BT have announced that they will soon be offering broadband speeds of up to 300mbps to homes and businesses in the UK. Using their network of fibre connected cabinets, BT will be able to extend a fibre connection directly to some households or business premises on demand. The fundamental difference between fibre to the premises (FTTP), and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) solutions is that FTTP totally removes the copper local loop from the connection meaning that connection speeds will not only be faster but should reliably meet the advertised rates.

BT have been running extensive trials of this “on demand FTTP” technology in St Agnes, Cornwall, and intends to continue with new trials to explore the possibility of offering Gigabit connections.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has announced that it will be investing in a Digital Economy ‘Catapult’ Centre to help spur innovation and adoption of new technologies. The centre will help transfer knowledge and experience from the digital industries to non-digital businesses and help them see the value that it could add to their business.

The centre is also likely to be involved in researching what impact new technologies, such as augmented reality, will have on existing platforms and the potential infrastructure changes needed to support them, and also in looking at how our devices, our clothes, our cars, and other consumer goods become better connected to enhance the physical nature of our lives.

The funding for the Centre will come from a £200m pot allocated for a network of new Catapult Centres across a number of different industry sectors. As yet though, there has been no decision as to where the Digital Economy ‘Catapult’ centre might be located…..anyone else thinking Bristol would be ideal?

In partnership with BT and Citizens Online we are offering basic Internet courses around Bristol for people aged 55 and over, as well as adults who have a disability. Please complete this form and we will contact you with details of courses which may be suitable for you.

The Technology Strategy Board is running a competition to encourage developers to create games that support their work in addressing power distribution and the management of demand. There are looking to support work around cognitive design and social gaming to generate novel, demand side, consumer focused technologies.

Some of the ideas they suggest as examples include;

• A multi-platform app on smart phones or tablets that talks to individual smart meters
• A Sim City style game featuring real time data
• A vertical application for smart meter data with gamers demonstrating real-world energy usage, related carbon emissions and efficiency

To explore the possibilities, Creative Industries KTN and the Pervasive Media Studio are hosting a ‘Partnering for Innovation’ event at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol on 16 January 2012. It will bring together people from the games and design sectors with businesses and organisations in the energy supply chain to:

• Network with other organisations
• Gain an understanding of developments in Smart Energy space
• Explore the themes for the competition and the potential role of creative businesses
• Make contacts and discuss potential collaborations

If this is a challenge that interests you and you would like to take part in the event, please register your interest with anita@creativeindustriesktn.org

The South West iNet has announced that there will be three new funding opportunities for South West Microelectronics in 2012, with the first launching on 16th January.

The competition is being run to support the innovative use of microelectronics technology in new products and services. It offers grants of up to £10,000 to enable expertise to be used by a company.

More information will be made available on the South West Microelectronics iNets website when the competition opens.

Bristol will be in the first wave of Cities starting up local TV services. The Government has announced that an initial cohort of 20 Cities could have stations operating by 2014, with a further 24 to follow later.

These local TV channels could deliver a range of new content to viewers such as;

• “hyper local” news
• Student films
• Local music, comedy and theatre
• School and college sports reports

The legislation enabling the stations to operate is still to be passed, but the Government hopes that the first local stations will be licenced around summer 2012.

BT have revealed that more than one million South West homes and businesses will have access to super-fast broadband by the end of next year. Some of the communities to be added to the roll out include Bedminster, Bishopsworth, Eastville, Henbury and Kingswood.

Barbara Janke, Bristol City Council leader, said:

“Bristol is well-known as a digital leader amongst cities.  It is very welcome news that more communities and companies across Bristol are going to have access to super-fast broadband. The investment means faster connections, better access to online services and more incentive for people to get online.

“We are keen to work with partner providers such as BT to make sure the infrastructure is there for our companies to thrive and grow, and all our residents have the opportunities to benefit from using the internet.”

For more information on Openreach’s super-fast broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk

The University of Bristol is running a series of innovative adverts in various national newspapers and on billboards at Paddington and Birmingham New Street Stations. The advert incorporates a Quick Response (or QR) code into the design, which once scanned takes the user to an exclusive section of the University of Bristol’s website.

David Alder, director of communications and marketing at the University of Bristol said:

“As one of the most highly sought after universities in the UK, it was important to ensure people knew that we were now able to offer a small number of additional places for study. We regularly have to turn away a significant number of high-achieving individuals due to the huge competition for places at Bristol and so getting this message out there was very important.”

Nominet have launched a new ‘Accidental Outlaw’ campaign which highlights that we are all in danger of becoming ‘accidental outlaws’ by not fully understanding how the law affects us online.

They have launched a free online test which lets consumers test their understanding of how the laws apply online and check out how to stay out of trouble. www.knowthenet.org.uk/accidentaloutlaw

They also commissioned research which explored consumers’ ability to spot online activities that break the law.

On average 44% of people were unable to correctly identify illegal activities when presented with a range of possible online scenarios including defamation, copyright, infringement and hacking.

Read more about the research here: http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/releases/?contentId=8863