Cisco to showcase collaboration know-how at iCentrum

A SHOWCASE for state-of-the-art collaborative technologies is to be created by ICT giant Cisco at Birmingham Science Park’s iCentrum building.

A £1 million budget has been assigned to the ‘living lab’ installations, with Cisco providing expertise and access to its next-generation technology solutions.

As the first building in the proposed £35 million Digital Plaza, the ground floor of the 30,0000 sq ft, three-storey iCentrum building will house a collection of collaboration environments, designed by the project architects and an international Cisco team of customer experience specialists.

Cisco’s collaboration products include immersive TelePresence video communication, expert mentoring platforms, personalised digital screens, virtual mConcierge, remote expert, avatars, flex space and the newly unveiled StyleMe mirror.

Working in conjunction with the Birmingham Science Park community, these platforms will be developed for integration into iCentrum.

Clive Grinyer, head of customer experience for Cisco’s strategic advisory service IBSG, said: “This inspirational building will provide a launch pad to develop our products and apply brand-new technologies for the first time.”

Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO of Birmingham Science Park, said: “We have always set-out to make Birmingham Science Park’s iCentrum the best building of its kind across Europe and hopefully beyond. This hugely exciting partnership with Cisco will take our vision into a reality.

“This is a significant coup for Birmingham, as it promotes itself as a leading smart and connected digital city.”
 
Birmingham Science Park and its joint venture partner Thomas Vale Construction will deliver the first Digital Plaza building speculatively, ending a four year drought of no purely speculative office development in Birmingham.

The iCentrum building, which is subject to planning permission, has an estimated construction cost of £7.5m and will take 12 months to build.