Creative and digital round-up

Here’s our round-up of everything that’s happening in the digital and creative sector across Liverpool City Region.

Enda Carey, sector skills champion at the Studio, says: “It’s exciting to see Firesprite take on a landmark new home, just around the corner from us. Liverpool has a long history with Sony, and our games industry here thrives from that connection and knowledge, creating opportunities for our students. And Pintel choosing Liverpool for its first UK office is a great show of faith in the city, and demonstrates how key Liverpool’s AI skills can be to help shape the development of future cities.”

Firesprite, part entertainment giant SONY, has a historic new home

Firesprite is about to become a Studio school neighbour, with a new home in Liverpool’s Ropewalks area, next door to our Baltic Triangle location. Duke and Parr is a Grade II-listed building, the former Bibby Line headquarters and location of Liverpool’s first public library. It’s now been refurbished after a £5m investment from the Combined Authority and transformed into a progressive workspace.

Councillor Janette Williamson, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority portfolio holder for Inclusive Economy and the Third Sector, says: “it’s fantastic to see an historic old building given a new lease of life at the heart of our thriving digital and creative sector, and the fact that the £5m investment has already been repaid means that we can put that money to work again, creating jobs and opportunities for local people.”

South Korean AI company Pintel launches new office in Liverpool

South Korean AI specialists Pintel develops technologies for sectors like safety, transport, retail and facility management and has opened its first UK office – in Liverpool.

It’s UK partner – CGA Simulations – is based on the other side of Parliament Street from the Studio School. CGA uses computer gaming expertise and emerging technologies knowledge to solve real-world problems. So far, CGA’s AI simulations have been used for projects like a simulated environment for connected and autonomous vehicle development, network planning for Liverpool’s 5G health and social care project and, most recently, a ‘last mile’ freight tool, which helps your deliveries arrive.

Now, Pintel’s AI platform and CGA’s smart city tools will come together to create ‘Virtual Cities and Autonomous Learning (ViCAL). The system which will be used in South Korea’s capital Seoul to combat congestion and improve accident detection performance, based on virtual simulation data and deep learning.

Collaboration for Change

Liverpool City Region is renowned for its cutting-edge approach to health and wellbeing. Following a pilot in 2022, the Civic Data Cooperation is bringing back its “What’s Your Problem” scheme in 2023 to help focus on the region’s growing mental health crisis, especially amongst men and students.

“What’s Your Problem” is a four-part programme designed to remove the barriers of getting ideas off the ground, not fully understanding the problems at hand, the lack of exterior support and differences in work cultures. Instead, it opens doors between those in health, care and community product and service design, creating a space to find solutions that actually work.

Participants are invited to a series of events which provide a forum to look at these problems, connecting problem solvers to come up with new ideas for people in mental health crises, as well as the opportunity to access up to £60K in seed funding.

Eleanor Fielding, programme manager at CDC says ‘“Whats Your Problem” isn’t just about new introductions, or networking, but transforming how we approach the region’s biggest problems – We don’t want to just open doors between sectors; we want to take them off the hinges”