More than 300 international and local professional surfers will descend on Durban's Golden Mile to compete in the 39th annual Mr Price Pro (formerly known as the Gunston 500, now part of the Durban Beach Festival) surfing contest, which boasts R1.1 million in prize money.
Internet Solutions (IS), a leading converged communications services provider, will once again be the technology partner for this event.
From 1 to 8 July, this six-star rated event is part of the World Qualifying Tour and attracts the top professional surfers - men, women and juniors - from all corners of the planet. There will also be a Junior event that will start on 29 June, before the main event.
"Events of this global reach and magnitude are dependent on efficient and reliable connectivity," says Greg de Chasteauneuf, technologist and Internet evangelist at IS.
"IS' partnership with Mr Price is one based on leading-edge technology. While providing connectivity for such an event is certainly a necessity, we wanted to stretch our imaginations to the limits and showcase some of the technologies which would have a certain 'cool' factor associated with it."
In addition to hosting the tournament Web site, anticipated to receive over seven million page impressions during the event, IS is providing WiFi hotspots for the judges and the extensive media contingent so they can access the scores, post stories and high-resolution photos directly from the beach.
Local and international cache servers have been set up in New York and London to stream live video globally. Last year, over 15Mb of video was streamed out of IS' international caching platform, effectively reducing the amount of traffic traversing IS' international backbone and ensuring optimal quality video feeds to surfing enthusiasts around the globe.
Voice over IP phones will be installed throughout the event, allowing staff, judges, VIP guests and event co-ordinators to communicate with the world over IS' VOIP platform, VOIS. All this will be carried via a dedicated wireless link from North Beach, Durban to one of IS' hubs in Umhlanga.
A Blue Tooth hotspot is also being provisioned through a third party vendor, to provide for live scores and promotional media updates to everyone on the beach front.
Renowned as the second longest-running professional surfing event in the world, the Mr Price Pro carries a proud tradition that spans nearly three decades, and keeps South African surfing on the map. Surf's up!
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Internet Solutions (IS) is a leading provider of end-to-end connectivity solutions and related services across the African continent. The people at IS are passionate about constantly innovating and delivering solutions and services that are relevant and critical to their customers. These services are built on a world-class, secure, resilient infrastructure, delivered according to global best practices and effected in partnership with the world's leading technology vendors. It is through these services and solutions that IS creates a competitive edge for its customers' communication needs, and promotes sustainable business growth.
The business was founded in 1992 on the principle of developing a robust infrastructure in order for corporates and other organisations to communicate. Since then, IS has established itself as a leader in this space, attracting over 80% of South Africa's top businesses as clients. From listed companies to non-governmental organisations, local and national government and smaller companies, IS is enabling and evolving communications to meet the business needs of thousands of customers.
Today, the company enjoys a leadership position as it delivers services including: hosting, access, security solutions, virtual private network, mobile solutions, VOIS, African solutions, broadband, and application services. Recent growth in the African economy has resulted in IS spreading its services across all parts of the continent, as clients demand reliable and robust networking connectivity in the African market.
IS has been certified as a Level 4 contributor to BEE (100% compliant), and has earned an impressive collection of accolades and awards.
Partnerships with major global players such as Cisco and Microsoft are also fundamental to IS, and, as such, Internet Solutions was recently awarded Microsoft Gold Certification in the Hosting specialisation for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (Hosted Exchange and SharePoint) and Managed Hosting Solutions - the first South African company to achieve this accreditation. Similarly, in 2002, IS was certified as a Cisco Managed Security Service Provider, the first company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade.
For more visit us on www.is.co.za
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