The announcement today by Finance Wales, the Welsh Development Agency’s venture capital arm, of its lead in a £1 million investment in Pedagog Ltd of South Wales, is indicative that the British telecoms industry may at last start to see a return on the billions invested in third-generation (3G) mobile phone programmes.

Despite its relatively small size, Pedagog is one of the world’s leading companies in wireless multi-media and specifically the transmission of video over narrow bandwidths. Its key technology is known as UMA (Unified Media Architecture) which already allows anyone with a mobile phone and a hand-held palm computer to transmit and receive high-quality live video pictures over any distance.

Before the end of this year Pedagog will be able to send colour pictures (picture messaging) to be viewed by the new generation of multi-media mobile (MMS) phones expected this summer. By then the company will have signed contracts with the television industry and with football clubs which will enable them to send video clips from movies or football matches over the mobile phone; and it will have introduced multi-media messaging, where your mobile phone messages are read to you by an image of your favourite pop star or football player.

It is the application of the new technology to projects like these which should help the telecoms industry to develop the huge new market in mobile phones which has become the holy grail of the industry.

Currently the key application for the video-over-mobile-phone technology is in closed circuit television where the company has established a strong and fast-growing revenue stream - still eluding most players in the industry. Because there is no wiring involved, a town centre surveillance installation costs only a fraction of a conventional CCTV system since cameras can be placed in isolated areas without having to spend large sums of money running cable down walls and digging up the neighbourhood.
But of even greater significance is that this camera/mobile phone combination, trademarked Open Circuit Television (OCTV), can be used in any household so that a home-owner can see what is happening in every room in his house in Britain while he is sitting in his hotel room in Hong Kong.

And in another new development known as Telemedicine, Pedagog has a three-phase development plan with the Welsh Assembly to focus on providing junior doctors in A & E with a palm top PC which will enable them to access specialist advice and visual information as they deal with patients in trauma. (More to come on Telemedicine as and if required).
This is the Pedagog future in which Finance Wales and its operating agencies Wales Fund Managers Ltd and UK Steel Enterprise Ltd is investing, alongside Regional Selective Assistance from the Welsh Assembly.

Further information from :
Derek Thurgood Dr Olinga Ta’eed
Head of Corporate Affairs C.E.O.
Pedagog Ltd. Pedagog Ltd.
01491 572832 (home) and Tel : 0779 860 2987
0788 784 2023 (mobile) (mobile)

12 noon 12th June 2002 DOT/OT