Brighton’s Immersive Hub & Community
Among the UK’s 47 creative and digital clusters identified by NESTA (2016), Brighton, also known as ‘Silicon Beach’, one of England’s creative hotspots, has developed its own cluster of creative and digital businesses. The creative city is where the arts fuse with technology and where ‘fused’ and ‘superfused’ businesses – those that combine creative art and design skills with technology expertise – are the ones driving the growth of the local and regional economy. Accounting for two thirds of the overall number of businesses in Brighton, fused and superfused firms are growing more than twice the speed of the city’s creative, design and IT firms, which already grew faster than the local economy and more than 10 times faster than the British economy as a whole (Brighton Fuse, 2013).
What’s On?
From the GOVR Cafè and the Word’s End Pub’s VR arcade, to the Old Market’s TOMtech Lab, the Digital Catapult Center’s Immersive Lab, and The Fuse Box, alongside countless of VR, AR, and MR related events, exhibitions, initiatives, festivals and meetups happening across the city all year round, Brighton has gained its reputation as one of UK’s biggest immersive hubs.
Among the many organizations, creative and digital hubs, labs and co-working facilities supporting the continued growth, innovation and prosperity of the cluster and its digital-tech community, of particular significance stands Wired Sussex. Based at New England House, Wired Sussex is a membership organization for companies, SMEs, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers operating in the digital, media and technology sector, today accounting at over 3000 total members and at 15 Brighton-based immersive media businesses. The Fuse Box, Wired Sussex’s home, studio and collaboration space established in 2013 as a physical manifestation of the Brighton Fuse research, provides start-ups and existing businesses with access to resources and to knowledge and expertise from thought leaders and practitioners from the arts, technology, research, and business communities. Each week, a list of digital media-tech’s related events and meetups (the majority of which are free) are published on the organization’s website for anyone and everyone to attend. Events of this kind provide invaluable opportunities to familiarize and play with the latest immersive devices, to learn more about this emerging sector, its technologies’ multitude of applications, and most significantly, to network and develop potential collaborations and partnership with members of the digital-tech community and key players within the immersive industry.
Carrying out most of its work within the FuseBox and working in collaboration with Wired Sussex and the University of Brighton, is also Digital Catapult, a collaborative R&D program for digital innovation focused on projects that create innovation and value from real-time and location-based data. Examples of such can be found within research and innovation projects surrounding the possibilities and limitation of the Internet of Things, locative media, 5G connectivity, and virtual/augmented/mixed reality. All of which is designed to support and advance the work of local start-ups and SMEs, which ultimately represent the lifeblood of Brighton creative digital and IT cluster. Of particular significance is Digital Catapult’s VR, AR and MR Immersive Lab (also located at the Fuse Box) established as part of a wider strategy to bring these organizations together and encourage their collaboration to accelerate the immersive industry’s growth both regionally and nationally. The lab is available to businesses of any size, alongside researchers and investors, to demonstrate, innovate, test and experience the latest immersive technology and content, offering us just another door into the immersive industry, its members, its latest technologies and opportunities for the development of partnerships and collaborations.
To stay up to date regarding immersive related events, workshops and happenings around Brighton, check out and subscribe/sign up to:
- Wired Sussex Event List (highly recommended)
- Digital Catapult Events
- Meetup.com
- GOVR Lab
Giulia Tranquillini • July 22, 2019