Czech, Prague-based Brickbox Digital Media has announced both its expansion into Western Europe, with the opening of a facility in London, and the appointment of Neil Bottrill as manager of digital services in the newly opened UK office.

Bottrill (pictured below) has close to 20 years' experience in the field of digital services. He was General Manager of Technicolor’s compression & authoring facility for seven years before working with New Medium Enterprises on the launch of their red laser-based high-definition HD VMD format. Prior to joining Brickbox, Bottrill was Head of Studio at the London office of Sony DADC.

The Brickbox team, the first licensed Blu-ray Disc partner for Central and Eastern Europe, has been working in the optical media industry for those markets since 1999, providing services from content management and processing to optical media production, distribution, repackaging and recycling, and has worked on over 2,500 DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray titles for its customers.

The company is boldly launching its operations in the UK at a time when some domestic facilities experience difficulties in the current economic climate. The latest to date is Richmond Studios who went into voluntary liquidation last week.

The Czech facility is bringing to the UK a wide range of services comprehensively ‘battle-tested’ in its home region. "It allows us to offer cost-effective end-to-end solutions to our customers here," says Bottrill.

The London office is one of the new branch offices that are creating a network of services to ensure better co-operation between all territories to provide direct services for the growing Brickbox clientele.

In May, BrickBox produced the Central European Blu-ray version of Hollywood first BD horror movie 'Saw V,' from Hollywood Classic Entertainment. Recently, the authoring studio released the long-expected sequel of legendary Czech comedy 'Sněženky a machři po 25 letech' on Blu-ray.

Story filed 06.07.09