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BT and Cisco get fibre broadband contract for new BBC Manchester home
07 Dec 2009 | 14.06 Europe/London
BT is to supply an up to 10Gb network to the MediaCity UK development at Salford Quays which will host the BBC’s new offices, as well as the University of Salford and Northwest Vision and Media.
BT claims this will make the new media cluster as well connected as similar media hubs in Dubai and Singapore. It is to design, implement and manage the private network with technology partner, Cisco. In all, around 20 million metres of optical fibre are expected to be used to carrying data and voice as well as provide WiFi links through the £500m development.
The network is being designed with broadcast in mind, providing sufficient bandwith, BT assures, to handle live transmissions of high definition video as well as high quality VoIP and carrying feeds to digital signage locations around the hub.
Bryan Gray, Chairman of Peel Media, the developers of MediaCity UK claims the deal with BT will allow the centre to become “one of the most digitally advanced communities in the world” when it opens in 2011.
Manchester hub
BT and Cisco have each welcomed the new five year contract. They are due to start work before the end of the year and point out that the BBC’s move to Manchester, and the resulting media hub this is generating, will require one of the world’s most robust high bandwidth networks to ensure the businesses’ heavy use of data can be accommodated.
Both companies believe the network and the media hub it will support will boost the local economy and underline Manchester emergence as an important media hub beyond London.
The BBC has been at the heart of this rise to prominence and has been the main supporter of the MediaCity UK projects. It is due to relocate, from the centre of Manchester, 2,500 staff from Sport, Radio 5 Live, Future Media and Technology, Children’s (including CBeebies and CBBC channels), Formal Learning and all local, regional and network broadcasting.
BT claims this will make the new media cluster as well connected as similar media hubs in Dubai and Singapore. It is to design, implement and manage the private network with technology partner, Cisco. In all, around 20 million metres of optical fibre are expected to be used to carrying data and voice as well as provide WiFi links through the £500m development.
The network is being designed with broadcast in mind, providing sufficient bandwith, BT assures, to handle live transmissions of high definition video as well as high quality VoIP and carrying feeds to digital signage locations around the hub.
Bryan Gray, Chairman of Peel Media, the developers of MediaCity UK claims the deal with BT will allow the centre to become “one of the most digitally advanced communities in the world” when it opens in 2011.
Manchester hub
BT and Cisco have each welcomed the new five year contract. They are due to start work before the end of the year and point out that the BBC’s move to Manchester, and the resulting media hub this is generating, will require one of the world’s most robust high bandwidth networks to ensure the businesses’ heavy use of data can be accommodated.
Both companies believe the network and the media hub it will support will boost the local economy and underline Manchester emergence as an important media hub beyond London.
The BBC has been at the heart of this rise to prominence and has been the main supporter of the MediaCity UK projects. It is due to relocate, from the centre of Manchester, 2,500 staff from Sport, Radio 5 Live, Future Media and Technology, Children’s (including CBeebies and CBBC channels), Formal Learning and all local, regional and network broadcasting.