4,000 researchers work in Rennes, mainly in the sectors of information and communication technologies.

In the IT sector, the Rennes area enjoys a high potential for research, both through specialist centres and in universities and leading engineering colleges. In Brittany, 56 public laboratories (30 in Rennes) employing 2,600 staff (2,000 in Rennes) are involved in research into new technologies in the electronics, computing and telecom sectors.

These research centres and laboratories provide companies with a means of optimising the know-how acquired through applied research and developing new techniques and products.

Alcatel-Lucent	NXP Semiconductors
Canon Research Centre France	Orange Business Services
CCMO	Renesas Design France
Celar	SFR SI
Cemagref	Silicon Laboratories
CNRS	Streamezzo
ENS Cachan	ST Microelectronics
Enensys Technologies	Supélec
Envivio	TDF
Etiam	Télécom Bretagne
France Télécom R&D	Thomson Grass Valley France
IETR	Thomson Software and Solutions
Insa	Thomson R&D
Inria/Irisa	Université de Rennes 1
Iwedia Technologies	Viaccess
Mitsubishi Electric ITE Europe	Westcast Systems
Motorola

Design, study, production and marketing of computer and data transmission equipment.

Basic research into image processing and encoding, applied research in wireless LANs.

Centre commun de microélectronique de l'Ouest

Research and training in microelectronics.

Technical Armaments Division (Ministry of Defence)

Testing and assessment of electronic and computer-based components, equipment and weapons systems. Fields covered include telecommunications, computer system security, electronic warfare, simulation, electronics technology and production of scientific computation.

Use of physical sensors (NMR, digital vision, MR imaging) for the non-destructive monitoring of product quality within the food-processing industry.

Research into computing and random systems, radiating structures, microelectronics and visual display.

Research in mechanical engineering, mechanical construction and CIM, electronics, biotechnology, electrotechnical studies, law, economics, management and marketing, computer science, sport sciences.

R&D on TV on mobile (DVB-H, T-DMB), video over IP (DVB-IPI).

Development and sales of intergated products, tools and systems for video, audio and multimedia data encoding, creation, distribution.

Data processing and telecommunications applied to medical imaging and medical equipment.

Research and development in audiovisual areas, of low and high bit rate multimedia, Internet. Multimedia services on Internet broadcasting networks. Mobile services and radio systems. Human interactions.

Fundamental and applied research in antennas and microwave circuits, microelectronics, propagation, coding, characterization of channel, radar systems, polarimetric radar remote sensing, wireless communications and image and signal processing.

Seven research laboratories in sectors linked to engineering courses; geomechanics, thermics and materials; structures and applied mechanics; components and systems for telecommunications; architecture and the processing of spatiotemporal pictures; applications in advanced electronic technics; solid physics; computing; chemistry of inorganic materials and cristallography; metal working and the physics and chemistry of materials; software, digital analysis and statistics.

Fundamental and applied research in Information and Communication Science and Technology (ICST).

•  Networks and systems
•  Components and architectures
•  Distributed systems and applications, grid computing
•  Software technology, programming languages
•  Diagnosing complex systems, man-machine communications
•  Digital images, multimedia
•  Signal processing
•  Scientific computing
•  Bioinformatics, medical imaging

Editor/integrator in the domain of digital medias. International provider of products and solutions for operators and digital devices manufacturers, for satellite, cable, terrestrial and xDSL broadcast networks.

Research in telecommunications based on future generations of communication systems.

• "Ultra Wide Band (UWB) wireless transmission systems using pulse radio and associated ad-hoc networks for dedicated applications.
• Advanced research in underlying technologies: digital communications, protocols, implementation
• Network security.

Development and integration of i-mode technololgy into 2.5G and 3G mobile terminals. Hardware, radio, software and mechanical developments.

Centre of excellence and i-mode client solutions of Motorola in Europe.

2G/2.5G/3G platform and reference design development.

Research and development, operation administration of data services and networks dedicated to corporate companies.

Applications hosting through Intranet, Extranet or Internet.

R&D on design and integration of solutions voice-data-image.

Conception of integrated circuits and software for mobile phones (GSM, GPRS, Edge, UMTS standards).

Development centre for management, technical and computer applications for SFR, telecom operator.

2G/2.5G/3G platform and reference design development:

•  Low layer software development (L1, drivers)
•  Hardware development (schematics, PCB, architecture, system)
•  Customer support.

Streamezzo

Studio solution for authoring rich media applications and interactive multimedia services for mobiles. Rich media content deployed accross all types of mobile phone networks from 2.5G to UMTS, as well as mobile broadcasting networks like DVB-H.

ST Microelectronics

Manufacture of electronic components of high reliability for the space and military applications

The campus of Rennes contains 6 research units in:

•  Hybrid dynamic systems
•  Real time and reactive systems: modelling and control
•  Integrated algorithm: circuits and systems design for signal processing and multimedia  communications
•  Signal processing and neural networks
•  Computers and networks security
•  Telecommunications networks, distributed applications and multimedia

Developments in multimedia services on air.

Two research departments in the campus of Rennes :

• Network and multimedia services - research topics: multimedia, performance evaluation, network reliability and performability, security, high speed network, distributed system, intelligent network,
• Economy applied to telecommunications.

Thomson Grass Valley France

(2 engineering centers in Cesson-Sévigné)

Center Clos Courtel street - R&D on networks, compression (MPEG4) and mobile TV. Broadcast R&D : wireless camera and modular products. Integration of systems.

Center Bray street - Digital systems in the field of professional TV for traditional TV operators and telecom operators. Solutions based on international digital TV standards (Mpeg-2, Mpeg-4, DVB, ATSC...), distributed via satellite, cable and terrestrial (hertzian) channels with increasing use of the Internet protocol (IP).

Development, marketing and sales of end-to-end media marking solutions for the broadcast industry. Solutions used to track video content from production to final distribution and to support rights management. Patented video watermarking technology originally developed within Thales group, then transfered to Thomson STS.

The centre masters the technologies of the whole audiovisual chain, from the studio to the consumer's TV screen.

Key skills: digital hardware and software system architectures, modulation/demodulation of digital signals, digital compression systems, digital signal processing, conditional access systems, man machine interfaces, flat screen TV technologies, micro-electronic assembly techniques, computer aided design of key components from ICs to PCBs, development of digital products conforming to the highest European standards.

Research within 7 laboratories:

•  Radiating structures (CNRS)
•  Microelectronics and imaging
•  Analysis of information processing systems (Ensatt college in Lannion)
•  Optronics (Ensatt college in Lannion)
•  Applied electronics
•  Instrumentation for components and materials
•  Fusion of observations and models in imaging and signal (Inserm unit)

Viaccess (France Telecom group)

Solutions for conditional access systems to safeguard content on televisions, mobile terminals and PCs.

R&D on Mpeg-7, TVanytime, XHTML, encoding and streaming technologies.