multimedia operator' at the MEN Arena for the Ice Hockey and Basketball shows, he quickly worked his way round the 3 camera crew learning all the main aspects of broadcast production.

Upon completing his MA in Creative Technology, Steve left to become a Lecturer in Music Technology at the University of Derby, during which time he hooked up with his fellow founders and started Cloudbass as a company. Whilst at Derby Steve also founded the Degree in Multimedia Technology and Music Production, designed to produce people that the broadcast industry requires, which has since proved its worth with several graduates coming to Cloudbass as employees.

Having long left academia, Steve specialises in Editing, EVS/VT and Sound in the Outside Broadcast environment, whilst guiding Cloudbass to new and heady heights.

James Lacey BSc(Hons) - Technical Director

James turned several years of live sound experience into a career in broadcast after completing a BSc(Hons) in Live Performance Technology at the University of Derby. Whilst studying James undertook a placement at the BBC and was involved in the production of events and TV Outside Broadcasts.

Actively involved in all of Cloudbass’ projects James looks after the Broadcast infrastructure required to implement clients requests. This has led him to regularly work as both a Vision Guarantee and a Sound Guarantee for various broadcast facility providers, working on such productions as Sky Boxing in High Definition, which requires top level knowledge and implementation of that knowledge in one of the most demanding of production environments.

This level of delivering under pressure has also meant that James has become an integral part of the Grand Slam Tennis Tour, with guarantee roles for Charter derigs put in on behalf of Japanese TV, again a high level and demanding production environment. Plenty of experience in the less senior roles of both sound and vision has been vital for James to gain a maturity beyond his years.

Mike Beaumont BSc(Hons) - Innovation Director

Known as 'Fez' by the other Founders for reasons probably best left unexplained, Mike is the brains behind the operation. Bringing all of his IT related knowledge to broadcast which has been gleaned from his unhealthy and long standing relationship with all things computing, Mike has developed all of the bespoke client and supplier support systems that Cloudbass uses. He also brings that IT knowledge into the broadcast world which is becoming more vital as different systems, from VT to Vision, disappear inside a PC.

Onsite he specialises in Sound and EVS/VT with a particular expertise in EVS networking which has seen him providing guarantee support for clients such as Gearhouse and 021 for Tennis and British Touring Cars respectively, which are particularly VT heavy productions. He is an accomplished EVS and VT op with a large variety of productions on his credit list, both in Sport and LE and is also a regular Sound Guarantee on Premiereship Football for Setanta / ArenaTV.

When away from the office or not on site, he can be found regularly walking the hills of Derbyshire and beyond.

Andy Underhill BSc(Hons) - Head of Sound

Sticking to his guns in Sound, Andy has an unrivalled ability and reputation in his chosen field that has seen him become head of sound for Setanta football OB's, responsible for all sound aspects on every match that Setanta cover with their own OB's. Andy also regularly Supervises Setanta football although has other Supervising credits such as Sky Football and ITV Boxing under his belt.

With a broad experience working in nearly every OB truck in the country in both Supervisor, Guarantee and Assist roles, Andy's knowledge of everything sound related is second to none. However, he has been known to venture away from his sound roots, with various roles connected to Cloudbass' production ambitions. With Directing, Graphics and Sound Mobile duties undertaken, Andy has a unique understanding of the needs of productions from 'the other side of the fence'. Andy absolutely embodies Cloudbass' attitude of innovation; always looking for new and better ways of doing things.

When not on site Andy resides in North Wales, for reasons that no one who has ever traveled to OB work will ever understand, but he seems to like the sea air!