Strengths

A unique concentration of skills and expertise

There are a large number of telecommunications, digital image and audiovisual companies in Brittany and Pays de la Loire, which makes these regions fertile terrain for convergence between new video and network technologies.

Brittany's recent history includes many crucial advances in terms of the invention and development of world standards: ATM, MP3, JPEG, OFDM, Turbo codes, MPEG4… This technological excellence is rooted in the simultaneous presence of large manufacturers with a high commitment to R&D, a tightly woven grouping of innovative small and medium sized companies and dynamic public research activity. The development of complementary specialties in Pays-de-la-Loire has intensified this dynamic, such as for example software engineering in Nantes and virtual reality in Laval.

The combined effect of this activity creates enormous potential for development which the Images et Réseaux cluster is intent on bringing to fruition.

The major presence of large manufacturers in the sector

Initiated by France Télécom in 1960, the movement that involved the setting up of research and development centres of large French and foreign manufacturing companies in Brittany has been gradually consolidated. Alcatel-Lucent, Thomson, Thales and Mitsubishi have located their internationally renowned technical expertise in the area. France Télécom's Orange Labs laboratories are the world's third largest R&D centre in the telecoms sector, while Thomson is the world number 1 in image technologies.

Today, large companies in the fields of media and networks employ 11,000 people in Brittany.

A number of cutting edge companies

Many small and medium sized companies have sprung up in the wake of the large manufacturing companies and now make up a very close-knit network of specialized companies in one or other of the fields in the ICT sector. Some have gained international renown for their expertise and skills, establishing themselves as leaders in fields as varied as:

Optics, photonics, high speed optics, FTTx.
Digital image: HDTV, mobile TV, IPTV.
Radio transmission, high speed wireless transmissions.
Data security techniques, encryption, digital watermarking.
Complex system modelling techniques.
Applications based on virtual reality, 3D imaging and simulation.
User-friendliness of terminals, systems and applications.
Multimedia services.
etc.

Together, these companies cover a comprehensive panorama of disciplines in the fields of media and networks. And this complementarity of expertise is particularly favourable to innovation and collaboration.

Dynamic public research activity in the ICT sector

Brittany is the second most important French region in terms of public research in the information and communication technologies field.

The following research bodies are in presence: CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) with several research unit attached to its ICT department, INRIA (Institut National Recherche en Informatique et Automatique) with teams located in Rennes, Lannion and Nantes, IRISA (Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires), IETR (Institut d'Électronique et des Télécommunications de Rennes).

There are also the following higher education establishments: École Normale Supérieure Cachan Bretagne, INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées), Supélec, TELECOM Bretagne, ENSSAT (École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie) with its optronics laboratory, and several laboratories and scientific interest groupings bring together researchers from organisations and educational establishments already mentioned above, as well as university researchers.