Polycom A Part Of Historic NBN Launch
On Wednesday 18th May, at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Armidale, the button was officially pushed to mark the launch of the NBN (National Broadband Network) linking mainland Australia and Tasmania. This event was attended by key figures, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Senator Stephen Conroy and NBNCo CEO Mike Quigley.
This was definitely a defining moment for one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Australia. Armidale was the first release site, linking mainland Australia to Tasmania. I was fortunate to be part of that event, representing Polycom. We were called by NBNCo to help out at this event, to provide the video connection that will demonstrate the network’s capabilities.
It was amazing to see just how quickly things were pulled together; the fibre into the building was installed very efficiently. Following the configuration of the video equipment, were up and having successful Point-to-Point calls between PLC Armidale and Circular Head Christian School in Tasmania. In addition to this, we completed multi-point calls between the schools and Polycom offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
It was a high profile event, with key ministers attending as well as national press, so we had to ensure that it worked perfectly. We worked closely with NBNCo at rehearsals and during tests so that any potential issues were ironed out straight away. It was a nerve-wracking event, with live feeds across Australia and the eyes of the press on the demo. I was very pleased when the choir from the two schools connected successfully and started singing in sync! As you can imagine, working with kids was challenging. To get much testing time in, we needed to wait until the Tuesday to lock down configuration of the endpoints. With great relief Tuesday’s testing came and went with no surprises and it was really impressive to see just how well the Polycom Live Music Mode performed with the piano and kids singing.
Come the live event on Wednesday, Polycom played a central role to this event to help write a part of Australia’s history, by running the first ever video application across the NBN. With the high profile and high risk associated with this event it was great to see all parties pull this off flawlessly – whilst even using a single piano located in Armidale!
I was really impressed by the work completed by members of NBNCo, who really believe in the change that the network can help bring to Australia. It will be interesting to see just how the NBN will change the way we all live and work.
