DataPro, premier Internet service provider, ran a first of a kind intercontinental Webcast on 3 March when it beamed a Webcast of a live surgical operation from Australia to the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction in Cape Town.
DataPro has recently installed a 1MB Internet line at the hotel to equip all 172 bedrooms and public areas with instant high-speed Internet capabilities.
Chris Hitchcock, network support manager at DataPro, said Orthomedics, the local distributor of DuPuy - the world leaders in orthopaedic devices such as artificial joints - used the live operation to train local surgeons.
Hitchcock said the Webcast was beamed from Australia to 12 countries worldwide. "We set up a 256k feed from their London server to the conference room at the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction. By providing support for the video streaming and chat system, local surgeons were able to ask questions while the surgeon performed the operation."
He said Orthomedics spent four months trying to find a suitable venue with enough bandwidth to run the three-hour Webcast without disruption of the feed.
The Protea Hotel Victoria Junction is believed to be one of the first hotels - if not the first - to offer this solution in terms of true high-speed Internet access associated with both an in-room and wireless connection.
The public areas throughout the hotel are capable of complete wireless connectivity, called hotspots. These hotspots have been implemented for both the guests and visitors, allowing for prepaid, credit card and hotel room billing.
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