The MMFA explores the potential of 5G for Quebec culture
5G technology is coming to the nation soon, but are we ready to exploit its full potential? In connection with CEFRIO’s ENCQOR project, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and 17 museum network partners are taking the lead by launching an extensive digital project regarding the possibilities of applying this technology in the cultural sphere. The MMFA will have three years to explore this potential, anticipate changes and propose innovations and new tools that will benefit Quebec culture.
5G is the fifth generation of wireless data sharing technology. It will significantly increase our data transfer capacities from 100 megabytes per second to 10,000 megabytes per second. Spearheaded by the Government of Canada and five digital technology giants – Ericsson, Ciena, Thales, IBM and CGI – the ENCQOR project invites industry players and SMEs to use Canada’s first pre-commercial 5G digital infrastructure corridor. Accordingly, the MMFA and its collaborators will have a chance to experiment with this network which is 100 times more powerful.
The project is piloted by PRISM, the MMFA’s Digital Mediation Innovation Laboratory and will enlist the following museum and university partners: the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Phi Centre, CREO, Culture pour tous, GenieLab, iSCAN, MEM - Centre des mémoires montréalaises, the Musée de la civilisation de Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museums, the Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée POP de Trois-Rivières, the Quartier des spectacles Partnership, the Société des musées du Québec, Synapse C, Concordia University, Université du Québec à Montréal, and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.
Also, PRISM collaborates with Bryn William-Jones, associate professor and director of Bioethics Programmes at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal, who advises it on ethical questions raised by the projects and the arrival of 5G in the urban environment.
Photo: Frédéric Faddoul
