PAV'S FREE SPACE OPTICS MAKE THE GRADE Great Yarmouth Borough Council opens up high bandwidth connectivity to a number of its sites to increase capacity and save money using Free Space Optic technology. Great Yarmouth Borough Council urgently needed to increase the bandwidth between the Town Hall - a Grade I* listed building - and a depot where its Back-up server was to be installed. With the added consideration of the equipment not being obtrusive, a solution was found using Free Space Optic (FSO) technology. The PAVLight FSO system was installed within the tower on the Town Hall - totally hidden from view. As it uses infra-red - which can operate through a glass window - the system, in direct line of sight of the depot some 1.5 kilometres away provided fast Ethernet LAN access. The Council then asked PAV if voice could be added between the two links, and a solution was installed within three days. The Council now has an integrated broadband solution running over the 155M link. This simultaneously supports 30 Voice channels, providing connectivity between two Siemens Realitis DX telephone systems, and 100 Base T Ethernet channels linking the council's MIS networks. So successful was this installation, that the Council then specified FSO to provide another link between the Town Hall and the Planning Office in the south east of the town. Another link head has been situated in the tower, providing a 100M fast Ethernet system - replacing a standard 10M radio Ethernet system. There is a further advantage, as when the Planning Office moves to another building later this year, the FSO link can be moved simultaneously. Geoff Jones, Operations Manager at Great Yarmouth Borough Council said: "This technology has provided the ideal solution for our needs - not only because of its speed of deployment, and cost effectiveness against any leased line alternative of an equivalent speed, but we now have a true LAN speed connection between the two sites with no ongoing rental charges. This should save us a considerable amount of money over the next five years. Having seen the success of the first link, we have had no hesitation in deploying the system for a second application." The PAVLight systems were supplied by local PAV reseller, Affinity, based near Bury St Edmunds. Paul White of Affinity commented: "Great Yarmouth Council's use of FSO clearly demonstrates a number of benefits, and indeed this technology is gaining popularity by such local government bodies located on more than one site."

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