Established in 1979 and based in London and Bristol (UK), VMI is an Albert-certified carbon-neutral award-winning rental company which supplies digital camera packages for features, dramas, commercials & documentaries, the way you want them and carry all of the latest equipment from Blackmagic Pocket 6K & Ronin 4D to Sony Venice and including specialised equipment like  Phantom VEO 4K and Canon ME20 super low-light cameras, plus lighting & grip.

All of our buildings are powered and heated 100% by grid energy which is generated by renewable sources and on-site solar panels.

We have been a certified living wage employer since 2019 and in 2021, committed to being an entirely net zero company by 2030.

To deliver excellence in broadcast facilities using the latest technology to focus on identifying and meeting customer needs and exceeding their expectations.

VMI Mission Statement

VMI’s efforts on sustainability and its wider influence on the rental industry to help bring about lasting environmental and carbon reduction measures won VMI the Hero of Net Zero award, presented at the International COP26 climate summit in November 2021. To see our considerable efforts to reduce the impact on the environment, visit Sustainability.

We pride ourselves on having very strong values of being a fair, equitable company and a good, responsible employer and won Great Place to Work certification in late 2021 and several other recent awards too.

VMI has been recognised for excellence winning many awards including Park Royal Business of the Year 2022. As a recognised Investors in People Company, VMI strongly believes in ongoing training and development for all staff. See what VMI clients think about VMI in our annual client survey report.

Our Team

We recognise that we are nothing without the support of a great team. Here is the London team on a regular Wednesday in August 2022.

We believe that our meticulous attention to detail, high level of presentation, generously accessorised packages and fanatical level of customer service are the main reasons why VMI clients return.  Our most recent client survey saw clients voting our customer service 4.8 out of 5, a figure we are extremely proud of (96% client approval rate – see VMI client-satisfaction-survey)

VMI setup a division called VMEDIA in 2017 to rent out the fastest and largest memory cards and SSDs including Sony AXS, RED MiniMag, CFast 2.0, XQD, SDXC cards etc, expanding its range to include high-capacity batteries and flight-safe batteries in late 2018.

VMI supports our industry by deliberately not being on comparison websites.

Over the last few years VMI has been involved in the production of more than 100 feature films and also more than 19 drama series in the last year alone.

We have a long history and interesting back story…

VMI today is a camera rental company which supplies equipment for Dramas, documentaries, feature films, corporates and promos at the very highest level but few are aware of just how humble and uncertain its origins were.

VMI was founded by the late Jeff Bassett , who was the father of present-day Managing Director, Barry Bassett.

Jeff immigrated to the UK in his early twenties from Pakistan in order to study Aeronautical Engineering in the mid ‘60s.  After some false starts, he became an electronics engineer and started selling first colour televisions and then later, early video cassette recorders from his garage in the late 1970s… Read more

View the history of VMI in pictures by clicking on the link below.

Logos, PR images, Camera Hero Images and the VMI Video Ident (and Pantone red colour) are available with this link for download

VMI are proud sponsors of: