VIRTUAL Reality has blasted into the business orbit in Basingstoke.

A Virtual Reality Lab was launched in the town’s central business district Basing View yesterday to connect with the state-of-the-art 5G testbed.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, in collaboration with the University of Surrey 5G Innovation Centre, hosted the event at DeskLodge to give business leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators a glimpse of the future.

Guests had the opportunity to experience first-hand how streaming with Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) technologies could benefit their businesses and find out how the new digital testbed places the town at the forefront of the 5G revolution.

Cutting-edge VR/AR technologies combine the interactive capabilities of Virtual Reality with the connectivity features of 5G and can be utilised in the fields of medicine, education, the military and flight simulation, where computer-generated scenarios cleverly simulate the real world.

The launch event was part of TechTown, an URBACT project funded by the European Regional Development Fund, which brought together 11 European medium-sized cities.

The 5G VR launch celebrated the end of the TechTown project and the council’s economy and culture manager Daniel Garnier shared some of the plans to continue to support the growth of the digital tech sector in Basingstoke.

He said: “This is a very exciting new chapter in the development of the town as a leading player in the use and promotion of the latest digital capabilities for business.

“Virtual and Augmented Reality will enable us to see the world in a whole new way. It’s about creating a believable environment and interacting with all that’s going on.

“VR conjures up thoughts of gaming and 3D cinema, but its application is diverse in the business world too.

“Delivering this virtual world seamlessly requires anytime, anywhere connectivity and that’s what the 5G revolution will bring about - making these exciting technologies part of everyone’s life and not just about gamers!”