Screen Lab Webinar - 5G Innovation in Screen Technologies
REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: Welcome. Welcome to the webinar. My name is Becky. As Kylie says, I'm the Head of Innovation for the CoSTAR National Lab and for the National Film and Television School. And, I'm going to run through, the agenda and what we're going to speak about today. We've got a few short presentations up front to talk about the call, and then we're going to open up to the Q&A.
Before we do that, I'd like to invite my colleagues to introduce themselves. Starting with Frank, please. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Thanks, Becky.
Hello, everyone. Professor Frank Lyons, Dean of Research and Innovation at Ulster University. And I'm, Co-director of the CoSTAR Screen Lab. Next.
Lindsay. LYNDSAY CAMPBELL: Hi, everyone. My name's Lindsay, and I am the Project Coordinator at the CoSTAR Screen Lab here in Belfast. And Gerard. GERARD DUNLEAVY: Hi, everyone, I'm Gerald DunLeavy, I'm the Creative Technologist at Ulster University. And Adnan.
DR ADNAN AHMAD CHEEMA: Hi, everyone. My name is Adnan. I'm from the School of Engineering and I lead he Advanced Wireless Technologies Lab a Ulster University as well. Finally, Ciaran.
I don't think Ciaran is here just yet, so he'll be joining the meeting soon. And he is, our Marketing and Comms officer for the CoSTAR Project. REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: Lovely. Thank you.
All right. Just going to bring up the presentation. For a moment, we're just sharing that.
Here we go. All right. So, welcome to the webinar on the 5G Innovation in Screen Technologies call. It's being run by the CoSTAR Screen Lab with support from the National Lab.
I've just run through the agenda, and then I'll say a little bit more about the CoSTAR program in general. Next slide please. So. Oh sorry sorry, sorry. Please forgive us. Skip forward. So the agenda today I will talk a bit about the CoSTAR program and the access programs. This this pilot, call that we're running today is one of the access programs at the CoSTAR National Lab is running.
So I'll give you a bit of context about that. And then, Frank, Lindsay, Gerard, and Adnan are going to talk to you about, the screen lab. Cool. Specifically and what it can,
what's on offer to companies and who are looking for, and what sort of companies should apply and some practical considerations to think about. We'll run through the key dates, and then we'll, move straight to Q&A for your answer. Your questions. Next slide please. So the national, the CoSTAR network is a national R&D network for creative technologies.
We, a set of five labs, that, are based around the UK. The National Lab, where I'm basis is based in, Buckinghamshire. We'll be opening a studio next year at Pinewood Studios.
We have the live lab, up in Wakefield, based at Production Park, led by the University of York. And that, the focus is on on live performance. On the live performance area, the real time lab up in Dundee that's led by Abertay University and the Foresight Lab, which is led by Goldsmiths University and focuses on capturing and disseminating industry knowledge and trends. And last but not least, we have the Screen Lab, which is the focus of this call, which is led by Ulster University. And, is based at Studio Ulster. And I'll let the team talk in a lot more detail about Screen Labs focus and areas of expertise at the moment.
But we are essentially, a set of, four physical labs, plus the fifth, the Foresight Lab that's based, as I say, talking about industry trends and, generating insights. And, they are for really important, infrastructure, a set of really important infrastructure for the UK creative industries. And, but those four labs are not identical.
So they all have their own areas of specialism. And the very recently opened and we're we're all really excited to get working with the industries that we serve. We move to the next slide.
So alongside the physical infrastructure that we have and the research expertise that wraps around that from all the universities involved, we have a set of access programs that we run to try and help companies to access the infrastructure, to engage with industry, and help encourage business growth, and research and development as well. So have two categories of, of access programs. The first is Enterprise and Commercialisation.
And the second is Prototypes and Pilots. We skip forward. So the Enterprise and Commercialisation program, is one that runs in parallel with the pilots programs and is really focused on the formation and growth of, of creative industries, startups and SMEs, and helps to encourage business growth in the sector. It's just closed its very first call called CoSTAR Ideate, there'll be a set of other calls if you're interested in this area that will be running over the next few years, so keep an eye out for those.
And then we have pilot some prototypes program, which is the focus. This call is an example of one of these programs. And these are calls to help encourage research and development in the area. The next slide. So the Prototypes and Pilots program is a £3 million fund in total to be split over five years to help demonstrate and develop the benefits of the new CoSTAR infrastructure. So we are essentially, we'll be running calls for, the industry can respond to that helps them to access our infrastructure, whether that be the physical infrastructure or the research expertise as well, and cash funding alongside this to help, to create research and development projects that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do.
So it helps industry to start, conducting more research and development activity in the creative industries. But it also helps us to start, rolling out and testing and developing our research infrastructure that we have at the CoSTAR program. But ultimately it's to help firms to access the equipment, the technologies, the expertise that we have on the CoSTAR program. And each pilot call that we do will have a different, different theme. Some of them are focused around specific labs, and specific, areas of the industry, specific, sectors, whether that might be in the screen industries or the performance life performance industry.
But we also have different, technical specialisms as well. And this is a good example of that, where we have a focus, for example, around 5G. Okay. Next slide,
I'm going to hand now over to the Screen Lab team to talk to you about this specific call and and what we're looking for here. And then we'll move very quickly to your questions afterwards. Thanks, Frank. Or Lindsay. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: I'll take it away.
Becky. Thanks a million for that introduction. So, yeah, we have, a few of our of our core team here today. So just a some of you on the call will know this anyway, because I recognize some of your names. But the CoSTAR Screen Lab is a dedicated R&D, facility that's based right at the heart of a much bigger virtual production facility, located at Belfast Harbour Studios, called Studio Ulster to 75 million pounds virtual production facility that very recently opened and has had a number of very, very high profile commercial productions.
Go through the facilities at this point in time. And, you know, we've already used the the CoSTAR and the labs as part of some of those productions. So it really is this very interesting combination of, spaces that that accommodate commercial activity at the very highest level. You know, we're talking Netflix. Warner, HBO, Universal and so on, even up to up to this point.
So that that commercial activity, which really drives a lot of the, the, the problems and the challenges that we're hoping to address, and the very dedicated facilities that we have in the Screen Labs. So as I say, some of the team are here already and you've heard very brief introductions, from them. So, you know, we've also got a list of and we'll talk about this in more detail, a list of, co-investigators with a range of, of expertise. And that ranges from, you know, professors and, and academic lecturers through to creative technologists and some other sort of technical staff.
So next slide, please. So yeah, in terms of the actual, facility itself that you, would be working in if you're, if you're successful in this particular computation, you know, we've got a brand new, R&D stage. So it's, it's got the, the, the LED wall, it's sort of got a ceiling and also, an LED floor, which of all that, LED is the highest specification you can actually get in the industry room panels are 2.2mm pixel pitch that's very recently been installed. By Nano Studios as part of our, our wider facility. So incredibly high resolution, incredibly company led wall that's sitting on the floor, all the latest processors, it's got vehicle on track and in there and Gerard and and Adnan can maybe come on and speak with a wee bit more, detail about the actual sort of camera equipment and the particular aspects of the 5G kit that we're going to come on to but, maybe just leave that for now. And in terms of expertise, as I say, you will have access.
Gerard's on the call here. He's a university creative technologist. But we've also just, closed the recruitment competition for, a dedicated CoSTAR screen lab creative technologists. So you will have access to that, very dedicated technical expertise, as well as, academic, an industry expertise that, covers all sorts of areas, including virtual production, motion capture, different elements of VFX, and more specifically for this call, the, the 5G capability.
So next slide, please. So, each each of the network labs were asked to identify their own areas of focus for this first call. We've been in recent and been working on a very large scale, this funded, project called 5G Film Anywhere. And over the course of the last year or so, we've managed to pull together what we would consider as probably the most advanced, set of 5G and 6G, capable, equipment and, and and also a very, very highly expert team which covers expertise, as I say, from that sort of creative aspect of creative technologies right through to a much more hard core, engineering capability, which covers, as I say, a number of faculties in the university. So, so we're really focused and we've got a lot of momentum and a lot of energy, around the the whole kind of 5G and the creative industries piece. We've been working very specifically on the 5G Film Anywhere project, which is essentially been where we have been exploring, real time, multi-site, collaborative, interactive virtual production capability using mobile 5G equipment.
And what over the past year or something, what has happened is that when we were very focused on, this sort of multi-site previous production and post-production area, a number of other potential use cases have presented themselves and and continue to do so. It's such a, a rich, vein of, of untapped research, potential. So, so what we're looking for are we haven't been very specific, very deliberately. We haven't been specific because we want to really encourage some blue sky, thinking, around potential applications of 5G in the creative industry. So we've got a bullet pointed list here that's not exhaustive in any way, shape or form. It's not restrictive in terms of you on the call might have your own different ideas about how this might work, but these are a number of the areas that have sort of presented themselves over the past year or so to us that we haven't really explored in that much depth yet.
So particularly, around, you know, the low latency data transfer around, the studio environments. And that could be, in relation to automated LED wall configuration or is the only, real time configurable LED wall. And in the, in the large, studio space and studio Ulster. So there's, there's potential to look at there.
There's obviously a lot of potential in the whole area of, of, camera tracking as well, high volume real time motion capture, 3D and 4D scaling applications. And one, one area that's really presented itself quite recently to us is that we've already, assembled a team of expertise around is this whole idea of, spatial audio, and the whole virtual production piece. And of course, there's the a the more well-known areas of AI and ML applications in real time studio environments as well. So that's a very, very quick overview of of the kind of capability that we have here. The successful applicants.
We what we do is we work with them, over the course of a catalog, over a lot of this detail in which, and a lot more sort of specific detail. But, you know, this project we're hoping will we'll start, versus September. And what that will mean is, you know, the successful applicants will have up to two intensive one week development sprints and the CoSTAR Screen Lab, which do we based in this group? CoSTAR screen Lab, you will, potentially have access if you need it to some of the other spaces, some of the other stages that are in Studio Ulster, including the, 3 and 4D scanning the motion capture and some of the other LED volume spaces.
And as I mentioned, the as well as those two one week intensive sprints, our team will be available and you will be trained up and you will have that sort of onboarding and orientation period with, specific people and, and addition. You will also have up to ten days, as we've specified, or more ad hoc support from specific members of of the team, which will cover those areas of of expertise. We've got up to 35 K to T awards of 35 K to contribute to course. And again we'll cover that in a lot more detail.
A lot of those details are also available or on the call website. So I'll maybe hand over to, to Adnan first, maybe to speak more specifically about the actual 5G capability in terms of the movie equipment that we've recently acquired. And then maybe over to Gerard and he can talk about ... Gerard’s been our guru in terms of, of the actual camera and the scanner capability.
And so on, and how it all speaks in 5G language. So maybe over to you Adnan. First, if you want to talk about the specifics of our, well, being on our closed 5G network. DR ADNAN AHMAD CHEEMA: Thanks, Frank. Yeah.
So, we have two, 5G networks available. One of them is install indoor in the studio. We are looking at an 7 to 7 band more specifically, again, I think one of the from the last couple of months, we're looking at how net to 5G devices can be connected on the, on the, on the actual 5G network. But on the other side, if we don't have it, there is a certain way we can translate those devices onto the 5G network as well.
So this can also be done. The other exciting piece we have in terms of the 5G is a mobile 5G private network. One does mean that we can take it to outside of the studio, any remote location, and then we can we have, resources in terms of the power of backhaul, which can allow us to, to connect, to the studio from any remote location as well. In terms of the capabilities, both networks are very high stick and support, MIMO which means that we can transmit very high, data rate over the high interest rate as well, which also directly proportional to the how much latency we can achieve, again, depending on the application and scenarios, the networks, they can be configured. We do have option from optical fiber all the way to the satellite links as well. We can sort of play and manage the latency depend upon it depends the, on the application.
And also in terms of the how many devices we can connect our, 5G network that can also be managed. And it's very flexible. So in summary, it's more like a very flexible, configurable kind of, setup we have in both, indoor 5G network and the portable one. I'm very confident that, have we can accommodate a variety of use cases to, see how 5G can function for them and how it can help them to accelerate and whatever application they want to build it further. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Thank you.
Adnan, maybe hand over to Gerard to maybe talk a bit more about this sort of peripheral kit and and even specifically about how we've been using it thus far, maybe potential applications, that we haven't quite explored yet. GERARD DUNLEAVY: Thanks, Frank. Thanks, Adnan. Yeah. Much like Adnan’s mentioned, we've built, flexible kit of, hardware and software, to enable multiple use cases, some of which we've explored this past year.
We focus primarily on video transmission from remote locations. We built, sort of end to end solution using, you know, top of the line cinema cameras and the 5G equipment that Adnan, had mentioned and using that technology to broadcast essentially the footage from remote locations to a virtual production volume. But around that, we've built more capabilities that we haven't yet explored. So maybe that could be part of this call. We have mobile tracking solutions that we can bring with us, a number of robotic camera solutions, PTZ cameras, but also robotic arms that can be, remotely controlled from anywhere.
On top of that, we have very exciting brand new scanning equipment. Lidar scanner, 360 vision based lidar scanner, as well as a leader enabled drone. And, you know, we want to explore perhaps machine learning, Gaussian splats, nerf, etc.. And then with that we have all the usual kind of peripherals that you would imagine, to do with virtual production.
So we have, the compute a lot of, hardware compute, the tracking systems, as I mentioned, we have a Moses, also a portable system, and VI con, which is installed in Studio Ulster. And lastly, we obviously have some new creative technologies to be dedicate to the project and help, bring your solutions, I suppose, to fruition. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Thank you. Gerard. And I can see in the chat that, Kylie is keen to get participants involved, so I think we stop there. And I think the sooner we get the questions and specifics, the better.
So, over to you for questions. KYLIE BRYANT: Yes. We've got a couple of questions.
I just think, Becky did you want to wrap up, anything? Or is that at the end of the webinar you'd like to you'd do that at the end of the webinar? Okay. Thank you. I think we've got a question from Vincent. And, Vincent, lovely to see you. You've turned on your camera, which makes it even better. So I'm going to hand over to you, to ask your own question.
I think you might need to turn your microphone on. I mean, just checking how to do that. We can't currently hear you.
Sorry about that. Can we turn Vincent's microphone on? There you go. We can hear you now. Oh. VINCENT: Okay.
Yes, please. That so. Yeah. I mean, as you can see, I wasn't born yesterday, as it were. I have a background in and broadcast and drama, and I'm currently working with CoSTAR and with Future Screens.
And thank you for the support. I'm just wondering, like, is is what we would have referred to as live drama, you know, like getting a couple of multi cameras out in the street in the VP studio. Or in the CoSTAR lab, making a, a multi, multi-site production, real time live drama.
Is that something that maybe not too old fashioned? Could we reinvent that through something like 5G? Frankie? Maybe. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah, I'm just going to pitch. I'm got to take all these questions, by the way.
And then, key to to my colleagues who are much more knowledgeable about these things. I'll put that one over to Gerard. Gerard, if you want to take that one from Vince. GERARD DUNLEAVY: So, Vincent, if I get your right, you're talking about multi-camera, sort of live broadcast, but using 5G. VINCENT: Yeah.
Like, just sort of, you know, making it new again, like, I mean, maybe using either either the VPI studio and the University of Ulster or a couple of cameras at Royal Avenue in Belfast, maybe link them with another site, creating a script, short script that that uses all of these things, whether it's jumping from one world to another or just a traditional drama. I suppose “Adolescents” broke through there recently and, you know, is there a live version of that to be had, or is that not in keeping with the technology, as it were at the moment? GERARD DUNLEAVY: No, it's technically it's perfectly feasible. Absolutely. It's whether, you know, it supports your creative vision and what you want to do.
But technically, yes, we can do that. VINCENT: And is it up to date enough? You know, like, I mean, obviously, you know, some of the things that I'm working on at the minute with feature screens, it's it's kind of marrying more traditional formats with, you know, putting them on the immersive screens and things like that. Is that something that might be viewed as old fashioned or I said, life. GERARD DUNLEAVY: Well, I'm not sure. I, I'm not sure if it's. Fresh and the idea is good. I don't think anything's old fashioned.
But yeah, technically we can support you in that idea, if that's what you want to do. Okay. Thank you. Adnan do you want to come in? DR ADNAN AHMAD CHEEMA: Yeah. Just a quick, intervention. So I guess we should. We are looking at into two dimension. One is the completely new use case, new application, which can use the 5G.
But we are also looking into how we can question the traditional approaches. So we do have certain means that, you know, let's say and in the drama making or some of the production means they have a certain processes. So can we bring technology and like of a 5G or some other kind of edge processing or can we fast tracked and can we generate some new kind of a framework and process it? So I think it's not a question of if it's an old way of looking into it or the new or, but can we, can we bring up the framework? Because if you see that this has a direct impact in terms of how the UK wants to see the the greener kind of a UK plus, you know, we have many other indicators which can be brought into it. So it's a question of lifting the industry to another level to see, you know, can we do much better, can we do much faster, can we do much cheaper? Can we do more greener. So so that's the framework. So I think you what you mentioned is, is powerful different from that.
PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah. And I think you know this the spatial audio, we did some stuff with Michael McKnight during Covid three feature screens and three six day film. And, and that's something that could possibly plug into this as well. Yeah. Thanks very much for that, guys.
KYLIE BRYANT: I just wanted to ask a question that's often commonly asked as well of the team, what stage in development are you looking for for companies? Given that comment about, you know, good ideas, we, we always balancing the balance between using the technology and the good ideas. But, how does that then fit in this stage of development you're looking for? PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah, it's a good point, Kylie. And again, I don't want to be overly prescriptive. You know, if someone's got a great idea, you know, they gotta most definitely be able to articulate their vision for AI. That idea will be realized and what the outputs are going to be because, you know, again there's a lot of information in the guidance, as if people on the call, you know, I've had a chance to look at the output, the kind of outputs and so on. I mean, the the CoSTAR project is really designed to produce tangible output.
So, you know, and again, what, what you've just sort of articulated there. Vincent, for instance, you know, we can see that there's a background there, there's an idea and a vision. And I suppose what we can bring to the table is that element of we've got all the kit and we've got the people who can bring that vision to life. So again, without being overly prescriptive about what what stage in your own develop you need to be to be successful here.
It's all about the idea, the vision, and the of us getting a tangible output at the end of the project. Hopefully that helps. KYLIE BRYANT: That's fantastic. Is there anyone else in the audience that's got any questions that you would like to ask? Feel free to turn your camera on, put your hand up, or, I can drop it anywhere. Sometimes with teams, it's very hard to see the, Q&A button.
So you can also put it in the chat if not possible. Another question for the team is the two one week sprints are they are those dates set. How do companies navigate that. And what if they're not close to, your lab? Can they still apply? I can take that one or. Lindsay, do you want to pick that one up? LYNDSAY CAMPBELL: I mean, with the we're obviously running the projects from September till the end of November. So, you know, the two one week sprints so far aren't set in stone.
And I think we will work with the, with the companies, as long as it fits within that time frame of September to November. And then what was the second question? Kylie. Sorry, just if they're not close to the screen lab. Yes. Frank, I'm not sure. Sorry. Is there any, I'm not sure if there's a travel stipend with this call.
PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: There it is. Yeah. And again. Again. Becky and Kylie, you may go into some more detail towards the end of this, this call, but there is a travel stipend for companies that are based outside of Northern Ireland. We can be flexible, as I say, to make sure that the two one week, sprints you work with whoever the successful applicants are going to be. I suppose one thing, the flag that is really critical here is that, you know, as I've mentioned, right at the start of the call, the CoSTAR Screen Lab is based right at the heart of what is a very large commercial facility.
So a lot of the times where we're, I wouldn't say restricted, but we need to be aware and conscious of the fact that, you know, there will most likely be very high profile, very secure productions taking place in the rest of the building. And sometimes we just got to work around that. But, you know, it's the building was designed in a very specific way to, to make sort of, concurrent different, productions and activities available at the same time in the facility. But again, that's just something you got to be aware that you're, you're you're walking into a very highly secure, live virtual production film set for most of the time. REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: And. Yeah, and I'll just add as well on the travel, the stipend.
Yeah. So, the, the details, in the call brief document, but, I believe it's, if you will, that's a little bit more than a two hours travel away from, from the lab. Then there's up to 4,000 pounds that you can access, to, to help with travel. And I, I think that's just a really important point to underscore. Obviously, CoSTAR is a network.
We have labs across the UK, but we are a national network. Each of those labs has their own specialisms. And, some will be better suited to some companies than others. But please don't let geography be a barrier to you. And if do you think that it will be for any reason, and then there is, there is, of course, that travel stipend.
But please do reach out to us if you think that's an issue in any other way, because we want to help lower that barrier to entry as much as possible. KYLIE BRYANT: I think we're, getting a really clear message from Screen Lab, which I think is fantastic that they don't want to be too prescriptive. They're really looking for new ideas and, looking to see the creative ways that you might want to use the technology within the labs. Which is really fantastic.
I think that that would be quite a unique part of the coast, offering across all the labs and across all the networks is, just about that, level of, risk and, opportunity that everyone is interested in pursuing. Just regarding that, though, could you talk about IP, who owns the IP? If I come into the lab, and what size? You know, can I be a freelance for creative or what's the eligibility requirements? It is all in the documentation, but it's worth mentioning on this webinar for people who, just might want a refresher on some of those points. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah. Okay. This I think I see.
Is there a hand up before I command? Is that is Vincent highlighted here? But I would don't know. So, yeah, I mean, I can speak that briefly, as you say, Kylie, I mean, all the, the fine detail on IP and so on will be in the call call documents. You know, so ultimately we work on that premise that, that the IP remains with the creators of the IP, which in most cases here will be, the companies that we're going to be working with. So, but there are other variations on that, that the companies need to be aware of. And they can they can do their own homework on, on that.
So, so yeah, I mean, fairly, fairly standard conditions in terms of, of companies that would work with, universities and so on, nothing, nothing really. That's, that's unusual in there. And in terms of like the CEO again, there's, there's, there's very specific detail around, you know, researchers and school creators can be part of the process, but but only limited companies can apply. And okay, there's another call open at the minute.
And I think there have been 1 or 2 instances where, you know, we've got a really well developed, very innovative project. But it's essentially a single person startup and they haven't incorporated the company yet. So that may be just a wee bit of a blockage that we need to to work through.
So again, that's that's it in a nutshell. We're trying to be as flexible as possible. KYLIE BRYANT: Fantastic. That's great. I really appreciate that, Frank.
Is there anyone else out there that would like to ask any other questions? Before we start to wrap up, most quiet audience, usually there's very little technical questions. There's. There we go. Andrea, how are you? Love to hear your question. ANDREA: Hi.
I'm I'm fine. I, I suspect that people if they haven't I think Vincent was very bold and that he kind of just put his ideas out there. And often creatives don't like to do that in these kind of scenarios. So that's why everyone's a wee bit quiet.
I also think. That there's a slight I. I'm slightly. Rabbit in the headlights with this idea. I must, I must see something that I really, feel really passionately about.
It's a and it's not easy to draw pin to Belfast, you know, for, for most people. Is there any way that we could, maybe have a virtual tour of the facility or any other information about it? Would that be would that be possible? PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yes. I mean, on on that idea, as a as I mentioned before, you know, our our work and the the work of the company, we're going to, appoint here to this particular call will be mostly focused then and the CoSTAR R&D Lab, the Screen Lab itself, which is as, as I mentioned, part of a much wider facility. The problem with the wider facility is that it's incredibly secure and very high profile productions are working in this space at the minute.
So we can't just sort of drop people in, as easily as we might like. But we can probably pull together. I mean, we do have a virtual tour of the facility that we could probably put up on online at some point. And, you know, if if we did round up enough people with interest in maybe, you know, have on a tour, we could maybe sort of gather a lot of people together. I don't know, Lindsay, if you want to comment on that, but I mean, that's part of the issue of having a very, very much in demand new virtual production facility.
That's the kind of problem we we want to have. But of course, it doesn't really address the kind of curiosity that you would have to sort of go in and see. Right? ANDREA: Yeah. Just to get a sense of the, what the what what's actually there, you know, and, and more, in a, in a different way from distributing it, if you know what I mean.
So it makes you think differently. Absolutely. And, as Ciaran on the call that Ciaran Gibson.
Is looking. LYNDSAY CAMPBELL: There, he is here now I am not sure Hi Ciaran. CIARAN GIBSON: Yes fortunately. But no, I just it was, it was, it was good to hear that.
Because I think that's something that we could definitely do. You think we could just get even if it's like a video of, someone going through the space and experience in the space, so that we can post that video through our socials on website or send it directly to that. You can get an idea of what the actual facilities are like.
So I think that's a great idea. That's something we can take away and action. ANDREA: Frank I’ve got a follow up for you that. You will not like Because you, you, you've you're obviously at this stage in the question, you want to keep your, you want to keep it really wide so that people will not feel you don't want to be prescriptive in any way so that people will come with all sorts of ideas.
But it would be really useful to know what, what your criteria for a success, success for project would be. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah. I mean, I think I've probably alluded to some of them, already.
Andrea, without maybe being specific, but, you know, we as I mentioned before, it's got to be innovative. I mean, it's it's looking at the probably applications of 5G in the creative industries. It's not that hard to be innovative because it's very, very much still an untapped area.
But it's got to have, you know, a realistic timeline that we can work to, and most definitely a realistic expectation that we can produce something tangible, whether it's a proof of concept, or whether it's you, you know, something along those lines at the end of of the time frame. I mean, it's a fairly short duration. It's a quite first. It's a three month project, essentially. So, so I suppose that would probably be the, the biggest challenge to make sure that we can relay something at the end of three months. But as I say, we've got the expertise, got the facilities there.
It's about it's about you bringing the the vision, the idea. And I suppose in order to realize that if it's if it's too broad an idea, it's probably going to be tricky. Quite tricky to realize. But if it's something slightly more focused, as I say, we're not being prescriptive, but we would encourage focused ideas and focused work plans. And I think if I'm making an application, that's really what I'm going to be looking at.
That is there's real kind of focus and and detail and the actual application, just looking for that idea of, of innovation, you know, without reinventing the wheel. I mean, that example that Vincent presented, that at the start there was really interesting because, you know, okay, it's it's working through the areas that might have been explored in detail, but with different sets of technologies and possibly different outcomes, so that that can still be very, very innovative in terms of how it's dealt with and what the outputs look like and sound like. As a result of the applications of 5G. Yeah.
ANDREA: So, so, so innovation, high concept and deliverable and deliverable. Yeah. And I would, I would I also I hello. LYNDSAY CAMPBELL: So I just wanted to add in as well that you know if you have we look at the application form you'll I think there's three key key parts there that will guide a successful application which is problem solution and commercialisation of your idea. So you know, you need to be able to identify a problem that your idea with 5G can solve. And then how that can be commercialised.
Enter a and enter the market in the future as well. And I think if you really try and stick to that, Andrea, the problem solution and commercialisation aspect, that's sort of how your guide, your project to be successful. But I just speak to also the application process and the assessment process. KYLIE BRYANT: A lot of companies, ask, can I run my idea by you? And, you tell us if it's if it fits or not. And, to that level of detail, I think it's quite difficult for, the labs, to speak that specifically to people. So we really do encourage you to submit your application.
One of the reasons for that is there are going to be many more future calls and ways to access, the labs in the future. So if this isn't right, it's not like you will be judged harshly on that. It may, in fact lead the labs to to have a different call or a future opportunity that better meet some of the needs of the applications that we see coming in. The other thing is that, we don't want you to spend hours and days and days and days. This isn't an Innovate UK very extensive large grant, as the lab has spoken to, is a short amount of funding in a short amount of time for new and innovative ideas.
So please, bear that in mind. We've allowed, per question, 500 words, but, you know, 300 words or less would still be suffice. We didn't want to, restrict people. And for example, there is a question that asks for, a sort of plan and, cost costing. So schedule and budget, but for want of a better word. But it says the words high level. We don't.
There's no opportunity to upload detailed schedules, detailed documents. You may, in fact, want to discuss that. And, with Lindsay and Frank in the team and work out what your schedule is, but this, that you can demonstrate that it's feasible and deliverable. So you put a few of your key, time framing, time frames and budgets in there.
Also, your applications will be assessed by independent assessors, that we have, gone to an extensive process to recruit. So, that it's a completely independent assessment process as well. I don't know if Frank or Lindsay have anything to add to that, but I just wanted to give people some sort of perspective on, on the applications. And, and people's worry about them, everything being perfect and complete, in that way.
PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: So thanks, Kylie. And I think I pointed under me, addressed the very start of, what what she was talking about there, that idea of in a situation like this, people probably need to be quite protective of their idea, because they, you know, they have the IP on it. And at this point in time, but when it gets to the application stage, I mean, we've got a lot have people on the call of my list to have a look at the assessment criteria again. But, you know, if I could just read through the bullet points just for clarity, you know, the assessment criteria that the independent assessors will use, it's it's essentially the problem that your innovation seeks to address needs to be well-defined. That's the point.
It lets you speak into the proposed solution is clear and achievable. The specific R&D focus, or innovation of the project is novel and well articulated. Proposed solution has strong commercial value with an appropriate route to market.
Project team has strong leadership and a range of skills and experience needed to deliver the project. So again, that's the point. That's a slightly, different point that's really critical when you start to articulate what your team is going to bring to the table as well.
I think that that needs to clear in my head, with Elaine and draw upon the kind of, academic investigator expertise that we bring to the table, the project management plan and approach to risk management is appropriate and achievable. The request for star support is clear and reasonable. There's clear rationale for why customer support is required. Of the project is a clear value to performance and or screening sectors. And there's a strong approach to engaging with social impact.
And I think that if you want to speak to that and then more detail, because I think that's a critical thing, the whole idea of of the engagement with social impact, EDI and or environmental sustainability needs to be very clearly articulated. And the applications. REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: Yeah, absolutely. Yes. And, yeah.
So there is a specific question around, your approach to EDI, and sustainability. We are looking for companies who engage with this in some way. But equally, there is a there's an opportunity for you to talk about what you are looking to do, but indeed, any support you think you might need with that as well. So, as, as a program, it's something where we're looking to do more and more, to support, EDI and sustainability across the projects that we do in the sector. So, so, yeah, please do have a look at that, that question, but if you have any further questions on it, please do drop us a line about it and we'll be happy to answer them. KYLIE BRYANT: Becky, Rupert has a question.
Are you okay to just ask your question? Rupert? Just saying. If we put your. Thing. Vega. RUPERT: Sure thing. Yeah. Thank you.
And just to give a little bit of context before I ask my question, I saw about this, webinar yesterday when I already had a classic meeting. So there's been parts of this that I've not heard. So forgive me if I'm asking something that has already been addressed. I've just had the chance to jump back into this call. I just wanted to particularly ask on your so you've said very clearly that this is for projects that will support the performance and screen sectors.
How are you defining the performance sector particularly? Just so I've got a good feeling as to whether we're fit or not. REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: That's a good question. I well, Frank, do you want to speak to the CoSTAR program more generally? Does focus on screen and performance, sectors? This particular call has a screen focus, is that correct, Frank? PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah. It's more it's more of a screen focus. But, you know, when we do see potential applications without giving too much away for, for performance orientated applications of 5G and a virtual production lab or, and a mocap lab, for instance. So it's it's really broad Becky whereas the screen focuses there.
You know, there is that, that, that breadth that we would like to bring to the thinking around this. So if you like any specific ideas or could you be more specific with your sector or what you're potentially looking at for sure. RUPERT: Yeah. And thanks for that explanation already that so and I also noted at the start of the talk, which I was and, you know, there was quite a strong emphasis on your very impressive technical facilities in Belfast, whereas, you know, we're probably not at the end of the spectrum where, we would be we haven't at least been using that kind of high to deep, infrastructural tech for filming. So we're in this call from set maker, myself and Stephanos, creative producer, we, a software platform that allows people to geo locate filmed material, for creating interactive tours in a really easy way. So performance artists and performance companies, an ideal client, because it allows them to create digitized screen based content in a way they couldn't before.
And it's sort of, you know, very great, nice way of getting people to explore physical environments. I don't wanna say too much, but I'm not sure if that's a fit from what we've heard. But I, I think you can give us.
PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: I think it most definitely could be. I'll maybe bring Gerard, my colleague, in on this, who, you know, has been sort of thinking about potential applications. I, I'm sure that may have entered his, had. Gerard, can you speak to this one? GERARD DUNLEAVY: Yeah. Hi, Rupert. No. It's great. It's a I think I understand roughly the sort of sector that you're in.
You know, we were always about the idea of unleashing virtual production outside of the studio and going to remote to going to remote locations, hence the 5G and the portable 5G networks. So your project or potential project sounds like something we could we would like to have a look at. RUPERT: And, you know, it's exploring beyond the walls of Studio Ulster and getting out into the wild, as it were. So I think there's definitely potential there. Okay, that's really great to hear. And,
thanks for sharing. So clearly, I mean, in terms of our background, like myself and Stefanos both come from performing arts backgrounds in the UK, both institutions and festivals. And Stefanos is a, senior professional dancer as well as a creative producer. A follow up question then would be, are you more inclined towards technologically led pitches, or are our partnerships particularly attractive, like if if a company came in with technology and, an industry partner and a desire to engage with your capabilities, would that be a better sell? Should we go out and try and find partners in the coming weeks? PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: It would most definitely be an attractive report. But again, it's really down to you to make that call.
Do you think as you stand at the minute with your your existing team could interact to the level with the expertise in the technology we have to replace your vision, or do you think you might need to bring your own partner to the table to maybe speak the language that that some of the experts on on the call would speak? We will leave that tool totally up to you, but either way, it's attractive. As long as the vision and the potential output is clear. RUPERT: thank you. KYLIE BRYANT: Some companies might want to come in with their partners because they want to maximize what they get out of the labs. Other people may want to come into the labs and identify what they what they need to do in order to secure the partners they need to go going forward. But those thinking process, and the decisions, if you articulate them in your application, I think would be what would be most beneficial.
Would that be right to say Frank. PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Yeah, absolutely. No. I think it's as understanding potential here Rupert. RUPERT: And thanks all these are really helpful comments. And then just to check again is after this. And again sorry if I've missed this.
Is there an opportunity between now and the deadline to check in with the CoSTAR team again? Just, sort of share where we're up to without thinking and review that against your objectives. And again, think about possible partners and that kind of thing. Or is, they say, just from now.
Lyndsay I think you've got your hand up? LYNDSAY CAMPBELL: Yeah, yeah, I would just I would just come to that Rupert and say, obviously we wouldn't have the resources to, you know, have sort of like one to ones with, with every applicants. And, and it would be sort of, you know, there's a risk there of if we go through everyone's ideas that, you know, we could end up obviously sort of piously, you know, encouraging some people and not others. Or maybe we, don't quite understand your idea. And then we would discourage you from applying when actually, when we receive the application, it could have been great. So, you know, we can't unfortunately, go through every single applicant on their idea.
However, if there's anything you're unsure of in terms of eligibility, with your idea or you just want to double check something in terms of due diligence with your application, then please do send through your questions to, the pilot in program email. And if it's screen lob specific or if you want to check something about our technology, will it suit your idea? That's absolutely fine. And they will. The team at the pilots and programing team will forward that to us.
So more of a check in is absolutely fine, but we just don't have the resources. And of course we wouldn't want to be biased towards any company. To go through everyone's idea individually for sure. RUPERT: Now I'm wary of hogging the mic here. If others have got questions, I have other questions I could ask, but maybe I'll just pause for a moment and just check. There isn't anyone else who wants to check in.
KYLIE BRYANT: I think that's okay. We're closely coming to an end shortly. But, while we've got people, we're really happy to ask questions, and I'm just popping that email address in, to the chat so that people can access that again. And if the questions are what do you mean by this question or something like that, put your questions in and, into the emails and we'll, we'll respond. But I think, Rupert, if you've got a couple more questions, go ahead while we're we're here.
So, yeah, I just love to ask, to this idea of the sort of taking the studio out there, which, you know, is really exciting prospect. Well, what does that involve again and again? Forgive me if I've missed that, but are there sort of essentially equipment equipment that's owned by CoSTAR or, or sort of leasable by CoSTAR that can Inc increase film capabilities using 5G around different locations in the country? Or am I misreading that? No, no. So, that's for you, Gerard. And I think.
GERARD DUNLEAVY: Yeah. Maybe perhaps Adnan could speak to the 5G portable, solution. DR ADNAN AHMAD CHEEMA: Yeah.
Hi, Rupert So I think, it's an interesting question, and sometimes it gets a bit confusing. What exactly we mean when we want to take sort of a studio outside. So the first thing is, if you if you look at the intermodal layer based on architecture base, we have our media gear. So imagine the system isn't just camera. And then the question is you want to take live or whatever means you want to generate the content.
Do you want to stream back to the studio? You would need a kind of, network. Now, we, last couple of weeks, we were a part of the, decent funded project. And we have look after very extreme worst case, scenario where we're looking at. What if we don't have the optical fiber? So I think once we don't have the optical fiber, the life is slightly different. Because normally, the network side of it as well, you can connect to, a sort of network. But if you don't have the backhaul like of an optical fiber or some other means, then you weren't able to access the internet.
And of course, you can't send the information which you want to send from point A to point B. So, what we did, we added an additional layer which has an integration of satellites plus public networks as well, although we are more inclined towards the satellite side because we were trying to exercise the worst case scenario one, we don't have any 4G or standard 5G signals available. I'm talking about more specifically on the on the backhaul side, I think it's a less challenging in terms of connecting a device to a network, but backhaul is more global. So we have a very, interesting solution on the backhaul side of it as well.
Now, the other side of this is if you want to have a portable 5G, who would carry it? And we're looking at let's say, a truck or looking at a helicopter or are we looking for someone they can put, the 5G kit at the back of their boot. So this was a, from last, probably over 12 months, we've been trying to find with the technology resources and the company and everyone. So solution we have, it's very portable. So that means that we don't need to have a technical knowledge to operate 5G. Of course, we will be, with the team, whoever wants to, and to to the remote kind of a transmission on the streaming.
It's not massive in terms of the size. It doesn't take a significant amount of time that, you know, you would need a half day to put it into together to put the cabling and everything. So ideally you're looking at a maximum of one hour as long as you have a power source. [...] and the network up and running. And with the assumption that we don't have an issue with the satellites and everything, it should be pretty much straightforward plug and play kind of a solution.
So it's a lightweight, it's very portable. It's easy to carry from point A to point B and so practical from the battery sources. So it should be pretty straightforward. So
I'll leave to Gerard to touch on the next point. Yeah. GERARD DUNLEAVY: Thanks, Adnan.
So then, Rupert, I suppose everything around this 5G connectivity is sort of traditional, as it were. So we have cameras that are 5G enabled using encoders. We've it recently with experiment with cloud based decoders, which means that we can encode the signal, for example, from a camera, use the 5G to get to the internet, and then use our proprietary server to sort of decoder and submit it to say, you know, streaming on iPhones for producers to have a look at live streams or stream to the virtual production LED wall, where we can put it up on the wall and do some, you know, very interesting, collaborative work with seeing a live stream in virtual production in real time. So yeah, so the 5G is really an enabler to allow us to connect all these things together. And then layer on top of that, we have all the robotic camera systems.
So we have PTZ cameras and then we have arms, robotic arms as well that can be remotely controlled from either on the set or remotely from far away. Or if you're getting even more technical, we can layer in Unreal Engine, the video game engine, to allow virtual operators to have a basically a virtual version of your set and have virtual camera, operators, as it were. So we have quite a lot of layers of technology and we've sort of built this very generic, not generic, the realm where it's sort of an open, flexible set of solutions and hardware to allow us to do lots of creative things. RUPERT: Okay. Thank you both.
Very thorough explanations and yeah, lots of layers beyond my own can, as well as knowing what we what we do use and experience. So I think that's also just good to understand in terms of the collaborative nature. We'd look to engage, with CoSTAR, to explore what's possible. I think while still working to our vision and idea. KYLIE BRYANT: Yes, the Co in CoSTAR is convergence, but I've also to this we defined it as collaborative.
I think it's going to be all of those things as we go along. So of all let to wrap up at nine and then I'll move on to Becky and Frank just to follow up with, with some greater detail, as well with some general detail to wrap up the webinar. Go ahead, Adnan.
DR ADNAN AHMAD CHEEMA: Yeah. Just a quick point to add. So if you really want to go extremely low level, we do have the resources to test, if you want to play with the network and a certain specification, from waveform at the very physical layer of it, you want to change certain parameters or you want to try something completely, as Frank mentioned, blue Sky, that can also be done. But I guess we need to sort of align with the with the timeline, because it's a short window project. But again, it's a catalyst. So it can create a more opportunity for much, bigger version of the, use case, which you are thinking or some of other colleagues are thinking as well.
So it can be do, we do have resources to test, deploy and configure and see how things works outside the studio. Make sense? KYLIE BRYANT: And then people will start to get to know the labs a little bit, as we go along. And there will be other opportunities if you don't feel like this one is right for you or you're not quite ready. Also, I'm sure there will be more opportunities to get into each of the labs and including Screen Lab. I mean, I'm not I'm sure I'm that I know for sure there is going to be. So, and hopefully the, virtual tour and a bit more information of what is available in the labs.
And this webinar will have helped with people understanding that. So thank you. Becky. Frank, any last comments? And then I might hand to Becky to finish up.
PROFESSOR FRANK LYONS: Nothing specifically. I think we've covered a lot of ground there. And it's great to have those, questions and, and discussions with hopefully people who are potential applicants. So let's say you look forward to, to get to work on the call. Yeah. REBECCA GREGORY-CLARKE: Thanks. Yeah, I was just going to just just sort of, a bit of general wrap up.
We are we're really excited to be launching these calls. I think just for a bit of context, the The CoSTAR project is it's funded by UK Research Innovation. And it's a very new way of, of of supporting creative industries R&D in the UK. Through the development of this infrastructure.
And in the last few months, we've as a network, we've launched three, physical lab spaces and the fourth to open next year. This is, the fourth of vocals we've done in the last few months. So we're really excited to start getting people into these spaces and start engaging with industry and, and, and see people respond to these challenges. But as colleagues already pointed out, this won't be the last. There will be plenty more of these opportunities to come.
So, thank you for joining us today. Thanks for engaging with this call, and we hope that you stay in touch for future calls that come out as well. I don't know if we can just share the last two slides, if that's possible. I just want to just end on the dates, for your diary. So, obviously the call is open now, and it closes on, Thursday, 22nd of May.
And I think we spoke a bit earlier to the, to the for the duration, but, three it's a three month duration for the 1st September to the 30th of November. But as Frank alluded to, you know, within that we'll be a bit flexible to, to help companies into the lab space. And your application will be assessed, and you'll hear from us within eight weeks of the closing date. And then the last slide.
If it was. Yeah, we, Oh, sorry, I think. Sorry. Listening. What? I, just wanted to, to say that there is a newsletter that you can join. And there are different ways, of engaging with us, online as well, through LinkedIn, and through, through our, the, through our other channels. So please do give us a follow so you can listen, listen out for other opportunities as they come out, which will be happening the next few months.
And I think that's it for today. So we'll wrap up. Thank you again fo
2025-04-21 03:03
