All three are leveraging the new wireless standard to break fresh ground across multiple industries and giving themselves a true first mover advantage.
They work at the Cambridge Wireless (CW) 5G Testbed, a private network supported by Huawei at Cambridge Science Park.
HADO UK – the developer and distributor of a popular augmented reality-based e-sport (image above), can now support teams playing each other remotely – a European international match can be held without any player getting on a plane.
Epitomical – designers of the autonomous connected vehicle the Autorover (image below), are transforming critical worker’s abilities to perform tasks in dangerous environments thanks to the real-time teleoperations and new robotic arm from Extend Robotics on their 5G-enabled mobile rover platform.
Cambridge Sensoriis, experts in radar technology, are bringing a new level of safety to the UK’s roads and skies with their new cloud computing solution that can position, track and monitor moving vehicles to an accuracy of a few centimetres.
Jim Sephton, Director, HADO UK said: “5G has allowed us to create a stable platform to run remote play matches for a physical sport, something that has purely been the domain of eSports until now.”
5G private networks are a hotbed of technological innovation in the UK. They enable companies to develop their products in a closed 5G world ahead of the new standard being fully rolled out globally.
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“5G private network testbeds are an essential addition to the UK’s R&D offering, enabling SMEs to integrate 5G technology at speed, to overcome issues promptly and get a more advanced product to market ahead of their competition,” said Cambridge Wireless CEO Simon Mead.
“An engineering team can customise a private network such as the CW 5G Testbed to its needs, access the full range of 5G features and test a variety of connectivity scenarios, rather than depending on the more limited features and bandwidth typical of a public network.”
Epitomical Director, Danish Alam, said: “Advances in sensor technology, computing power, and edge processing together with advanced AI capabilities makes collaboration between man and machine inevitable. Innovative communications technology like 5G will enable machines to talk to the cloud and each other in ways not previously possible. The accelerator has allowed us to demonstrate the benefits of native 5G capability between our Autorover and users using high bandwidth, low latency and private 5G networks.”
The level of support available to both the engineering and commercial teams is a significant differentiator for companies developing on this 5G private network. In the CW 5G Testbed, developers had full access to technical experts from both CW and Huawei to ensure that the companies developed the in-house knowledge to succeed with this new generation of wireless technology, and that the 5G integration and testing process remained on-schedule.
The SMEs receive support in marketing, sales and partnership-building, with highlights including a strong brand presence for the SMEs at Connected Britain 2021 and private introductions to potential partners.
“The support we’ve had, both technically and commercially, has greatly helped us test and refine our highly sensitive radar systems which will be critical for the autonomous vehicle revolution,” said Steve Clark, CEO at Cambridge Sensoriis. “Sensoriis is now well positioned to provide the necessary radar solutions for the newly dawning and exciting age of autonomous drones, cars, and industrial vehicles.”
Victor Zhang, Huawei vice-president said: “The great thing about the testbed is that it is like taking a trip into a future that really is not far away at all. These smart developers can get ahead of the game by developing the tech that brings 5G to life. It is really people like this that make our work in connectivity worthwhile.”
The next accelerator on the CW 5G Testbed will start in spring 2022. SMEs looking to develop 5G into their products can contact abhi.naha@cambridgewireless.co.uk for further details.