HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will be visiting Salford as part of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. While her Majesty tours the Studios at MediaCityUK used by the BBC, The Duke will unveil a specially-commissioned holographic animation at the University’s state-of-the-art facility during a tour of the MediaCityUK development.

His Royal Highness has a long association with the University, having become its first Chancellor when it received the Royal Charter from The Queen in 1967. He remained in post until 1991, visiting the campus several times, and will now have the opportunity to see the facilities and technology at the new MediaCityUK teaching, learning and research space which is available to 1,500 students at the heart of the media and creative industries, including the BBC and, from later this year, ITV.

After a welcome from Chancellor Dr Irene Khan, Chairman of the University’s Council Dr Alan Mawson, Vice-Chancellor Professor Martin Hall and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr Adrian Graves, The Duke will see a unique interactive art installation marking 100 years since the birth of pioneering computer scientist and mathematician Alan Turing.

Entitled Decode/Recode, the work will link graphic design and creative technology students at MediaCityUK with participants at campuses around the world in a 24-hour networked media ‘jam’, exchanging images, video, text and computer code inspired by Turing. The results will be displayed on the giant, ultra-high resolution video tile screen in the facility’s ground floor ‘Egg’ auditorium.

The Duke will see students filming a game show-style programme in one of the building’s two professional-standard television studios before entering the Digital Performance Lab, a technologically-advanced creative media teaching and research space, where His Royal Highness will experience a research project focusing on Salford Quays and Trafford Park and the first radio broadcasts from 1922.

Concluding the visit, His Royal Highness will officially open the building by flicking the switch on a 3D holographic, animated display incorporating the University’s logo and visual representations of its four strategic themes of Media and Digital Technology; Health and Wellbeing; Energy; and Built Environment.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Martin Hall said: “We are particularly proud of our association with the Duke of Edinburgh, the University of Salford’s first Chancellor. It is wonderful that he will be able to inaugurate our new facility at MediaCityUK.”

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