Business Info - issue 145

BULLETIN 01732 759725 magazine 07 BULLETIN Communication SOUND INVESTMENT More than three quarters (78%) of business leaders say they are willing to pay a premium for high quality audio equipment on the grounds that it enhances customer service and collaboration, according to a new report from headset and speakerphone provider EPOS. Eight out of 10 decision-makers surveyed for Audio: A Sound Investment say that audio has become more important since the transition to remote working and the broad adoption of virtual collaboration tools, with 56% describing it as essential for their business. Almost all (95%) plan to invest in new audio equipment to address traditional remote working pain points like background noise, interference and poor audio quality. www.eposaudio.com Connectivity AIRBAND RUSHES TO THE RESCUE Independent rural broadband provider Airband has brought a Tudor manor house in Edvin Loach, Herefordshire into the twenty- first century – and in doing so turned it into an ad hoc film production unit. As part of a partnership between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Councils, known as the Fastershire project, Airband has provided ultrafast fibre broadband services to 400 premises in hard-to-reach communities across Herefordshire. These include the home and workplace of Carol Harding, Director of Vicarious Productions, who is now able to run her television and film production business from the heart of the countryside. “During lockdown, having an Airband connection meant I was able to produce a short film for Greenacre Films/ITV in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. I was able to see and communicate with the director, cast and crew on set in real-time, get rushes and edits sent down the line and actually produce a whole film from this rural spot. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without my Airband connection,” she said. Harding is now working on a production of My Name is Leon , an adaptation of Kit De Waal’s best-selling book for BBC One. Airband is deploying its bespoke fibre broadband solution, RuralOptic, to 10 dispersed clusters of premises across the county, enabling homes, pubs, farms, village shops, village halls and local businesses to enjoy FTTP (fibre to the premises) connections. With speeds of up to one Gigabit per second (1Gbps) – 15 times faster than the current UK average of 64Mbps, ultrafast fibre broadband technology provides capacity for multiple devices, streaming, the use of smart appliances and uninterrupted video calls. www.fastershire.com LR: Cllr Ellie Chownes; Airband project manager Chris Penkoks; Director of Vicarious Productions Carol Harding (image credit: Paul Elton) HR GENERATION BETA TAKES CONTROL First there was Generation X, then Generation Z, then Millennials. Now, LinkedIn’s B2B Institute is talking about Generation BETA. A sub-set of Millennials aged 21 to 40, Generation BETA has become the dominant generation in the workplace and is now the largest group of purchasers and decision- makers. According to LinkedIn, around two-thirds are the ultimate decision-maker for their company or the final decision-maker for their department/team when making purchases. Work in BETA: The Rising B2B Decision Maker characterises BETAs as highly adaptable, passionate and determined tech natives with raised levels of activism. However, BETAs do not have much spare time, with eight in 10 regularly working late or putting in overtime. The generation with the most emails, meetings and apps, BETAs spend 550 hours more per year on their smartphones than older professionals. Three in four BETAs are constantly connected online; 6 in 10 feel it’s critical to be contactable at all times; and a third worry they spend too much time on their phones. www.b2binstitute.org 5G DRIVING EFFICIENCY Self-driving car innovator HORIBA MIRA is teaming up with Vodafone to build a 5G/4G mobile private network at its Nuneaton HQ so that driverless vehicles can communicate with each other and surrounding infrastructure, such as traffic lights, in near real-time. The ability to communicate with other vehicles will enable self-driving cars to react much more quickly to evolving emergency situations, form co-operative groups of vehicles for more efficient delivery of goods, and even improve air quality through better route planning and more efficient operation. HORIBA MIRA’s Midlands HQ is home to advanced facilities for engineering self- driving vehicles, tackling the cybersecurity threats facing driverless technologies and using artificial intelligence in Unmanned Ground Vehicles in the defence sector. The 5G network will enable its clients, including automakers and self-driving disruptors, to push the boundaries of driverless technologies through new forms of engineering, testing, verification and validation. Vodafone’s partnership with HORIBA MIRA, a member of the Automotive Council, which oversees the UK’s strategy on driverless vehicles, follows a project with autonomous vehicle consortium Midlands Future Mobility to deploy 5G on more than 300 miles of test routes in theWest Midlands. www.vodafone.co.uk