The Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed is in the running for a national technology award, thanks to acollaborative partnership with a Canadian company to manufacture street lamps for the UK market.

The annual ESTnet awards celebrate the success of companies in Wales’s technology sector, and this year’s short-list includes many small and start-up businesses in the software and technology sector, as well as established industry powerhouses such as the Sony UK Technology Centre, which is up for the collaborative partnership award based on the relationship it has developed with Nova Scotia-based LED Roadway Lighting.

Since the partnership was established in 2012, Sony UK Technology Centre has manufactured more than 15,000 lamp units for UK councils, and the forecast for 2015 is that the demand will continue to increase.

Steve Dalton, managing director of the Sony UK Technology Centre, said: “We manufacture Sony high-definition and broadcast cameras and equipment, but we also help start-ups, entrepreneurs and third-party organisations to get their product to market. Working in collaboration with LED Roadway Lighting is a perfect example of this.”

Meanwhile, huge global demand for the Raspberry Pi basic computer has helped to quadruple production at the Sony UK Technology Centre — from 18,000 to 80,000 units per week — to cope with the expected demand for the next-generation Raspberry Pi 2. This is expected to create another 30 jobs.