Over 60 Ster-Kinekor cinemas and offices in six regions around the country are to be linked to each other via a national data network, enabling new and exciting initiatives from the entertainment company.
This could eventually include satellite feeds to enable distributing movies to cinemas via the network, rather than having to make physical copies.
But rather than go to the expense of building its own state-of-the-art enterprise network, and establishing an MIS department to manage it, Ster-Kinekor has joined over 40 other SA companies and outsourced its new network requirements to OmniLink.
Established 18 months ago by Linx Holdings - a Dimension Data, Nedcor and Old Mutual joint venture - OmniLink is SA`s first and largest ATM-based quality-of-service Virtual Private Network (VPN).
According to Johan Botha, IT executive at Ster Kinekor theatres, it`s critical for the company to have an on-line network for ticket sales over the Internet and call centres via its TicketLine service, as well as a robust administrative control and communications system.
"We opted to go the OmniLink route because we didn`t have our own network backbone, and we felt we would benefit from the flexibility and scalability of the VPN. It enables us to have a mixture of permanent on-line connectivity and dial-up connections as required, without sacrificing on network integrity and performance.
"And with OmniLink, we can expand or modify our network as new cinemas are opened and others closed without the fuss or inconvenience of having to acquire new lines or shut down those no longer required. We also preferred not having to risk investing in equipment which could become obsolete or having to employ skilled technical people to set up and manage the network," he adds.
Ster-Kinekor was an existing Dimension Data Networking partner, with the company previously having been involved in the implementation of a small WAN incorporating Ster Kinekor Home Entertainment and an IP re-addressing structure.
"This established relationship was instrumental in our choice of Dimension Data Networking and OmniLink for the current project," Botha says.
Adrian Short, account manager at Dimension Data Networking which worked closely with Ster-Kinekor in assessing its wide area networking needs, supplied the hardware for the project and will be involved in monitoring it.
According to Val Moodley, manager of Business Development at OmniLink, planning for the Ster-Kinekor cut-over to the VPN is well advanced and the actual cut-over process is expected to be complete by September. This will bring the number of end devices linked to the OmniLink VPN to more than 350 000.
"Companies, like Ster-Kinekor, are able to select from the OmniLink suite of services to match their precise requirements. This includes OmniConnect, a service designed to provide regional office connectivity, and OmniDial which provides secure dial-up access for mobile and remote users," Moodley concludes.
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