NWC News Network, Aug. 13 2008, 1230 hrs
Avaya has recently announced the deployment of its IP telephony solution for NBC Universal. The company will provide its Gigabit Ethernet phones to the broadcasting company’s Olympics coverage arm, NBC Olympics during the 2008 Beijing Olympics with an aim to increase employee communication by providing desk phone features on cellular phones and vice versa.
NBC Olympics deploys a unique IT framework where in every two years the company has a complete business communication network set up in a new location to be used only for the duration of about a month during which the Olympics are on. It had set up its own communication network using the communication solution provider’s server gateway architecture for using IP Trunking between its U.S. headquarters and Athens during the 2004 Olympic Games. However the broadcasting company ran its communications and data along separate parallel paths.
“Working with Avaya, we have our communications requirements and implementation down to a science,” said Bob Kiraly. “We don’t have time for complicated installations and we have zero tolerance for risk. What we do need are powerful, reliable communications that help manage costs and enable the NBC Olympics team to do their jobs most efficiently. Avaya understands that completely,” he added.
The solution will have calls made to the employee’s desk phone reach both the desk phone and the cellular phone. It will also enable switching active calls between desk phones and cellular phones and vice versa at the press of a button when employees change their location. Additionally the solution will provide an employee with presence features thereby allowing him to display his availability status to others.
The deployment will see the company having the IP phones on more than 500 desks and another 200 value sets elsewhere in the network.
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