IP Performance Sponsors Inaugural London Legacy 2020 Brunch
PRESS RELEASE: On Wednesday 15th July leading figures from within UK film and broadcast gathered at Club 23 Romilly Street, for the first Legacy Brunch. Hosted by AMO Media Group & sponsored by IP Performance, the main aim of this event was to highlight the opportunities available to the industry following the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The meeting was chaired by Peter Welton, Executive Director of London Legacy 2020, who gave the keynote speech and was happy with the positive response. “I thought there was a level of quiet excitement about the opportunity which was very encouraging. It was interesting to note that most of the people around the table, if not all, were already aware that the Olympic Broadcast Centre is about to become an option for digital media companies. The word has been getting around!”
He explained the need for planning on how to use the Olympic sites and surrounding areas after the games finished. “Most of London's available development land lies to the East of the Capital; no more so than in the reclaimed land of the Olympic park. Economists such as Professor Holger Preuss, from Mainz University, who has made a study of the economic impact on Olympic Host cities, reminds us that the real benefit of hosting a Games comes from the ways in which a host city renews its infrastructure, creating new opportunities for investment. The Broadcast Centre is part of a massive renewal of infrastructure that is creating ‘East Central London’, so to speak. And a new generation of creative talent, thriving in the East, is the human infrastructure on which London will build that new future.”
When asked about the governmental side of the Legacy 2020, he told the meeting about those responsible and how he plans to work with them. “Baroness Margaret Ford has been appointed as Chair of a new body, the Legacy Company, tasked with marketing and developing the Olympic zone post 2012. She is straight-talking, no-nonsense and arrives with the broadest political support. It is her body that will market the Broadcast Centre and we will do all we can to support her, if asked. For the private sector, having a go-to person is long overdue, but when her Chief Executive, Andrew Altman arrives from his role as Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia in August, they will start to motor."
Jeremy Lutterloch, Managing Director of Facilitate 42 Ltd was one of several Soho-based multimedia companies present a the meeting, all keen to learn more about how the Broadcast Centre can be developed post-games. “I think that all in attendance would agree that whilst the 2012 Olympics will definitely go ahead, we would all very much like to ensure that there is a legacy to be built after the 16 days of competition and that a legacy is created for the people of the UK in general but more importantly for the future of the children in and around the under-privileged areas of the East End of London.”
“Whilst the 2008 Olympics were very much about the Chinese people and their culture, the 2012 Olympics will almost certainly be the most technologically advanced Olympics. They will be viewed globally on all manner of platforms from TV Screens, to PC Screens, to Mobile Screens, in Slow Motion, Hi Definition and 3D stereoscopic richness. We need to ensure that the Olympics are a success and we need to ensure that the world looks at the London Olympics 2012 and thinks 'WOW! I want some of that and where do I find the type of people and facilities with the creativity and technological knowledge and infrastructure to put on a show like that?’”
Whilst at this early stage he wasn’t sure what his company’s involvement would be, he said, “We will do everything that we can to ensure that the Legacy 2020 project is a success. If there is an opportunity to do some business along the way then of course we would be delighted.”
Pierre Ketteridge, Technical Pre-Sales Consultant for IP Performance, who sponsored the meeting, gave a demonstration on some of his company’s new hardware, explaining what the company had to offer. “IP Performance design and deliver tailored, bespoke solutions from a select portfolio of 'best-of-breed' vendor partners in the areas of physical connectivity, performance optimisation and network security. We design, build, install and maintain communications infrastructures, either as standalone architecture, or as part of a total managed network service.”
As for the rest of the meeting, he also found the speech and questions stimulated some useful debate, “I think certain pertinent questions from the floor helped establish direction. I found Peter Welton's keynote speech inspiring and energising, calling for those present, and their contacts, to commit to providing guidance, advice and consultation to the Olympic organisers and Legacy groups in achieving their goals."
"I feel very positive about the lasting legacy to London, and in particular the East London Boroughs immediately surrounding the Olympic Park (Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich and Waltham Forest), but there still needs to be more transparency between the Olympic organisers and the groups and organisations that will operate the legacy infrastructure - there currently is a very strong 'them and us' feeling and a lack of communication. This is what the London Legacy 2020 Group has been designed to bridge, and what these breakfast meetings are starting to achieve - bringing private enterprise advice and guidance to the process of planning the transition and transformation from Olympic broadcast/press centre, to commercial new media hub for East London.”
He also went into more detail about how the impressive Olympic Park infrastructure can be best utilised after the games have finished. “It is important for IP Performance to understand the nature of the communications infrastructure that will remain after the games, or that will be novated to the legacy operators, so that we can be in a position to design and propose overlay architectures to transform the underlying architecture from its Olympic Broadcasting role to that of a multi-tenant new media hub for East London and surrounding areas. Such overlay architectures may include dynamic provisioning and IP address management, security, granular and dynamic bandwidth control, management and prioritisation, application and workflow optimisation tools. IP Performance would also be interested in investigating outreach programmes into the local communities, such as Digital Inclusion, whereby local councils can be encouraged to provide ubiquitous and free-to-user broadband connectivity to underprivileged communities, whether that is delivered through fibre optics, dsl, WiFi, or the new emerging WiMAX technologies.”
Finally, Amadin Ryan, CEO at AMO Media Group, who organised the meeting, said, “I am so pleased that this event was so well attended and that all those present seemed to come away not only enthused but excited about 2012 and 2020 Legacy! We plan to host these brunch events each month leading right up to the games themselves.”
Anyone interested in joining the London Legacy 2020 Group is invited to contact, in the first instance:
Peter Welton
Executive Director, Legacy 2020,
East London Business Alliance,
3rd Floor, City Reach, 5 Greenwich View Place,
London E14 9NN
Tel: 020 7068 6960
Fax: 020 7068 6961
Mob: 07946 169 162
email: peter.welton@legacy2020.org
web: www.legacy2020.org
