Media Centre
Uecomm Ethernet technology delivers scalability, resilience to market leading production specialist
LAN technology has moved in leaps and bounds since Wellcom, one of Australia’s leading production businesses, first launched in Australia in 2000.Providing specialist services to advertising agencies, corporations and to leading retailers, Wellcom’s business is dependent on the efficient transfer of large image files between its clients, media agencies and team of designers.
Prior to the introduction of carrier-grade Ethernet technology in Australia, Wellcom would need to convert low-resolution images for client review and approval and then change them back to high-resolution images after each stage of editing as the bandwidth available on legacy ISDN and Frame Relay infrastructure simply did not allow for the transfer of large image files.
As pioneers in the industry, Wellcom recognised that a high bandwidth solution would allow it to cut down on time delays and increase efficiency, while also leading to fewer errors in finished artwork.
Wellcom invested in a combination of both licenced microwave and Ethernet technology depending on the location and cost of deployment at each site.
While microwave technology offers similar benefits as Ethernet, it requires the installation and management of the external receiver hardware, which comes with added costs and investment of the business’ IT staff to manage the link.
In comparison, Ethernet is simple to administer, more affordable and easily scalable to meet the needs of any business.
According to Wellcom’s Network and Communications Manager, Robert Broomhead, Ethernet technology has provided the business with a scalable network that provides greater bandwidth and capacity while reducing the businesses’ investment in additional IT management resources.
“Our network is constantly changing as we add new clients. Ethernet technology allows us to easily deploy new links to our client’s offices without the need for us to employ external contractors to develop or manage the service,” he said.
The high bandwidth available on Ethernet has also allowed Wellcom to achieve greater efficiencies and reductions in errors.
“In the past, we would need to substitute high-resolution images with low-resolution images for client review and approval, as we couldn’t send large files on the network.
“Our increased network capacity has eliminated the need to do this, so we now see less errors in finished artwork, spend less time in the editing suite, as well as reduce the amount of versions for customer approval, which also benefits our customers,” he said.
Wellcom has also recently introduced an Image Library service for its customers who can now host all of their clients’ images in one location, making it easy for their marketing departments and media agencies.
Wellcom has 14 sites on Uecomm’s fibre Ethernet delivering a 10 or 100 Mbps service to each site, an additional eight sites use microwave technology.
