Innovators receive funding boost to support development of new technologies

The MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation hub (MITIH) has awarded over £330,000 in funding to six ground-breaking projects led by innovators across Greater Manchester to explore how emerging technologies can support the future of education, film, music experiences, advertising and healthcare. 

The projects range from how brands and bands connect and interact with their audiences to revolutionising how we learn with all of the programmes pushing the boundaries of emergent immersive, realtime technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

InSpatial, Immersify, FeedAR, Xpllorre, Corporation Pop and Salsa Sound have all been successful in securing the first phase of investment which will support in the development of these emerging platforms. 

MediaCity based founders of Inspatial, Mike Anderson and Ben Emma, are responding to the spatial  boom driven by Apple Vision Pro Headset to support brands and creative professionals by providing a unique platform where 3D assets, pages and user interfaces can be quickly developed across web and mobile applications.  

Immersify Education’s team of education technology experts are harnessing latest technologies to develop lifelike simulations for emerging platforms such as Apple Vision Pro headset to support the training of health professional in a range of clinical skills. 

Feed:AR is pushing the boundaries in mobile immersive tech with its Porous WebXR Platform by creating two prototypes of unique Augmented Reality (AR) games that allow consumers and businesses to personalise and include themselves in the game.  

Xpllore is breaking new ground in merging Extended Reality (XR) and AI to create eXtended Intelligence to redefine how we learn, work and collaborate. The Xi Create projects enables non-techies to easily create 3D assets on PCs, mobile and headsets – allowing anyone to build an extensive library of models for immersive environments. These can be used by teachers and trainers to deliver engaging and immersive lessons in XR.  

Corporation Pop’s Social Pop AR is a platform integrating real-time AR with a 3D web engine, enabling users to share the same AR content simultaneously from their own devices. It can be used to connect music artists and bands with fans across festivals and live events – creating a personal and immersive group experience. 

Founder of Salsa Sound and former University of Salford alumni Rob Oldfield has developed AudioVerse; an AI driven responsive audio mixing for live broadcast. The suite of automated AI and audio production is already being used by sporting giants Manchester City Football Club. 

Anthony Hatton, director of the project said: “We look forward to working with these incredibly talented innovators and support them in breaking the boundaries of what has never been done before. The first phase of investment will focus on supporting our innovators in building new platforms and giving them the tools to test and repeat these exciting programmes which will ultimately drive investment for the economy and create new opportunities for growth.” 

Stephen Wild, MediaCity Managing Director added: “The announcement of these exciting projects comes at a time when MediaCity through our partnership with MITIH can really support innovators make their projects a reality and be at the forefront of future media technologies.”  

The immersive hub, which is enabling this programme to take place, is part of the pilot Innovation Accelerators programme investing in Greater Manchester – funded by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. This bold new model of Research and Development (R&D) decision making is unique to Greater Manchester and aims to harness innovation in support of regional economic growth and help attract private R&D investment while developing new technologies.