Ripon Building to house hi-tech digital centre to help start-ups

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the Digital Experience Centre would have three segments to help the start-ups or innovators to showcase and explain their products and services to clients. “The first part of the centre will be a hall to present prototypes of the services or products. The second part would consist of screens, acoustics and walls to enable 3D Digital Walkthrough Protocol and the third part will be a hall for experts who would review and make suggestions on the innovations,” the official added.

Explaining the technology of 3D Digital Walkthrough Protocol, the official said that the consumers or the clients could walk through the 3D digital model of the services or products to feel the product more realistically. “With the help of this new facility, the changes and modifications can be made before implementing the project physically,” the official told DT Next.

Even though the new and ‘first-of-its-kind’ facility in Tamil Nadu is coming under Smart City Funds and is implemented by Greater Chennai Corporation, all the departments of the state could utilise the Digital Experience Centre to test and review products and services they intend to procure from innovators. “This novel project has been implemented under public, private partnership (PPP) mode and the civic body will not charge users of the centre for the first one year. Later, the fee will be fixed based on patronage. We need a great number of innovators to assist in implementing government schemes,” explained the official.

The centre would act as a bridge between the government departments and entrepreneurs, where entrepreneurs would showcase the prototypes while departments explicate their needs.

Making a head start in bringing the project into reality, the civic body had invited potential System Integrators to build and provide technical needs of the centre. A pre-bid meeting for the project would be conducted on Thursday at Ripon Building and the bids are set to be opened on October 12, the official said.

Three dimensional approach