The Digital and New Media industries in the Sheffield city region are growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the UK in terms of specialist companies and new jobs. This substantial cluster of companies now share a unique body of experience and talent that makes Sheffield one of the leading centres of creativity and digital specialism in the country. It is a sector locally that is characterised by a combination of high performing home-grown businesses (such as Zoo Digital, Sumo, PlusNet, Technophobia and Jennic) and international market leaders (such as AutoDesk, ARM, Ansys and OCLC).
Many of these company's operations can be found in the city's Digital Square Mile, a concentration of activity in the centre of Sheffield that includes much of the supporting infrastructure for Digital and New Media industries; business incubators, managed workspace, specialist business support, research institutions, university departments and public amenities. The focus of all this activity in a particular part of Sheffield city centre has created a dynamic location for hundreds of businesses in the sector.
Key Strengths
Interactive Media
Interactive services, applications and content bring together the worlds of computing, the web, mobile phones and console games and Sheffield companies are at the vanguard of this media revolution. The likes of Quba and Desq are establishing a national reputation as leaders in this field of interactive media and the Docfest, as well as being an annual documentary film festival are pioneering in this field with their Crossover labs.
Also 4IP has arrived in Sheffield. This is a £10m fund to support the delivery of new and interesting 'beyond TV' content across digital media platforms. This is a major part of Channel 4's aim to evolve from a publisher broadcaster into a multiplatform network; from a commissioner of TV programmes into an investor in original interactive media products and services.
Sheffield is also home to Just:b who describe themselves as collaborators and catalysts in the field of interactive media. They work across the UK and internationally organising events and stimulating debate on the future of interactivity.
Design
With the city's long history in innovation, design is interwoven in the fabric of Sheffield culture and the 'Made in Sheffield' brand is famous throughout the world. Design is still at the forefront of the Sheffield economy as the city maintains a reputation for quality products based on technical innovation and design. There are also world leaders in relation to the production of creative content in the spheres of video games, film making and branding.
ICT Services
Sheffield provides a convenient base for a number of global IT industry operations offering full lifecycle services from design through to delivery and ongoing support of large scale enterprise systems. Companies with major operations in Sheffield include HSBC, who run one of their global IT centres from the city, EDS and Fujitsu Siemens. There are also a number of niche technology companies developing new mobile and web applications.
Key market areas
E-learning
Sheffield has established itself as the UK centre of e-learning with around 1000 people employed in e-learning development and service businesses. The city is home to two of the largest applied e-learning services in the world; Ufi leandirect and e-SY.info, as well as a breadth of companies covering the full spectrum of e-learning solutions and online information services.
Sheffield is also home to Learning Light, a centre of excellence in the use of learning technologies in the workplace and organisational learning best practice.
Learning Light:
- Provide access to world class knowledge, research and learning.
- Act as a conduit between learning technology buyers and suppliers.
- Work with businesses to help apply best practice knowledge to help improve business performance.
See the download to the right of the page for the UK e-learning report 2009 by Learning Light.
Video Games
Sheffield companies are taking advantage of the opportunities presented by a rapidly growing global video games market and are developing international reputations in the field of digital arts and entertainment. Sheffield has a long history of involvement in video games technology and development having been home to the likes of Gremlin, Infogrames and Argonaut in the past. The city is now the chosen location for one of Europe's most successful studios, that of Sumo Digital. There are also a number of smaller innovative companies operating in the area including Tuna Technologies, Distinctive Developments and Chemistry.
People, Skills and Knowledge
The Sheffield city region draws on a working age population of 1.3 million people and there are 32,000 undergraduates and post-graduates in the Travel to Work area who are studying Computing, Applied IT and Digital Media; 6,000 of these are in Sheffield and 20% enter the workforce each year.
There are 12 universities within peak hour travel time of Sheffield making this Britain's most concentrated and popular higher education destination outside London. These universities generate around 50,000 graduates per year, including 6,000 graduating within DNM specialisms.
The region boasts a wealth of knowledge with research centres in digital technologies ranging fron Semi-conductors to learning science and from smart cards to visualisation. Four of the local universities are in the national top 20 in computer science and for Art & Design, including interactive media.
- The University of Sheffield has one of the major research-led Computer Science Departments in the UK, with a grade 5 RAE rating
- The Training Foundry from Sheffield Hallam in partnership with CISCO, Microsoft and Adobe
- Postgraduate expertise taught by Sheffield Hallam University with Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and Cisco
Property & Infrastructure
Sheffield city centre has seen a significant amount of redevelopment in the last decade. One of the new schemes, the first phase of which has recently become available, is the Sheffield Digital Campus. This is a development of office buildings designed specifically for businesses in the digital and IT sectors, located adjacent to the mainline rail station and at the heart of the digital square mile.
Electric Works is a managed workspace facility at the Sheffield Digital Campus which opened in early 2009. As well as offering state of the art office accommodation for Digital and New Media businesses, the building is also equipped with an advanced digital infrastructure. This includes an injection suite enabling high bandwidth media content transfer connectivity to the main broadcasting hubs.
In addition to the facilities at the Sheffield Digital Campus, the immediate vicinity also benefits from over 100,000 sq ft of existing space for Digital and New Media businesses. This includes the Workstation, part of a complex, not only providing small offices, but also a 5 screen independent cinema and a cafe bar. There is also the award-winning business incubator at the Sheffield Technology Parks where new start technology companies in the Digital and New Media sector can access support.
Sheffield also benefits from being part of the South Yorkshire Digital Region. This ambitious £100m project commencing in 2009 will be a high profile pilot for Next Generation Broadband Access across the UK and beyond, providing the required 'test bed' infrastructure for use by market leaders in the digital economy, in offering capability for advanced applications. The Digital Region network will reach nearly 600,000 homes and businesses and deliver speeds in excess of 25Mbps.
Regional and national support organisations
Game Republic
Screen Yorkshire
Learning Light
NESTA
Technology Strategy Board
For further information and tailored support please contact: