05 July 2007
Logicalis Serves Up IP Network for Wimbledon
Rolling programme of improvements has IP at its centre
Slough, England, 5 July 2007: The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), has successfully completed the first stage of a network overhaul in time for the start of The Wimbledon Championships, the premier tennis tournament in the world, on 25 th June.
The new Cisco IP network installed and managed by international solutions provider Logicalis, will form the bedrock of a state-of-the-art facilities programme. Over 50 systems will run across the network as part of the club's ongoing mission to provide improved facilities, for close to half a million spectators, players, officials, and media who attend the two week event.
Applications running across the network include critical security accreditation to authenticate the 6,000 support staff, a ticket monitoring service enabling tickets to be resold when spectators leave the event and, new for this tournament, a live IPTV stream to be screened at points throughout the ground to ensure media, spectators, and players see as much of the on court action as possible.
Internet access for nearly 1,000 of the world's media, players and other staff and a transport booking system all run over the IP network. In addition, the Wimbledon Information and TV commentators systems, powered by IBM and used by the media are all dependent on the smooth running and constant availability of the network.
Jeff Lucas, IT Director, AELTC said, "For two weeks of the year response times are measured in seconds not minutes. With so many critical systems running over the network, availability is critical. Finding a partner whose reputation in their field matched ours was essential. At every stage of the tender process Logicalis came out on top. Both the team and their solid references inspired us with confidence and the smooth implementation, on time and on budget, shows we made the right choice."
Tom Kelly, managing director, Logicalis UK added, "Wimbledon has an international reputation as the premier tennis championship in the world. Working closely with the IT team, we have evolved a standard network deployment into a robust state-of-the-art foundation, upon which a plethora of new systems and emerging technologies can be built. In this way, new technologies and new infrastructures will remain key to maintaining the club's world class reputation well into the 21 st century."
Phase two of the network roll out will take place after Wimbledon and will include services such as IP Telephony, internal communications, and a public address system.
About The All England Lawn Tennis Club
The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) runs the Wimbledon Championships, the premier tennis event in the world and played on grass. Blending tradition with innovation Wimbledon presents the beguiling spectacle of the supreme talent and athleticism of the world's best tennis players amid the timeless elegance and charm of tennis in an English country garden.
More than 450,000 people attend The Championships; 5.5 million unique users follow events online, while an estimated worldwide audience of 562 million homes across 178 territories are able to view TV coverage of Wimbledon.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international provider of integrated ICT solutions, delivering secure, converged computing and communications infrastructure and services.
We can provide the architecture, deployment, integration and management of networks and systems to deliver leading edge solutions that create value for our customers and meet their business needs now and into the future.
Logicalis is a trusted provider of multi-vendor solutions and services operating in the most complex and challenging business environments. Our relationships with the industry's leading technology suppliers, combined with our business understanding enable you to invest with confidence.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited (DTC), a $3.2 billion multi-national Group listed on the AIM market of the LSE and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. With international headquarters in the UK, the Logicalis Group has operations in the US, UK, Germany, and South America.
Logicalis UK has achieved independent certification for its integrated management system, information security, IT service management offerings and its environmental standards: ISO 9001; ISO 27001; ISO 20000 and ISO14001 respectively.
For more information, please contact:
Amy Mills
Fleishman-Hillard
+44 (0)207 395 7186
amy.mills@fleishmaneurope.com