Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy - IP Telephony

“Complete Communications Solution, IP Office Ltd delivered a complete communications package from the initial wiring and socket outlet through to the desk-top phone and PC, even integrating the weather station from the breakwater to the main server. ”
Sandra Gollop, Finance Director Sailforce.

Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour are widely recognised as the finest sailing waters in the UK. This together with the development of the new purpose built, on-shore facilities have resulted in the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy being selected as the venue for the London 2012 Olympic sailing events.

During the building phase of the new facility IP Office Ltd was chosen to install the whole ITC infrastructure, working closely with the both the design team and builders IP Office Ltd installed cabling to Category 5e, Data switches, PC’s, servers and an Avaya IP Office communications system.

“Demand on the facility varies enormously” said Sandra Gollop, Finance Director “during the winter months we are fairly quiet catering for sail training courses and seminars, but then we will host a world championships and have to provide for not only the competitors but also support teams and the worlds press.”

Flexibility, scaleable - The solution – Installation of a VoIP enabled Avaya IP Office a secure, intelligent and easy-to-use converged voice and data system for small and medium businesses. IP Office offers a variety of network connectivity options, works as a traditional phone system or an IP telephony server, and supports both single locations and multi-site networks. IP Office has sold more than 80,000 systems to customers worldwide.

IP Office Ltd recommended ISDN 30e for lines and has negotiated with BT to increase capacity for specific events – when press demand is high. Flexible desktop options allow the academy to sub-let coaching areas to organisations such as the RYA and Sail Laser. “Basically whatever communications requirement is thrown at the academy I can ring IP Office Ltd and have it configured” added Gollop.

Facilities on shore include a licensed clubhouse, conference / meeting rooms, slipways, a boat hoist, extensive dinghy and car parks, a permanent crane, and storage for all types of boats. Next task for IP Office Ltd is to set up an Internet Café to allow competitors access to all important weather information and e-mail.

WPNSA offers a superb venue for events and training, whether sailing for the first time a major championship or the Olympics. IP Office Ltd is proud to have been chosen to mastermind the communications infrastructure for the first completed Olympic venue for London 2012.