New link for Reuters
IN a mere two months, networking specialists Pacific Datacom has installed a state-of-the-art ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) computer network for the new headquarters of Reuters East Asia.
The network installed at a cost of US$1 million connects the three floors of Reuters' new offices in Taikoo Shing with their central computer facility through two T1 links.
Meanwhile, there are also frame relay links to the company's global computer centres in Singapore, London and New York.
The new network uses structured cabling from British cable vendor C-C-C and FDDI (Fibre Distributed Data Interfaces) backbones, interconnected by hubs from UB networks.
Angelo Tsang, Reuters' network operations manager, said the new premises offered Reuters the chance to consolidate their different departments with a common networking platform.
He explained the company had also used the move as an opportunity to upgrade the network to meet current and future expansion plans.
The plans call for the ability to handle multimedia, such as financial information by television, a service the company hopes to launch later in the year. The service is expected to begin piloting in February.
'This video transmission is intended to be displayed on existing Reuters terminals and consequently will place considerable demands on the network,' said Mr Tsang.
Pacific Datacom was given only two months to install the network, as that was the time allowed under the terms of the lease for furnishing and fitting out the new premises. General manager, Alfred Chan, described this as one of the most time-critical projects the company had ever undertaken.
The installation was further complicated by the difficulty of co-ordinating the different parties involved.
Over seven different companies were involved in the project, with responsibilities ranging from installing terminals to putting in the raised floors under which the cabling would run.
Mr Chan said making sure everybody was on schedule required two meetings a week, because if one party fell behind, it often meant delays for several others.
