Following investment from Innovate UK, BDFI is collaborating with the Bristol-based company Nephelie Technologies and Weaver Labs to develop the nCOMM+ project.
Volumetric video is a technique that captures multiple images of an object from various angles and uses rendering techniques like photogrammetry to create the corresponding 3D model.
It is used in industries including VR/AR experiences, education and training, video games, film and television production, and digital marketing and could have much wider applications in manufacturing, teleconferencing and holographic telepresence.
For the nCOMM+ project, the partners will develop and build a full-scale product demonstrator based on a high-performance 'network of networks' that seamlessly combines advanced wireless access technologies such as 5G, Wi-Fi and Li-Fi (wireless systems that transmits data via LED or infrared light) under a unified software-defined orchestration.
The nCOMM+ project will be hosted and demonstrated in BDFI’s facilities as a ‘first-of-a-kind’ deployment of the technologypowered by the most advanced in-house developed Beyond 5G/6G network in a box solution referred to as the Nomadic Node.
Dr Vassilis Seferidis, CEO of Nephelie Technologies, said: “It’s a very exciting opportunity to be partnering with BDFI for this one-of-a-kind project. We will be using several key innovations in this project, including highly accurate timing to support the wireless synchronisation of dozens of high-resolution cameras and cutting-edge 3D rendering techniques such as Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) and 3D Gaussian Splatting.
“The project findings will be made available to UK industry so everyone can benefit from the project's learnings, stimulating new economic growth opportunities at a regional and national level.”
Dr Shadi Moazzeni, BDFI academic lead on the project, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Nephelie Technologies for this groundbreaking nCOMM+ project.
"We look forward to co-developing this pioneering new technology demonstrator, which will showcase the capabilities of future AI-driven telecom networks.”