An exciting new virtual production facility, Futures Studio, has now opened at Royal Holloway, University of London, to provide creative technology businesses a space to innovate, showcase their work and collaborate with industry experts and world-class researchers.
The launch was celebrated with an interactive showcase event attended by leading partners in the creative technology industry including Sky, BT and Limax Studios. The event featured a series of inspiring demonstrations in the studio led by Disguise and CoSTAR National Lab specialist teams, while also providing businesses attending the opportunity to network with their fellow industry experts and researchers from acadaemia.
World-leading creative technology
Jointly funded by Royal Holloway and Surrey County Council, the studio is based at the Universityโs Egham campus and packed with cutting-edge equipment. This includes a unique combination of a virtual production environment and a next generation audio system. The Futures Studio is powered by Royal Hollowayโs partnership with Disguise, the platform behind world-leading (and record-breaking) visual experiences including live events for Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce and Massive Attack.
The Futures Studio offers businesses an advanced facility to innovate and generate new products and services, and will enable the flourishing local creative economy to thrive and grow. It is also the first facility to be opened as part of the CoSTAR National Lab, a ยฃ51.1 million project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to create a national infrastructure for creative innovation.
Matt Furniss, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Economic Growth, said: โWe want to nurture and grow this world-class sector, which is why we have invested ยฃ3 million in supporting Royal Holloway and the CoSTAR National Lab.
โThis exciting project has innovation and collaboration at its core, allowing local businesses to tap into the cutting-edge research and technologies at Royal Holloway, one of our leading universities in the county.
โIn time, this initiative will deliver real benefits to our regional economy, creating up to 300 jobs and supporting 180 businesses while stimulating further investment into our creative sector.โ
The Futures Studio launch comes just weeks after the governmentโs budget confirmed its commitment to support the UKโs growth-driving creative industries, worth ยฃ125 billion to the UK economy.
Professor James Bennett, Director, CoSTAR National Lab and Royal Hollowayโs Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Creative Industries), said: โFutures Studio is CoSTAR National Labโs first step in building the UKโs infrastructure for the next generation of creative innovation and entertainment and weโre excited to see how local businesses can benefit from this unique space.
โBy providing an accessible facility that combines research and the latest technology we’re lowering the barrier for local smaller businesses to not only compete, but to lead the wider evolving creative tech industry.โ
Futures Studio project lead Professor Peter Richardson, Vice-Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange (School of Performing and Digital Arts) at Royal Holloway, and Head of Worldbuilding for the CoSTAR National Lab, said: โTechnology often powers creativity; our approach is to have creativity power technology which allows us to push the boundaries of what is possible. The Futures Studio gives us a space where we can push the boundaries with creative companies in a way that will de-risk their research and development projects.โ
How local creative business can get involved
Futures Studio has the potential to support local businesses by creating hundreds of jobs and deliver on the objectives set out in the recent Civic Agreement for Surrey. Small and medium-sized local businesses in Surrey will be offered access to creative technology showcases throughout the year and are encouraged to apply for access to the studio and expertise to develop their projects.
For more information about the upcoming opportunities within Futures Studio, please contact CoSTAR National Labโs Enterprise and Commercialisation team: futuresstudio@rhul.ac.uk
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