TEAC UK Wave 3: six shortlisted start ups in the running

In order to extend and enhance mobile capability in-building and in rural settings, network infrastructure specialist ADVA presented an open host solution for campus-style and local networks that would underpin a plug-and-play combination of radio area network, edge core, virtualised infrastructure, and service provider gateway. This blended the Wave3 themes of edge computing and 5G private network.

ADVA’s proposition centres on consolidating several key elements into a single building block, bringing together what Nazirali Rajvani, panel member and BT’s Mobile Architecture & Solutions Director, later called “the basic components that we tend to forget about”. Anthony Magee, Senior Director for Global Business Development in ADVA’s mobile division, said that “ADVA is taking its mobile backhaul expertise and combining it with edge compute”. The implementation ensures improved network performance, reach, and synchronisation — to achieve low‑latency connections in under‑served areas. The technology already exists to improve 4G, and ultimately 5G, coverage to reach all areas in the UK, both indoor and rural, but collaboration between equipment vendors and mobile network operators is required to leverage existing infrastructure.

With ADVA being an established supplier to BT and Openreach (see separate report), and so pitching as technology innovator rather than startup, Magee said involvement in the TEAC community should be seen as an incubation effort for the project. This would provide opportunity to forge new enabling relationships within BT and with startups and system integrators in the space, in order to accelerate introduction of a solution that could drastically improve the UK’s mobile coverage. In particular, Magee promoted ADVA’s stance on virtualised network function (VNF) onboarding: “we’re very open, very open”. It was this openness that formed the common thread through the ADVA pitch, which at times appeared to be a call to other players for collaboration as much as winning a new tie-in with BT.

Interestingly, ADVA’s solution looked very closely aligned with the forthcoming field trials of BT’s own vRAN FronthaulProject activity involving 2018 winner Accelleran (see separate report).

Swedish provider Cloud Backend pitched an edge computing Platform‑as‑a‑Service (PaaS) offering, layering its solution on top of existing cloud infrastructure by leveraging artificial intelligence, big data, and edge computing for applications such as connected cars and smart buildings. It aims to mitigate the potential issues of 5G data management by offering a cross‑border, inter‑operator, standardised PaaS.

Daniel Arthursson, Cloud Backend founder and Chief Executive, argued that “‘no code’ is a requirement for edge to work”, and so proposed a distributed data management platform that could underpin edge computing as a solution, bolstered by a decentralised, serverless model. Delivered with confidence, Arthursson fielded questions from the judges well but could not navigate the panel’s cynicism when it came to overheads, specific use‑cases, and competitor alternatives.

Although not a Wave3 winner, Cloud Backend recently joined mobilityXlab, a connected vehicle testbed where it adds its PaaS edge‑computing expertise to innovation from Swedish connected mobility leaders such as Ericsson, Volvo, and CEVT. In a pre-seed funding round, CloudBackend raised $820,000 and has a notable board of advisors, including Jean Paolio (former President of Microsoft Open Technologies) and Rikard Kjellberg (Chief Product Officer of network AI company B-Yond). It joined Sweden’s software organisation Swedsoft in December 2018.

Bristol‑based Condense Reality seeks to bring 3D, volumetric video content into consumer homes, with a focus on sports broadcasting.

In order to make volumetric video a viable option for broadcasting, Chief Executive Nick Fellingham described the necessity of reducing the cost of current solutions. In particular, this means reducing the number of cameras required and bringing the technology into sports arenas (current alternatives can require hundreds of cameras in a studio).

While reducing the number of cameras lessens the quality of video output considerably, which makes augmented reality (AR) viewing near‑impossible, Condense Reality leverages deep learning and artificial intelligence to “fill in the holes” to create 3D models in real‑time in a virtual environment. This approach might go some way towards addressing BT Sport Chief Operating Officer Jamie Hindhaugh’s previously declared scepticism on the merits of 3D sport coverage (BTwatch, # 297), but the business model was insufficient to win over the TEAC panel.

While the startup currently has no deals with broadcasters, Condense Reality has set itself the target of achieving a “beta partnershipwith a UK broadcaster” by the end of 2020, alongside a deal with a telecoms provider to support the large amounts of data transferred every second when using its 5G‑reliant technology. Fellingham hopes the technology can be seen as a “catalyst for 5G uptake among sports fans”. Condense Reality is a member of the Nvidia Inception Program, a virtual accelerator that grants access to deep learning expertise as well as hardware. Its founders and executive board are dominated by ex‑Twitter engineers, giving the team a social- and analytics-leaning that showed in the pitch.

The judges appeared to be seeking a wider market appeal beyond sports broadcasting, however, which may have been a reason for Condense Reality’s placement behind winner DoubleMe, which also pitched an AR/VR product.

TDCOMM’s defence sector background featured strongly in its pitch for local cellular networks as an alternative to private LTE networks, which it considers require costly infrastructure and feature physical obstacles to adoption.

TDCOMM aims to provide a locally‑managed, seamless, multi‑layer software platform that is located on the lower layer of the cellular core to support all generations of connectivity up to 5G, thus facilitating configuration and management from a local Security Operations Centre (SOC). By giving the control to the SOC and retaining control of firewalls and security efforts, TDCOMM hopes to ensure greater security without friction points seen in private LTE networks that require a change of SIM card.

TDCOMM seeks to build partnerships with telcos, whilst selling to network equipment providers and global systems integrators in order to implement the solution in areas where security and communications are imperative, pointing to airports and military buildings as primary examples.

With larger networks, however, TDCOMM conceded that competition from industry kingpins like Ericsson and Nokia could prove difficult to overcome unless enterprise customers recognised the benefit of extensive flexibility and on‑premise control. Its entry point onto market, though, will be its network‑in‑a‑box product, which it claims is unique in its configurability for medium‑sized networks.