The Yorkshire Post on Production Light & Sound marking five years since founder Jason Salvin passed away.
When award-winning lighting designer Jason Salvin passed away in November 2020 after a two-year battle with cancer, his wife and business partner, Sarah Buckmaster, was left with two very young children and the Leeds production company he founded and led.
It was during the Covid pandemic, when funerals were limited, time with friends and family was anything but normal, and when the live events industry had effectively been shut down.
Production Light & Sound does the practical side of live events: lighting, sound, staging, power and on-site technical management for theatre, corporate shows, outdoor installations, festivals and community projects.
Five years ago
Five years ago, almost all of that work disappeared overnight. Gatherings were cancelled. Theatres went dark. Councils pulled public events. Corporate clients stopped calling because they weren’t allowed to put people in a room. For a company whose whole job focus is to ‘turn up and help make unique events happen’ there was suddenly nothing to turn up to.
“Following Jason’s diagnosis of a rare cancer in early 2018, the pandemic meant staying at home, shielding and fighting for treatment to continue,” says Sarah, “But sadly he passed away on 4 November. We literally went into the second lockdown the day after he died.”
With two children under the age of four and in an industry that, as Sarah says, was “pretty much on its backside”, you’d forgive someone in that position for stepping back. But in the weeks and months before Jason passed away, they had already agreed that she would look to carry the company forward.
“As Jason would always say, ‘the doors still open at 7.30pm’. We had shows set up to go live, we had plans to hire someone to come in and help me, but I don’t think many people saw that second lockdown happening. There was no point recruiting a manager to come in to help me run the business when there’s no events to run and there wasn’t any work to be had.”
It meant Sarah had to absorb the roles they once shared – technical, logistical and managerial – without the partnership that had defined the business for 15 years.
“Before establishing Production Light and Sound, Jason began his career at the City Varieties Music Hall in 1987 and went on to work at Leeds Grand and as a freelance for companies including Northern Ballet and Opera North,” says Sarah. “He was also Production Manager of Powerhouse 1, the theatre at Bretton Hall University of Leeds. He had incredible talent, vision and expertise, which he shared with the students.
“Once he set up his own company, he became so busy that, in February 2005, I quit my job at Leeds University and joined Production Light & Sound full-time. And for the next 15 years, it was the two of us running it in a way that worked.”
For the last five years, it has certainly been a steep learning curve for me,” admits Sarah. “It was very much as case of let’s do what I can, as much as I can do, in the best way I can, and hope that it’s enough.”
Covid restrictions lifted
By the time the restrictions eased, and events started to open up, Sarah had a decision to make. Demand came back fast between the summer and autumn of 2021, and so did expectations. Clients were suddenly asking ‘So, can you do this next week?’.
“It was all quite frantic, trying to find people to help me deliver the events, while also trying to do a lot of it on my own,” she says. “I started to build a team in the warehouse to manage what was going on, but it did feel like I was doing two people’s full-time jobs on three days a week, while I was also looking after the kids. There were a lot of late nights and not a lot of sleep.”
That pressure is what pushed her to professionalise how Production Light & Sound runs now, rather than trying to hold every part of the business herself.
“There just aren’t enough hours in the day,” Sarah says. “I couldn’t still be dealing with the quotes and the jobs while trying to network and do the business development. That wasn’t sustainable.”
So she started putting the right people in the right places: support to handle enquiries and client conversations; people in the warehouse who could prep and turn kit around properly; someone to look after the company’s profile and social channels; and, then added someone to help with business development so she wasn’t trying to win new work at the same time as running shows already in delivery.
“It’s always a balance,” she says. “You need the people to deliver the work, and you need the work to afford the people. But it’s about making sure everything’s covered and every job is getting the right attention.”
Work in 2026
Today, Production Light & Sound is back out doing what it’s known for: lighting public spaces for councils and festivals, building full production for conferences and awards nights, and supporting theatre and touring work across Yorkshire and beyond. Some weeks that means uplighting buildings, like for Light Night Leeds. Other weeks it’s staging and sound for a corporate dinner in a hotel ballroom, or power and infrastructure for an artist’s outdoor installation.
Keeping up with technology is now part of that job. People want the new kit, they want it in quickly, and they still want it at a good price.
“It’s always a juggle,” Sarah says. “You’re constantly looking at what you’ve got in stock and asking, is this now out of date? Do I sell it on? Do I keep it because it’s already paid for itself and it can sit there as a backup? Or do I invest in the new kit because that’s what people now expect on stage?”
It’s a commercial decision as much as a technical one. Spend too slowly and you look dated. Spend too fast and you never see the return. “You’re always weighing it up,” she says. “What do we buy, what do we sub in, and what do we leave alone for now?”
What’s changed in the past few years is why clients want that next generation of kit. It isn’t just about adding vibrant colours or how something lights up on stage. Councils, venues and corporate bookers are now asking how a job is powered, how much energy it pulls, and whether they’re going to get questions afterwards about a diesel generator humming in the middle of a public space.
That is where Sarah has pushed hardest.
Going green
Production Light and Sound is now the exclusive distributor of Green Voltage’s clean, silent battery systems in the North of England, offering a full range of portable, emissions-free power units for hire. Already in use across film, TV, and live events, these systems allow productions to move away from diesel – cutting noise, fumes, and the need for overnight fuel runs.
The company’s work on cutting emissions has also been formally recognised with a Phase 2 badge in PLASA’s Carbon Reduction Commitment, an industry scheme that benchmarks and rewards real carbon reduction progress in live production.
“It’s not about slapping ‘green’ on something,” she says. “It’s just being responsible. If we can do it better, why wouldn’t we?”
That same pragmatism applies to how Sarah runs the business. While she doesn’t frame her leadership in gender terms, the context is worth noting. Research shows that although 77% of event management professionals are women, only 16% hold director-level roles. Technical production, in particular, remains a male-led niche.
“I wasn’t stepping into something unfamiliar,” she says. “I’d been part of the business for years, but there’s still moments where you’re questioned, or where someone assumes you’re not the one making the decisions.”
She’s quick to downplay the idea of being treated differently but acknowledges the weight of expectation.
“I get a lot of people saying they don’t know how I manage it. It’s not easy – there are challenges, and there’s a lot of pressure on my time, especially with my children, at home. But I think there’s value in being honest about where you’re at and realistic about what’s possible.”
As Sarah, family and friends reach the five-year mark since losing Jason this month, she describes it as “a time for sharing a bit of our history as well as a bit of where we’re going.”
“Some of the clients we’re working with today have never met Jason or don’t know how the company has evolved in recent years, while many others still remember him fondly. I’d like to think this is a nice moment to celebrate his legacy by showing how we’re moving forward today.”
“The kit’s prepped, the van’s loaded, and the show will be ready as the doors open at 7.30pm, cracking on with it…just how Jason would have liked it.”
