The UK Prime Minister is pushing ahead to make London a digital hub, signing with the Deputy Premier of China Li Leqiang to develop a carrier-neutral 4,000 sq m high specification data center to meet London's growing demand for video animation.

Soho Data Holdings, Vision IPTV and Playout247's sister company, will establish the £10m data center and render farm with Xiking Culture Media of Beijing.

The creative video and TV industries are set to benefit from the arrangement, the outcome of which will be a data center that supports the latest technology demands for the video animation, 3D TV and internet TV industries.

The data center will be based in Soho, in London's West End - the city's media heartland.

It will be used for colocation and will also provide managed services for high-yield computational capacity required for rendering applications.

Soho Data Holdings already operates a small data centre, Soho Data Centre, in the region. Its CEO John Mills this additional facility will enable local customers to create, store and produce digital content quickly, easily and cost effectively. 

"It is a key part of our comprehensive, end-to-end platform for internet TV broadcast and kicks-off the development of our relationship with our Chinese partners," Mills said.

Xiking Culture Media already President Ye Maoxi said the arrangement provides a platform to build a new generation of Chinese-British partnerships within the creative, cultural and media industries."