Welcome to Sound & Vision Media

I’ve known for as long as I can remember that I was adopted. My new parents lived just off Topsham Road in Exeter and never kept it a secret. I think that’s the best way. I grew up as an only child, but proud that I had an interesting story to tell.  For years I believed them when they said that they had chosen me from a room full of babies waiting for adoption because I was spotty and crying my head off and they felt that I was the one that needed the most help! 

When I began the process of tracing my birth parents in 1990, I found out that wasn’t the case at all. They’d had a letter from the Council for Christian Care saying that ‘David Christopher’ was available and would they consider taking me! 

Dorothy and Henry were a little older than my friends parents, but I had a happy childhood . I went to Central junior and middle schools, before going on to Exeter School and then working for the BBC and ITV

I realised the potential dangers of tracking down my parents, but it worked out ok. I met my father in Bournemouth, and he told me that my mother had emigrated with her family to Australia. To cut a long story short, I visited her and my two half sisters in Wagga Wagga in 1991, and we keep in touch regularly, even though we haven’t met up again since then.  Although it was a great experience, I still regard my adoptive parents as my real parents
I’m planning to take my own family out there in a couple of years.

I’ve just become a vice Patron of the ‘Families for Children’ charity and I’m delighted they asked me. I’m hoping to help them in any way I can and spread the message about the brilliant work they do.

Mark Tyler is a 47 year old news and sport broadcast journalist based in Exeter, Devon. He is vastly experienced Producer and Presenter for BBC Radio and ITV. With audio, video and digital editing skills, he is now combining regular broadcast work with independent productions and PR projects. He is also an experienced conference host and master of ceremonies.Mark trained in Broadcast journalism at the London College of Printing (1984).

He spent 5 years as a reporter/newsreader/producer for BBC radio based in Birmingham and Exeter.

Mark joined the Plymouth based Television South West as Deputy Sports Editor in 1989, and in late 1990 made the move to LWT to report on the Saturday lunchtime network football programme ‘Saint and Greavsie’.

Mark returned to South West as Head of Sport for ITV Westcountry in 1993, and in addition to sport Production and presentation, he also regularly anchored the 6pm regional news programme.
In 2007, Mark was named ‘Executive Producer of the year’.

Since leaving ITV in Summer 2009, Mark has continued broadcasting while taking on long term independent TV commissions through his ‘Sound and Vision Media’ company. He also has a growing list of corporate clients for shorter term video projects.

Mark has hosted conferences for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Sport England, the Football Association and Devon County Council

Mark is a board member for ‘Active Devon’ and a Patron of the Exeter based charity ‘Dream-a-way’. He is married with two young children.

After growing up and living all my life in Exeter, I am very proud to be an ambassador for the Exeter Bites Back campaign.  The City is one that I love so much, and is one reason why I recently decided to leave ITV after working for twenty years as a sport and news presenter on regional programmes like Soccer Night and Westcountry Live.  With the studio base moving to Bristol, I felt the time was right to work much more in the area that I can really identify with and feel passionately about.

Of course it’s not easy to swap a regular income for the potentially more precarious life of a freelance. I have set up an independent production company ‘Sound and Vision Media’, which is giving me a fantastic opportunity to work behind the camera, as well as in front of it. I have always enjoyed the technical side of radio and TV, and now I have a wonderful chance to do much more of it.

Any initial concerns I may have had that there would be little call for my services in Exeter have been quickly dispelled.  Many local companies have identified that the use of professionally produced video on websites and DVD is absolutely vital in growing business at a time when advertising budgets and marketing strategies have been compromised by the economic climate. Modern technology means that it’s an extremely cost effective way of spreading a message far and wide.

I am also delighted to be playing a role in a fantastic sporting initiative based in Exeter. The Run in England campaign aims to get 50,000 people out running regularly in the lead up to, and well beyond, the London 2012 Olympics. It’s being organised by the same people who launched the hugely successful Women’s Running Network in the City eleven years ago, and in association with England Athletics I have been asked to head up the communications team.

I won’t be losing touch with broadcasting altogether. After starting my career alongside Jill Dando and Ben Bradshaw at BBC Radio Devon in the 1980’s, I was really pleased when another truly local station, Exeter FM 107.3, went on air last year and asked me to do a regular programme.  It has a fantastic mix of music and local Exeter news, refreshing at a time when other local media seems to be less and less local.  The added bonus is that I don’t have to wear a suit and make-up!!! There’s no better time to be talking about all things Exeter! I fully support the Exeter Bites Back campaign.