Shiona McCallum, presenter of the BBC’s Tech Life programme, has been navigating Europe’s biggest tech events – and this week she found herself at VivaTech in Paris, a sprawling showcase of gadgets that could soon be in homes and workplaces. Among the exhibits, she tried on wearable tech, a glimpse of the devices that may become commonplace within a few years.
But the episode’s real focus turned to a less glamorous but increasingly contentious technology: data centres. They are central to modern online lives, but not everyone thinks they are great, McCallum noted. She sat down with the head of a major global data centre company to discuss the challenges facing the industry. The conversation, recorded for the programme, touched on the pressures data centres face as demand for digital services explodes – pressures that are not always visible to the consumers who rely on them.
“BBC Tech Life visits VivaTech in Paris; Shiona McCallum tries wearable tech and interviews a data centre head about industry challenges.”
The episode serves as a reminder that the physical infrastructure of the internet is often controversial, even as it becomes more essential. The interview with the data centre boss brought those tensions into sharp relief, though the details of the challenges – whether environmental, regulatory or logistical – were left for the listener to discover.
McCallum’s visit to VivaTech, a huge technology show in Paris, is part of a broader effort by BBC Tech Life to explore the real-world implications of emerging tech. With wearable tech already on show, the programme suggests that the next wave of consumer gadgets is closer than many realise – even as the hidden systems that power them face growing scrutiny.
