Networking kit manufacturer DrayTek, which is a familiar name in the broadband connectivity world, has published a new ‘ISP Performance and Perceptions Survey 2024’, which reveals what business users really think about their Internet Service Provider and what they view as their most crucial connectivity needs.

The survey – download here – appears to be based on responses from 476 members of the “DrayTek community” (in this case, business users). But it’s worth noting that regular consumers also use some of DrayTek’s more domestic grade devices, such as some of their broadband routers.

The summary of this report notes that more than 50% of the businesses surveyed had been with their current ISP for over 5-years. This could imply a significant level of loyalty – or perhaps, as additional data further in the report suggests, complacency. But larger businesses with more than 50 sites do tend to switch ISP more regularly, with 30% being with their provider for less than 2-years (compared to an average of 24%).

In terms of how businesses actually use their broadband connections, some 70% of businesses currently rely on their internet connection to access cloud applications, with 52% using broadband to access phone systems (VoIP), 47% for VPN, and 42% for video calls, 27% for large data transfers, 26% for internet browsing and 22% for back-office connectivity. In addition, 68% also need broadband for their “phone lines” (voice service).

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ An astonishing 44% of respondents do not have a backup or failover system in place.

➤ When asked how likely they were to recommend their current ISP, businesses gave an average score of 7.74 out of 10.

➤ 56% of respondents also said they are open to switching ISP (this includes 38% who said they were happy, but open to change, while 11% were unhappy [expecting to review options] and 7% were actively looking).

➤ The top factors that influence a decision when changing provider are price (58%), customer service (52%), availability of higher speeds (47%), consistency of speed (40%), guaranteed uptime (34%), performance Service Level Agreements (33%), short contract length (9%) and security (9%).

➤ The survey then asked what were the main reasons why users changed their previous ISP, which saw the availability of higher speeds (26%) top the charts, followed by price (19%), customer service (17%), performance SLAs (5%), consistency of speed (5%), guaranteed uptime (5%) and enhanced offerings (4%).

A new Juniper Research survey of 3,300 UK mobile subscribers has named the top mobile network operators with the highest overall levels of customer satisfaction (measured by net promoter score). Tesco Mobile ended up ranking highest for overall customer satisfaction, with an NPR (Net Promoter Rating) of 93%. But it’s bad news for Three UK.

Specifically, from the survey analysis, it was determined that 65% of Tesco Mobile’s subscribers stated that they are ‘very satisfied’ with the overall services offered by the company; the highest of all operators surveyed. The survey found Tesco Mobile subscribers are the most satisfied with the cost of their subscription and the geographical coverage provided. The latter is particularly interesting given that Tesco is an O2 based virtual operator, which ranks somewhat lower.

Top 5 UK Mobile Operators for Satisfaction
1. Tesco Mobile – 92%
2. giffgaff – 91%
3. EE (BT) – 86%
4. iD Mobile – 86%
5. Sky Mobile – 85%

On the other hand, Three UK was ranked the lowest for subscribers’ overall satisfaction, with it having the highest number of subscribers stating that they have had a negative customer service experience. Additionally, factors such as poor network coverage and slow data (mobile broadband) speeds were also found to be regular complaints left in Three UK’s ‘community forum’, with these factors contributing to the poor score.

The other two major mobile operators, Vodafone and O2 (Virgin Media), also ranked in the bottom half of the table, although their scores were overall much higher than Three’s.

However, Three UK is not the only operator to report negative experiences by its subscribers. Whilst Three generates the highest number of negative experiences, operators including giffgaff, Vodafone and Sky Mobile were conversely found to be “not far behind“, which is despite ranking highly for general satisfaction. When asked about their negative experiences, figure 3 below highlights the top issues faced by UK mobile subscribers.

Analyst firm M-Lab and comparison site Cable.co.uk have today published their 2024 global broadband ISP speeds report, which reveals that the United Kingdom delivered an average (mean) download speed of 110.99Mbps (up from 93.62Mbps last year) – ranking us 35th fastest in the world (down from 34th in 2023).

The research itself stems from information gathered via 1.5 billion speed tests (up from 1.3bn last year), which were carried out across the world in 229 countries in a 12-month period up to 30th June 2024. The average global broadband download speed was recorded as 55.58Mbps (Megabits per second), which is up from 45.60Mbps last year.

Overall, the top five fastest “countries” in the world this year were found to be Iceland (279.55Mbps), Jersey – a British crown dependency (273.51Mbps), Macao (234.74Mbps), Liechtenstein (222.98Mbps) and Denmark (210.51Mbps). Most of these are in Europe and are very small or island nations, where Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks are usually prevalent.

On the flip side, the five countries in the world with the slowest network speeds were the British Indian Ocean Territory (2.38Mbps), Turkmenistan (2.72Mbps), Syria (2.80Mbps), Yemen (2.99Mbps) and Tajikistan (3.10Mbps). In fact 35 countries failed to achieve download speeds of 10Mbps or greater, which is deemed by Ofcom UK to be the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business, although this figure is quite an old one.

At this point some might wonder, given the rapid rollout of FTTP, why the UK isn’t ranking even higher in 2024. But we suspect there could be several reasons for this, not least because many of the leading countries in this table have been building FTTP at scale for a lot longer. Not to mention that other countries have also been improving their speeds and take-up by consumers, so the world is far from standing still.

Caveats of the Data

As we’ve said before, speed testing-based reports like this should be taken with a pinch of salt because they can easily be misinterpreted. For example, nobody should be equating such studies to be directly reflecting the availability of faster connections, as the two are far from being in perfect sync.

On top of that, people are more likely to measure their speed if there is something wrong or if they aren’t getting the speed they need, which can produce a negative bias. The fact that the study also overlooks other key metrics, such as upload speeds and latency, is another consideration.

Just for some context on actual network availability in the UK. We reported last month (here) that “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) networks were available to 98% of premises, which falls to 83.4% for gigabit-capable (1000Mbps+) networks and 67.7% when only looking at FTTP technology. The government wants 85% to be within reach of gigabit speeds by the end of 2025 and nationwide (c.99%) coverage by the end of 2030.

Such testing can also be impacted by other factors, such as poor home wiring (copper lines), user choice of package (e.g. 1Gbps could be available, but people may pick a slower and cheaper tier), local network congestion (i.e. conducting a test while others or background tasks are using the network) and slow WiFi etc.

Finally, it’s unclear whether this study has also lumped mobile data (4G, 5G etc.) speeds or business connections in with residential fixed lines. Nevertheless, if we assume that such caveats will apply to all countries, then the data is still useful as a rough gauge of market change over time.

229 Countries Ranked by Average (Mean) Download Speed

Rank
Country
Avg. Download Speed (Mbps)

1
Iceland
279.55

2
Jersey
273.51

3
Macao
234.74

4
Liechtenstein
222.98

5
Denmark
210.51

6
Andorra
199.89

7
Netherlands
188.49

8
Gibraltar
180.91

9
France
176.97

10
Monaco
173.79

11
South Korea
172.53

12
United States
161.97

13
Switzerland
161.88

14
Uruguay
156.99

15
Sweden
156.42

16
Israel
153.61

17
Canada
152.25

18
Spain
148.63

19
Slovakia
145.19

20
San Marino
143.20

21
Malta
141.07

22
Norway
140.56

23
Japan
139.53

24
Hong Kong
138.18

25
Taiwan
136.58

26
Singapore
134.43

27
Belgium
124.78

28
New Zealand
124.01

29
Cayman Islands
118.83

30
Puerto Rico
118.54

31
Portugal
116.91

32
Isle of Man
116.58

33
Estonia
113.10

34
Hungary
112.15

35
United Kingdom
110.99

36
Lithuania
110.74

37
Bermuda
107.40

38
Romania
105.46

39
Poland
104.36

40
Ireland
102.96

41
Qatar
101.72

42
Chile
100.66

43
United Arab Emirates
99.26

44
Barbados
97.27

45
Latvia
95.50

46
Finland
95.13

47
Brazil
92.83

48
Slovenia
90.40

49
Germany
87.77

50
Serbia
86.36

51
U.S. Virgin Islands
83.51

52
Malaysia
82.38

53
British Virgin Islands
79.26

54
North Macedonia
79.09

55
Australia
77.99

56
Luxembourg
76.64

57
Guernsey
75.63

58
Czechia
74.41

59
Montenegro
73.93

60
Moldova
73.84

61
Greece
72.54

62
Grenada
72.49

63
Italy
72.45

64
Bahamas
72.34

65
St Kitts and Nevis
71.96

66
Thailand
67.75

67
Bulgaria
67.47

68
Russia
67.43

69
Bahrain
67.16

70
Aruba
67.06

71
Trinidad and Tobago
66.43

72
India
65.51

73
Austria
64.96

74
Åland Islands
64.28

75
Réunion
63.29

76
Peru
63.28

77
Brunei
62.61

78
Panama
62.43

79
Jamaica
62.13

80
Argentina
59.70

81
Kuwait
58.89

82
Oman
57.85

83
Saint Lucia
56.84

84
Faroe Islands
56.61

85
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
56.61

86
Saint Martin
56.00

87
Guadeloupe
55.28

88
Colombia
53.87

89
Costa Rica
53.39

90
Kosovo
53.29

91
St Vincent and Grenadines
52.14

92
Philippines
52.07

93
Turks and Caicos Islands
51.82

94
Vatican City
51.60

95
Cyprus
51.53

96
Saint Barthélemy
51.11

97
New Caledonia
50.61

98
Curaçao
49.61

99
Ukraine
49.39

100
Anguilla
49.23

101
Martinique
48.54

102
Dominican Republic
48.05

103
Dominica
47.90

104
Montserrat
46.34

105
Vietnam
45.92

106
Belarus
45.81

107
Ecuador
45.54

108
Bosnia and Herzegovina
45.51

109
Paraguay
45.10

110
Mexico
44.73

111
Greenland
42.69

112
French Guiana
42.68

113
Jordan
42.46

114
South Africa
42.42

115
Belize
41.72

116
Croatia
38.52

117
Saudi Arabia
37.65

118
China
37.56

119
Guatemala
37.34

120
Eswatini
37.23

121
Guam
36.40

122
El Salvador
35.90

123
Nicaragua
33.85

124
Antigua and Barbuda
32.98

125
Turkey
32.89

126
Rwanda
32.69

127
Mauritius
31.12

128
Albania
29.87

129
Northern Mariana Islands
29.80

130
Botswana
29.52

131
Guyana
28.57

132
Nigeria
27.62

133
Maldives
27.26

134
Marshall Islands
26.84

135
Armenia
26.78

136
Nepal
25.97

137
Bonaire Sint Eustatius and Saba
25.86

138
Palestine
25.20

139
Laos
25.14

140
Cambodia
24.54

141
Venezuela
23.33

142
Madagascar
22.57

143
Honduras
21.77

144
Bhutan
21.24

145
Uzbekistan
21.21

146
Georgia
20.83

147
Lesotho
20.71

148
Bolivia
20.14

149
Seychelles
20.09

150
Morocco
19.61

151
Indonesia
19.54

152
Mongolia
19.14

153
Sri Lanka
18.45

154
Sint Maarten
18.17

155
Samoa
17.82

156
Ivory Coast
17.67

157
São Tomé and Príncipe
17.45

158
Zimbabwe
16.77

159
Ghana
16.59

160
Congo Republic
16.25

161
American Samoa
16.17

162
Burkina Faso
15.91

163
Benin
15.54

164
Papua New Guinea
15.52

165
Gabon
14.85

166
Mayotte
14.50

167
Mozambique
14.15

168
French Polynesia
14.15

169
Kazakhstan
13.92

170
Azerbaijan
13.85

171
Suriname
13.79

172
Kenya
13.69

173
Uganda
13.59

174
Fiji
13.28

175
Myanmar
13.28

176
Tanzania
13.26

177
Haiti
13.21

178
Malawi
13.14

179
DR Congo
12.81

180
Angola
12.79

181
Egypt
12.64

182
Liberia
12.45

183
Algeria
12.35

184
Senegal
12.16

185
Solomon Islands
11.54

186
Namibia
11.48

187
Cabo Verde
11.44

188
Kyrgyzstan
11.31

189
Tunisia
11.18

190
Mauritania
10.94

191
Togo
10.54

192
Chad
10.47

193
Iraq
10.39

194
Palau
10.01

195
Iran
9.72

196
Lebanon
9.67

197
Bangladesh
9.22

198
Zambia
8.99

199
Guinea
8.55

200
Comoros
8.38

201
Libya
8.37

202
Cameroon
7.97

203
Pakistan
7.85

204
Vanuatu
7.67

205
Mali
7.66

206
South Sudan
7.47

207
Sierra Leone
7.24

208
Djibouti
7.21

209
Somalia
6.64

210
Burundi
6.07

211
Timor-Leste
6.00

212
Guinea-Bissau
5.63

213
Falkland Islands
5.34

214
Gambia
5.33

215
Federated States of Micronesia
5.32

216
Equatorial Guinea
5.27

217
Niger
4.97

218
Wallis and Futuna
4.66

219
Eritrea
4.61

220
Cuba
4.49

221
Ethiopia
4.45

222
Central African Republic
4.08

223
Sudan
4.02

224
Afghanistan
3.11

225
Tajikistan
3.10

226
Yemen
2.99

227
Syria
2.80

228
Turkmenistan
2.72

229
British Indian Ocean Territory
2.38

The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), which was setup by the previous government to help crowd-in private investment for infrastructure projects, has today committed £35m to help alternative network provider Wildanet accelerate their rollout of gigabit-capable full fibre broadband across South West England.

The provider, which originally started life as a fixed wireless ISP in the same area, has spent the past few years deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology across the region – mostly around rural parts of Cornwall. Back in January 2023 they also secured the £36m state aid fuelled Project Gigabit broadband contract to cover more than 19,250 premises in the county (here), which was followed in April 2024 by a £41.2m contract to connect 16,800 premises across the rest of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (here).

The big news today is that Wildanet has just secured an additional investment of £35 million from the UKIB, which is expected to “provide up to a further 20,000 homes and businesses with significantly faster broadband connections” (i.e. gigabit speed FTTP).

Interestingly, the Bank’s financing, alongside a revolving credit facility from Santander structured with the assistance of Deloitte, is specifically expressed as being intended to directly “support” Wildanet’s work in Cornwall as part of their two Project Gigabit contract awards for the region.

Ian Brown, UKIB’s Head of Banking and Investment, said:

“The nature of Cornwall’s location and its geography makes it one of the most difficult to reach places for internet providers and as a result has lower speeds than the UK average.

Our financing for Wildanet’s rollout will support communities and grow economies that would otherwise miss out on the benefits associated with improved connectivity.”

Helen Wylde-Archibald, CEO of Wildanet, said:

“Today’s announcement supports and accelerates our far-reaching roll out plans for Cornwall and unlocks growth in our own company as we continue our mission to transform connectivity and opportunities in Cornwall, at the same time as creating a dynamic, profitable and sustainable business.

Wildanet’s success in forging strong partnerships with both national and local government, with institutional investors and banks, is delivering new investment into Cornwall. We’re proud of these achievements and the leading role we are playing as a champion for digital inclusion and the creation of a modern digital economy in the South West.”

Customers of the service typically pay from £29 per month to receive a 200Mbps (40Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with free installation, which rises to £69 if you want their top 900Mbps (200Mbps upload) package. The provider also offers a Social Tariff for those on state benefits, which gives you 50Mbps (20Mbps upload) speeds for just £19 per month on a 12-month contract.

Consumer magazine Which? has today written to the CEOs of Virgin Media (O2), Scottish Power and British Gas in the hope of “urging them to improve their customer service“, which comes after a survey conducted by the magazine found all three to be the “worst broadband and energy firms for customer service.”

According to the Yonder survey of 4,101 nationally representative adults, which was conducted in May 2024 with the aim of identifying the worst firms for customer service and where they are falling short – consumers in the UK are “most satisfied” with financial services for overall customer service, which leads with a net satisfaction score of +72. But energy and broadband is a bit.. different.

By comparison, energy and broadband remained two of the worst performing sectors for customer service – with net satisfaction in customer service interactions in energy and broadband at +51 and +52 respectively. Sadly, Virgin Media was crowned the “worst performing broadband firm” – receiving +29 for overall customer service, which is well below the sector average of +52.

The survey itself asked respondents about several aspects of customer service, including how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help, the variety of contact options available, how seriously the customer service representative took an issue and how well the issue was resolved.

Sadly, Virgin Media received “dismal scores” across the board – scoring just +18 for how long it took to get in touch with someone who could help and +38 for both how well customers’ issues were dealt with and how well queries were resolved. By comparison, Plusnet appeared to do somewhat better in the survey, although annoyingly Which? didn’t include any results from the other major ISPs.

Some 50% of Virgin’s customers also experienced at least one customer service issue – most commonly waiting a long time on the phone to speak to an advisor (51%), being passed between departments without a helpful response (36%) and speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors (34%).

Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:

“Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service – with some companies simply not up to scratch.

Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas remained the worst performing broadband and energy firms for customer service. It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.

We have written to all three firms about their consistently poor performance in our research. Which? is calling on them to give consumers the customer service they deserve and clearly communicate the steps they are taking to improve.”

The fact that Virgin Media has done so poorly in this survey probably won’t come as too much of a surprise to ISPreview’s readers. Ofcom’s separate Q4 2023 consumer complaints study (here) similarly found that the provider managed to attract the most gripes for broadband, phone and pay TV services (O2 also did the same for mobile).

In addition, Ofcom also have a number of investigations open with the provider, such as their probe into problems with customer cancellations (here) and digital phone migrations (here).

A Virgin Media spokesperson said:

“We are making real changes across our business to deliver customer service improvements and we’re already seeing tangible results that wouldn’t be reflected in this old survey from Which? that, incidentally, represents less than 0.01% of our customer base.

We have boosted the number of agents, including in specialist teams that handle the most complex issues, and are investing more money in customer-facing areas of the business. We’re also multi-skilling our teams, transforming our IT systems and improving our digital tools, including through new technology that will solve customers’ issues even before they report a fault.

While change can take time, this programme of targeted investment has already seen us reduce average call waiting times to just two minutes, and last year 95% of customer complaints were resolved first time. We’re continuing to focus on removing pain points and delivering the best possible service to our customers.”

Suffice to say that the provider is in danger of establishing a negative reputation within the market, which is something that can be very difficult to unpick once such experiences become ingrained within the consumer subconscious (TalkTalk has had similar challenges in the past). But it is good to see that the provider has been making practical improvements on this front. Hopefully we’ll see this effort being reflected in future surveys.

News

If given the green light, the deal would be the largest acquisition in Alphabet’s history 

Google’s parent company Alphabet is in late-stage talks to acquire cybersecurity company Wiz for $23 billion, according to a report published on Sunday from The Wall Street Journal. 

If it is completed, the deal would be the group’s largest ever deal, surpassing its previous record purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012 for $12.5 billion.  

Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the deal is still “weeks away from completion”, with some details still needing to be worked out.  

Only founded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Wiz is a cloud security platform that provides a suite of solutions for securing cloud environments. It has quickly gained prominence in the cybersecurity landscape, with huge name customers such as Salesforce, BMW, and Mars. In May, the company had a valuation of $12 billion. 

If a deal is ultimately agreed, it would face immense scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who have been cracking down on large tech companies buying startups. 

This is not the first cyber security purchase that Google has made in recent years. In 2022, it acquired notably cyber defence company Mandiant for $5.4 billion.  

“Cyber security is a mission, and we believe it’s one of the most important of our generation,” said Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia in March 2022. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said at the time that the deal would “make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.” 

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

News

Local media suggests that Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is being advised to consider Vodafone as an alternative route into Portugal

According to anonymous sources speaking to Jornal Económico, Saudi Arabia’s telecoms giant STC is considering acquiring Vodafone Portugal.

The news, which remains unconfirmed by both STC and Vodafone, comes following the collapse of discussions between STC and Vodafone’s local rival Altice Portugal last week.

STC began acquisition talks with Altice Portugal at the end of last year, seeing the deal as a way to further cement the company’s growing presence in Europe. At the time, Altice Portugal was notably struggling to find growth and was in the midst of a corruption scandal that is still being investigated today.

Earlier this month, however, reports indicated that discussions between the two companies had been shelved after they reached a bottleneck over pricing.

Previous reports suggested that Altice Group’s billionaire owner, Patrick Drahi, was hoping to raise €10 billion from the sale of its Portuguese unit, but STC believed the unit to be worth less than €8 billion.

With the Altice deal no longer an option, it should come as little surprise that STC is now considering Vodafone Portugal, which has itself been eying up M&A opportunities in recent years.

Back in 2022, Vodafone Portugal had announced its intention to acquire Cabonitel, parent company of its Portugal’s fourth-place mobile player Nowo Communications. Just this week, however, the deal was blocked by the national competition regulator, after an almost two-year investigation concluded that the deal could lead to price hikes for customers.

Thus, with both Vodafone and STC’s plans for Portugal being scuppered in recent weeks, it should come as no surprise that they would consider their options. The companies’ goals broadly align; STC wants a foothold in Portugal and Vodafone wants to bolster its market position.

If the acquisition does come to pass, it will be the latest step in STC’s increasing presence in Iberia. In September last year, STC acquired a €2.1 billion stake in Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, making them the companies largest shareholder.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

The new partnership was confirmed during a recent site visit from the LINX team to the Manchester site, former Equinix facility known as MA2, Reynolds House, acquired by the Lunar Digital team in February 2023.

The campus consisting of Lunar 1 and Lunar 2 has had a complete facelift in the last 12 months with a focus on modernization and sustainability.

Rob Garbutt of Lunar Digital commented;

“We are really pleased to now be able to offer the LINX peering LAN to our customers in our Manchester Lunar 1 & 2 data centres with 100Gig port availability for peering services and more. Having the LINX fabric present in our facilities will greatly improve our customers networking options. Welcome LINX!”

LINX Manchester is the regional hub of the London Internet Exchange. A neutral, interconnection platform providing peering services and more. Networks that connect into the LINX Manchester ecosystem  benefit from meeting a community of networks and keeping their online traffic local, lowering latency and costs, and increasing overall data control.

LINX Interconnection Specialist Colin Peckham comments;

“We have seen considerable growth at LINX Manchester over the last 12 months, an increase on average traffic of 100Gbps and regular peaks of over 450 – 550Gbps. The expansion of our network to Lunar Digital reflects the further growth we expect in the next 12 months.”

The growth at LINX Manchester is down to a combination of new to LINX networks looking to peer and keep their traffic local and existing LINX members upgrading or adding additional services to their ports in Manchester like the Microsoft Azure Peering Service (MAPS) for example.

Manchester continues its growth as a key digital hub for the UK. With the success of Media City and the creative content being made and distributed from the hub to the recent news of government investments for a new Manchester Digital Campus in 2026, the city is buzzing with increased connectivity potential.

Find out more about the LINX Manchester network

Link to Word Doc: www.wallstcom.com/Riedel/240711-Riedel-ATK_Esports_Championships.docx

Photo Links: www.wallstcom.com/Riedel/ATK_Esports_Championship.jpeg
Photo Caption: Riedel’s Artist and Bolero connect worldwide esports participants effortlessly.

WUPPERTAL, Germany — July 11, 2024 — Riedel Communications today announced that ATK Versacom, a Clair Global brand, has used a comprehensive suite of Riedel solutions to ensure seamless production and broadcast of an annual worldwide esports championship. By seamlessly integrating Riedel’s Bolero 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz systems with the Artist-1024 matrix, ATK Versacom was able to overcome the traditional limitations of wireless communication in dense environments, facilitating synchronous communication with local and international production teams, broadcasters, and the event’s technical crew.

“Working on a high-profile international esports championship was a fun and exciting challenge. The complexity and scale of the event required a robust and flexible communication system, and as always, Riedel’s solutions delivered exactly what we needed,” said Juan Gallardo, Director of Technical Operations at ATK Versacom. “By creating a high-density wireless environment that supported seamless communication across all production elements, we were successful in coordinating the efforts of our local and international teams, broadcasters, and the game’s producer. We are proud to have successfully executed such a prestigious global event and look forward to continuing our partnership with Riedel on other important occasions.”

First held in 2011, the annual international championship has evolved into a highly prestigious event on the esports calendar. The acclaimed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game event drew fans from around the world to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, where competing teams this season fought for the title of world champion and a share of a massive multimillion-dollar prize pool.

This year’s tournament marked a significant achievement in live event production thanks to the innovative use of Riedel’s state-of-the-art technology. As the production support specialist, ATK Versacom deployed an extensive Riedel setup, including 90 Bolero wireless beltpacks (26 operating on 2.4 GHz and the rest on 1.9 GHz DECT), an Artist-1024 digital matrix intercom frame with 256 ports, approximately 30 SmartPanels and legacy 1000 Series panels, up to 25 antennas for 1.9 GHz, and 20 antennas for 2.4 GHz. This equipment was installed and operational for both the semifinals at the Seattle Convention Center and the finals at the Climate Pledge Arena, enabling a quick breakdown and reassembly between venues. For additional flexibility, Riedel’s network- and IP-based system enabled ATK Versacom to run a cable or use the house fiber, adding a switch and then installing the panels, antennas, and beltpacks as needed.

ATK Versacom was able to integrate the Bolero 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz systems into the Artist-1024 matrix seamlessly, enabling communication across different frequency bands without direct interaction. This setup allowed ATK Versacom to create a high-density wireless communication network capable of supporting up to 90 beltpacks simultaneously, overcoming the typical DECT limitation of 50 beltpacks. Moreover, the integration facilitated communication in at least four different languages — including Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish — and included Dante. The adaptable system seamlessly integrated with third-party interfaces to establish connections with broadcasters across different countries, thus ensuring seamless global transmission.

“The complexity of this international championship highlights the power and flexibility of Riedel’s solutions to meet the unique communication demands of live global esports events,” said Patti Gunnell, Vice President, Key Accounts – Western U.S. at Riedel Communications. “While our 2.4 GHz Bolero system was originally designed for countries outside the U.S., its ability to assist in creating high-density wireless systems proves invaluable when pushing the limits of the DECT band. Once again, the combination of Riedel’s Artist and Bolero proves vital in allowing this prestigious esports tournament to connect participants from around the world effortlessly. We are thrilled to support ATK Versacom in taking on this ambitious challenge and delivering a truly global experience for this passionate community.”

Further information about Riedel and the company’s products is available at www.riedel.net.

# # #

About ATK Versacom
For over 30 years, ATK Audiotek has consistently pushed technological boundaries to create some of the most ambitious concepts in the production world. ATK Versacom creates wired, fiber, and wireless communication systems, placing complex, multi-channel networks seamlessly under the control of our live, broadcast, and televised events clients. In 2022 ATK was acquired by market-leading sound reinforcement specialist Clair Global, expanding Clair’s worldwide reach into broadcast audio, communications, and integration while simultaneously offering ATK’s loyal customers a long-term, sustainable path within the event technology sector.
www.atkaudiotek.com/atk-versacom

About Riedel Communications
Riedel Communications is a leading provider of live production tools in the worlds of media, sports, and entertainment. The company’s hard- and software solutions span from distributed video and audio networks over intercom and replay solutions to WAN and MPLS applications. Thanks to Riedel’s holistic approach, its two business units — Product Division and Networks Division — can leverage powerful synergies to provide flexible infrastructures, tools, and services for both fixed and temporary installations around the globe, enabling Riedel customers to run even the most complex projects on-site, remotely, or in the cloud. Riedel is locally headquartered in Santa Clarita, California, with its global headquarters in Wuppertal, Germany. Riedel employs over 1,000 people in 30 locations throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Americas.

All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

DALLAS — July 10, 2024 — Black Box®, a leading IT solutions and consulting services provider to businesses worldwide, today announced that Australian media company Nine Network is using a Black Box Emerald® IP KVM solution to ensure reliable, flexible signal extension across offices and studios at its 1 Denison Street location in Sydney. Black Box Emerald 2K and 4K transmitters and receivers, along with the Boxilla® KVM Manager, are deployed in a redundant KVM architecture over an existing copper-based IP network to guarantee users continuous remote access to centrally located systems supporting critical tasks such as graphics creation and video editing.

“Reliable connectivity is a must within a media operation, especially one such as Nine Network, where teams collaborate to create a high volume of live content, day in and day out,” said Tom Fitzgerald, Black Box KVM product manager. “With management centralized and simplified by our Boxilla system, Black Box Emerald KVM devices integrate readily onto existing IP networks and operate seamlessly with key broadcast systems to support vital operations.”

The Black Box Emerald IP KVM system forms an integral part of the Nine Network broadcast production and studio environment used for creating 12 to 14 hours of live television each day, as well as promotional content. Capable of transporting data over standard IP networks, with redundant connections using physically different paths/networks and equipped with redundant power, the Emerald KVM solution addresses Nine Network’s top requirement: reliability. With this multi-level redundancy, the KVM system can tolerate various types of connectivity failure between transmitters and receivers, in turn preventing interruption of operators’ work.

An API integration of Boxilla with Nine Network’s LAWO VSM IP broadcast control and workflow solution allows the company to control the active connections for its new Emerald KVM receivers. Operators can switch between multiple systems for day-to-day operations, or quickly swap to backup systems in the event of a failure. Support for custom USB HID/control peripherals enables studio operators to switch between different host devices and operate them using the same custom USB devices they use to deliver live news bulletins.

“The willingness and ability of the Black Box development teams to work with us throughout deployment to resolve issues and include required features in the lifecycle was very reassuring,” said Matt Benson, group enterprise architect, Information Technology at Nine Network. “This collaboration helped to ensure that the Emerald KVM system could meet all of our needs. As we expand our Sydney site and redevelop other news production facilities around Australia to replace aging systems, the Emerald IP KVM system is a proven solution that we can deploy consistently to ensure essential performance and reliability.”

Information about Black Box and its full product portfolio is available at www.blackbox.com.

# # #

About Black Box
Black Box® is a trusted IT solutions provider delivering cutting-edge technology solutions and world-class consulting services to businesses across the globe. The breadth of our global reach, continuous innovation, and depth of our expertise accelerate customer success by bringing people, ideas, and technology together to solve real-world business problems. Our IT infrastructure solutions, services, and products enable secure, flawless connectivity and meaningful collaboration for businesses in every major market across six continents.

To learn more, visit the Black Box website at www.blackbox.com. Follow the company on X, formerly known as Twitter @BlackBox_ns. Black Box® and the Double Diamond logo are registered trademarks of BB Technologies, LLC.

All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Link to Word Doc: www.wallstcom.com/BlackBox/240710-Black_Box-Nine_Networks.docx

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/BlackBox/BlackBox-NineNetworks.jpg
Photo Caption: Australia’s Nine Network Collaborates With Black Box, Deploying Emerald IP KVM to Ensure Reliable Signal Extension