Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has unveiled what is being described as UK’s first 5G enabled immersive technology lab.
Based at MediaCityUK, Digital Catapult’s £100,000 Immersive Lab has has been created through a partnership between The Landing, MediaCityUK’s tech hub specialising in high growth tech start-ups, and digital innovation centre Digital Catapult.
The lab contains a wide range of AR, VR and Mixed Reality equipment, as well as green screens, providing a space for multi-national organisations and tech start-ups to collaborate, test and create new products.
During the launch event, Burnham gave a keynote speech before digital innovators and VIP guests experienced the new facility.
The lab sits alongside Vodafone’s new 5G testbed and The Landing’s existing user testing facilities and rapid prototyping lab.
“The new technologies created by and for 5G align perfectly with Greater Manchester’s industrial strategy and will help turn our ambition to be a leading digital city-region into reality,” said Burnham.
“It’s also an amazing opportunity to bring to life a range of proposals set out in GMCA’s digital strategy.”
Paul Billington, managing director at The Landing said the lab would enable it to host a series of new educational and training events as well as European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) workshops.
“We are continually evolving and expanding an already impressive range of high-tech facilities here at The Landing and attracting a growing number of multi-national corporate partners and accelerator programmes to enhance what we are already offering to tech startups in terms of support and infrastructure,” he said.
Jon Buckthorp from Vodafone UK, added: “Working with The Landing and their tech start-ups we have tested both the live 5G network and the new mobile edge computing service. With ultra-low latency tests of 7ms and bandwidth speeds of beyond 200mbs this creates an amazing opportunity for the VR ecosystem.”