23 April, 2010
Visit to Media City @ Salford Uni
I travelled up to Salford to meet the Vice Chancellor at his team, at the invite of John Holland an old mate of mine from the BBC, where I hired him to work up the first interactive TV stuff, who is now running the Media City project for the University. http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-broadcasting/university-of-salford-appoints-former-bbc-man-to-mediacityuk-role-200812164288/ The team demoed some truly awesome 3D modelling of Salford (and the small city next door with the red and blue football clubs), which sits on top of hugely complex databases allowing the model to show crime hot spots (lots of), traffic snarls, flooding risks and so on. Looked like there were lots of applications for business and the public sector. The team then took me down to see the genuinely extraordinary Media City, which the BBC and Salford University have moved into as anchor tenants, and which looks like a vision of the future from Tomorrow’s World circa 1967. Despite myself, I thought it was actually rather beautiful. http://www.mediacityuk.co.uk/the-story/index.htm
This co-location has enabled the BBC and the University to work up a partnership agreement and I look forward to the fruits of their co-operation when the relationship beds down. Great example of university-business relationship building.