Immersive visualisation and gamification in Enterprise M3, Surrey

Sector and market opportunity

There’s a growing need for 5G-enabled augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) technologies in both in the gaming sector and across other key industries including aerospace, automotive, space and healthcare.

Access a globally significant customer and partner base in the digital video games businesses. Test and develop technologies that streamline the creative production process and create new tools that utilise the benefits of 5G to help developers deliver new game design concepts.

Beyond entertainment, you can exploit regional strengths and apply immersive applications to other high-value sectors.

This would:

• enable new R&D processes within aerospace technology
• remove barriers in a rapidly growing space industry
• facilitate digital manufacturing for the automotive market
• re-invent the delivery of healthcare for a growing population

Growth prospects

The global AR, VR and MR markets are forecast to grow to £223.89 billion by 2024. is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 25.1% by 2026.

A reliable 5G network in the UK will help VR and AR applications evolve to the next level and Enterprise M3 is a prime location for these technologies to merge.

Location

The Enterprise M3 region is home to globally renowned creative excellence. The cluster consists of 70 games companies employing over 1,800 people. This enables access to a clear customer, partner and supply base, making the area the best place to develop creative and technical solutions for wider utilisation of new technologies.

The area offers a naturally strong ecosystem of support through specialist service providers, plentiful networking opportunities, supportive local institutions and strong cross-sector awareness. Tap into a well-connected network, access dedicated office space and specialist co-working space and benefit from business support offered at one of the region’s enterprise zones.

Connectivity

Located in Guildford, Enterprise M3 is easily connected by air, road and rail providing excellent access to the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond.

Gain direct access to locations worldwide with national and international flights from Heathrow, Southampton, Gatwick and Farnborough airports.

Guildford’s proximity to the M3 means it has great road connections, with London just 32 miles away. Also, the railway station provides fast and frequent services to a huge range of UK destinations, including London (30 mins).

Local talent and skills

The Enterprise M3 region has a workforce of over 804,000 people, with the fourth-highest productivity rate among Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) and Combined Authority regions and the second for employment.

Four higher education institutes in the region are offering 5G-specific courses, while over 51,000 students in the South East region are studying related subjects such as computer science and games.

Research and expertise

The 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) offers a state-of-the-art testbed – the world’s leading independent testbed for trialling emerging 5G ideas, proving concepts, validating standards and vendor interoperability testing.

The 5GIC is committed to collaborating closely with a broad range of businesses and other partners to drive forward advanced wireless research.

This is a chance to establish links to institutions that are dedicated to enabling the transfer of technology from research to industrial applications.

The National Centre of Excellence for Immersive Storytelling places innovative storytelling at the heart of next generation immersive technologies and experiences.

The Surrey Centre for Cyber Security was established by the University of Surrey and is one of the 17 Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACEs-CSR), as recognised by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The Surrey Space Centre is a leading research centre for small, cost-effective space missions, generating leading research and bringing innovation to its spin-out company SSTL and pushing the boundaries of satellite technologies and applications.

Local and national government support

The UK government is increasing its investment to boost research and development across the UK, with a target for total UK investment in public and private R&D to reach 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

The National Infrastructure Strategy outlines government investment in infrastructure including £250 million to ensure resilient and secure 5G networks and £50 million for the continuation of the 5G Testbeds and Trials programme in 2021 to 2022.

The government wants the majority of the UK population to be covered by 5G signal by 2027. The 5G Diversification Strategy is an ambitious plan to grow the UK’s telecoms supply chain while ensuring it is resilient to future trends and threats.

It will focus on 3 core areas of activity:

• supporting incumbent suppliers
• attracting new suppliers into the UK market
• accelerating open-interface solutions and deployment

The Build Back Better plan for growth commits to supporting innovation by incentivising the development of the creative ideas and technologies that will shape the UK’s future high-growth, sustainable and secure economy. The National Data Strategy and Digital Strategy will ensure that these sectors can flourish by nurturing a safe, fair and open digital economy.

Made Smarter UK sets out how UK manufacturing can be transformed through the adoption of industrial digital technology including immersive technologies.

Locally, support is available through Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership. The region’s enterprise zones offer 100% business rates discount and high-quality business support, representing a fantastic opportunity for your business, providing significant advantages to help you grow and gain a competitive advantage.

Success stories

Figment Productions

Founded in Guildford, Figment Productions delivers hundreds of audio visual, digital and immersive projects around the globe for clients in a variety of markets. From straight film and animation production through to free-roam VR experiences, the production work is varied and cutting-edge, so requires a uniquely skilled team. 

Being surrounded by some of the biggest names in games development has allowed Figment to flourish by leveraging a huge local talent pool. Guildford attracts a high calibre of talent to work in film and TV production in the city.

Many of those people are easily persuaded to work locally after finishing an exhausting stint on a huge movie so Figment is often home to artists who have recently worked on the latest Marvel or Star Wars movie.