INNOVATORS: QUANTUM BEAM.

With wireless technology no longer relying solely on high--frequency radio signals, low power lasers are ready to boost the high-speed internet link. Andrew Parkes sees it as more than just a flash in the pan

Factfile

Name: Quantum Beam

Web: www.quantumbeam.co.uk

Employees: 20

Capitalisation: [pound]7m

Location: Cambridge

Product: Laser based wireless broadband communication system

Funding: www.generics.co.uk and www.sandercapital.com and www.intel.com/capital/

Alan Green and Dr Euan Morrison were researching optics and broad band communications for Scientific Generics when they considered the low power laser beam might be another way of transmitting large amounts of information.

Scientific Generics agreed to sponsor Quantum Beam with a research grant of [pound]100,000. Andrew Parkes, who worked for the Scipher Group, was recruited as the company's chief executive officer.

While at Scipher, Parkes was part of the management buyout of the company and its eventual flotation. He had the business skills to tap into the potential funding that Quantum Beam needed.

He also knew there was a market in the US for wireless technology and that US venture capitalists with UK offices would be more open-minded to the idea.

Quantum Beam raised [pound]7m in funding, but Parkes said the negotiations were not all plain sailing. He also said the company's beginnings were a little stifled because he could not find enough staff. The difficulties of recruiting people with the right skills in optics and communications is a problem the company still faces.

The wireless communications supplied by Quantum Beam use a laser to send signals from one location to another with opto-electronic devices that act as receivers and transmitters.

The laser is fired at a target, and unless that 'hub' of the communication network is the signal's destination, it is bounced to another location.

Once reaching its destination the signal is turned into an electrical signal, which is then transmitted along a conventional network of lines.

The advantages of the system are that it is easy to install, does not need a licence -- unlike radio transmissions -- and does not require expensive optical fibre.

The downsides include problems posed by fog, which can absorb the laser light. But this is also a problem for 20--40Ghz radio frequencies -- the only competing radio frequency that can carry as much data as Quantum Beam's lasers.

At present the company is based at Scientific Generic's site, but Parkes has invested in a 13th century barn that is being converted. Based near Duxford aerodrome, the company is expected to move in shortly. And by the end of June, Parkes hopes to have grown the Company to around 35 people.