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Le Groupe Ouest is an atypical member of the Images et Réseaux cluster: it is a European center for film creation; it chose a picturesque part of western Brittany as its home; and it positions itself as a center for research on animation films, computer graphics, 3D images and digital art.

Antoine Le Bos, one of the founder members, now artistic manager of Le Groupe Ouest, reminds us of the idea that led to the inception of the organization in 2006: Antoine Le Bos »With a population 10 times smaller than Brittany, Iceland produces seven or eight feature films per year. So we decided we should act as if Brittany was a small European country. We have all the talent and all the skills we need here. We have the creative capability. The advance of current technologies allows us to decentralize and set in motion a high-quality European film creation dynamic. »

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Sodius is a company specialized in the engineering of complex systems. Created in 1999, it now employs 25 persons, in Nantes where the R&D team is based, in Paris and in the United States. Jean-Philippe Lerat, who manages the company, describes the very specific activity of Sodius: « Our main activity is the design of complex systems: organizing the design, working methodically, planning the architectures, predicting performances, etc. Since 2002, we launched an R&D program on the interoperability of design tools. Our aim is to facilitate the dialogue between the different tools from the different disciplines that take part in the design of a complex system. »

International contracts have always been our locomotive

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Laurent Bouillot, Siradel’s CEO, created the company in 1994, just after he finished his studies: « I thought up the project during my last PhD year. My idea was to use my knowledge about electromagnetic wave propagation to study the radio coverage of mobile networks. I obtained my first contract after two months, and the calculation of radio coverage needs is still our main activity today. »

Siradel initially experienced gradual development before its profits took off in 2003: « When 3G networks were being introduced, we had several years of experience. We were ready. Since then, our sales have increased by 20 to 30 % year on year. Today we have nearly 200 clients in more than 50 countries. They are mainly mobile network operators. They use us to refine and optimize the dimensioning of their infrastructure. In spite of our small size, we are one of the world leaders in our field. »

When you work a lot in the international arena, it is easier to keep your balance despite adverse events

Laurent Bouillot

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Despite its modest size – this SME based on the outskirts of Rennes employs 200 people – Astellia is the world’s third biggest mobile network performance measurement business. « Our competitors are big multinationals« , explained Christian Quéffelec. « But we are known as being pure players, real specialists in mobile network performance and quality of service analysis. That is what has enabled us to grow rapidly since the company was formed less than 10 years ago. »

We have 150 customers in 80 different countries

Christian Quéffélec

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The École de design Nantes Atlantique design school was founded in 1988 for 80 students who were learning only industrial product design. Twenty years later, the role of designers has evolved significantly, and so has the École de design. It has now become a reference for design schools in France and beyond, which trains 700 students every year in subjects as various as product design, space design, graphic design and interactivity design. By 2012, student numbers should reach 1,000.

Frédéric Degouzon

Frédéric Degouzon is head of the R&D department. He tells us more about the research activities that he is responsible for developing: « Research is a new activity in our discipline. It is mainly applied research linked to teaching programs. Three of these programs are closely related to the Images et Réseaux cluster’s domains: Tangible interfaces which are new ways of interacting with digital interfaces, virtual reality which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, and what we call new mobility with its consequences in terms of design of transport and services. »

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The optical transport equipment market is a very competitive sector in which Ekinops is in competition with much larger companies. This SME, that currently has 65 employees, draws its strength from an original positioning that it adopted from the outset in 2003. Ekinops has developed a totally flexible and scalable modular platform – the Ekinops 360 platform – which makes it possible to significantly reduce the cost of implementing high-speed optical networks.

« The added value in our system, explains François-Xavier Ollivier, CTO and co-founder of Ekinops, is that we are capable of aggregating and transporting heterogeneous flows, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Sonet/SDH and all types video flows, on the same carrier and at all speeds. Our solutions are based on a programmable component, the T-chip from Ekinops, and on optical transport error correction technology that is amongst the most effective in the industry. Our platform integrates easily into metropolitan, regional and long distance optical networks. »

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Inria, the French national institute for research in computer science and control, undertakes fundamental and applied research in the field of ICST (Information and Communication Sciences and Technology). It has eight research centers in France, including Inria Rennes-Bretagne Atlantique. The proximity of this center with the Media & Networks cluster is both geographical and thematic since Inria Rennes-Bretagne Atlantique’s preferred field of research is located at the point of convergence between computers, telecommunications and multimedia.

Patrick Bouthemy is the director. He presents the research center’s activities in greater detail: « We have three priorities for the direction of our research: large-scale networks and distributed systems, design, analysis and compilation of embedded software, and images and multi-modal data, which include methods and uses such as medical imaging. Our Inria center represents approximately 600 people, and the researchers are divided into around thirty project teams. »

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TeamCast is a young enterprise. Created in 2003 near the city of Rennes, it has grown rapidly and is now a major player in the digital broadcasting industry. Gérard Faria is the Executive Director. He stresses the deliberately highly targeted positioning of TeamCast: « We are concentrating on the digital television and mobile television markets. We do not offer end to end solutions. We sell OEM modules designed to be integrated into professional transmission, measurement and reporting solutions. Our clients are network equipment manufacturers, measurement equipment manufacturers, television operators or mobile network operators. They buy TeamCast products because of their high performance characteristics. »

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