ISES UK is part of a massive international organisation with 7000 members who work together to promote the events industry. You can view more of the ISES UK videos here or indeed check out some of our videos here.
Present Communications ltd are pleased to announce another remarkable product to the hire stock, the Newsspotter service flyaway kit. This satellite system allows us to connect to the internet from any remote location in the UK, Europe, Middle East and North Africa. This is perfect where the airways might be congested such as large public events, festivals, regattas where mobile 3G and 4G reception can become poor and also in remote, outdoor spaces with no mobile signal at all. This Tooway satellite systems works anywhere with a line of sight to the Europasat satellite.
More and more, customers need their content streamed live to the web and broadcast around the world and limitations such as poor internet connectivity and unreliable mobile phone signals are no longer acceptable excuses. Using a large range of other products in our portfolio such as the PUNCH! and PresentAnywhere systems, Present Communications can truly present from anywhere; not only broadcasting to the web but also providing live, two way communications in the most remote of locations.
Of course, this isn’t just useful for providing internet at festivals, the Newsspotter uncontended satellite connection provides the ideal backup (or main connection) for those important links that just can’t go wrong. Used in conjunction with our Teradeck Bond II, the bandwidth provided by the satellite can be load balanced with other connection such as wifi, 3G, 4G, ethernet and more. Of course, internet connectivity is not just for streaming video (a particular favourite of ours). Event staff as well as paying customers require internet to do their jobs. They need it for PDQ machines, cloud based software and general communications.
And satellite is not as expensive as you might think. Typical bandwidth costs for a satellite are about a quarter of that charged by the mobile phone operators, making satellite connectivity a truly accessible technology. Good internet is not only a requirement in this connected age but also provides the potential for fantastic social media exposure.
Present Communications are delighted to confirm that they are the first major UK hire company to have acquired stock of the new Teradek Bond II unit. The unit, which allows up to 6 data dongles to split a live video stream and transmit via mobile phone networks, opens up a range of possibilities for both broadcasters and event professionals.
Whether your need is as a news organisation trying to broadcast where no satellite or standard internet connectivity is available, or an event organiser looking for a solution where your venue is unable to provide reliable internet access, the Bond II could provide the perfect solution.
As well as the base unit, Present Communications are able to provide a range of associated and ancillary services. These include 4G data dongles from all UK networks that are compatible with the device, provisioning of Sputnik servers for recombining the data feeds at the receiving end and of course our renowned webcasting platform.
Prices for the device and services are as follows:
| Teradek Bond II unit | Per Day | £325 |
| 4G Data Dongle Hire | Per Day | £20 |
| Dedicated Sputnik Server | Per Day | £150 |
| Data Upload over 4G | Per GB | £30 |
We are also delighted to offer an introductory bundle, which saves £300 on buying the services separately. The package includes:
1 day hire of Teradek Bond II unit
1 day hire of 4 x 4G UK data dongles from 4 separate networks
10GB data upload allowance
2 days of dedicated Sputnik server access
Package price: £695
This package should provide everything you need to stream a 2 hour event from any location with mobile data reception, but do please contact us for more options or if there is anything else you need to understand about whether the Teradek Bond II is the right solution for your event.
All prices exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate. Prices correct as of 8th June 2015.
Remote and flexible working is of course part of ones daily life now. If we are not remote workers personally, we certainly know a few who are. Data is accessible in the cloud and mobile phones and the Internet have made interpersonal communications easy, even from opposite sides of the World.
As the World shrinks, our workforce and our customers can be easily reached at any time and from any place. Of course it’s not just the convenience; using the Internet rather than travel means we can reduce cost, increase efficiency and productivity whilst reducing our effect on the environment.
Many of us work with colleagues from all over the World and in different time zones. Increasingly, we now communicate with those people via video link, whether it’s in a conference suite or from our desks using systems like Lync or Zoom. This use of video brings benefits over telephone and email. It’s said that when we communicate, 55% of our message is expressed through body language and 38% expressed through tone of voice.
Even as a video conferencing service provider, I would still argue that there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings. Large group meetings, presentations and workshops are still important but with teams spread from one continent to the next, it’s often not possible to get everyone in one room and that’s really where video conferencing comes in. Large venues, hotels, conference and exhibition centres allow us to get large groups together but we often can’t get everyone in the same room.
Historically, event organisers have avoided complicated video links and streaming on the Internet and instead opted for simpler, safer options. With websites like YouTube now accounting for more than half of Internet traffic, video over the web is much safer, more reliable and resilient. Event spaces are also realising the value of offering high quality connectivity to their clients. We regularly run concurrent meetings on different continents, have over flow rooms on the other side of the world or join teams from different jurisdictions all together in one virtual place in order that they benefit from each others experiences.
If you want to know more about how we might be able to make this work for you, please feel free to give us a call…
Present Communications have entered a team into the famous Tough Mudder competition on the 16th August 2014 in Cirencester. We are due to start at 11am.
Tough Mudder has raised over £600,000 over the years for Help for Heroes and the Tough Mudder course requires each group to work as one, come together and complete the course as a team.
We’re excited about it and we hope you can join us. You’re more than welcome to join our team or enter your own. If you can’t join (or if you can), please donate and help us help Help for Heroes.
Customers don’t really want to have to understand the technicalities of an IT/VC solution. They don’t want to deal with their IT team or the outsourced IT company looking after the venue which they’re about to hold an event at. The reality is however that our job as Video Conference providers are not able to provide a solution unless we have the support of the in-house IT team. Until now…
PUNCH! takes a normal internet connection, any connection, and automatically assigns a fixed public IP address to the device that is plugged into it. You don’t need to speak to the Internet providers or understand how it works. So we thought we’d take it one step further. Why don’t we use it to Video Conference over wifi? Or why don’t we use it to provide a wireless access point? Well, that’s what we did. Then we had a little play with them!
I started the business that would later become Present Communications ltd back in 2007 after leaving etc.venues where I worked as an in-house technician. For me, the role of in-house technician is a massively important one whether that person is actually employed by the venue or by a third party contractor. By working on site, it is much easier to know the workings of a venue, the building, the tips and tricks required to make everything run smoothly.
Seven years later, we’re still supporting etc.venues. We are the recommended supplier at ten (of twelve) of the London venues and as a result, we know the venues better than anyone. We know the technology better even than the teams on site who refer to us for information that is more within our expertise than theirs and I believe that is exactly how it should be. I know when I go to a supplier, I want to talk to the person who uses the equipment day in day out and who knows the product.
As a result of this type of relationship, customers get the best service and work is always completely efficiently. I believe that some of our best work is done in these venues because we know the rooms, the technology and the staff. We know how they work and we know where our customers can use the most appropriate equipment and what to use most cost effectively. It’s a model that has worked well for the venues over the years and it’s worked well for us. And why do they stick with us? Customer Service!
So here is a big thank you to etc.venues for many years of business and hopefully many more years to come!!
We’ve all been there. It mostly works but it just isn’t good enough. We’re watching TV or playing a computer game.
So imagine you’re sitting on an aeroplane, you’re watching an in-flight movie. The quality is really bad. It gets worse, it becomes so annoying that you have to turn it off.
Now think about that. What was so annoying about it?
Imagine the video is all wavy and you struggle to make out the picture but the audio is fine. Now imagine the audio is so bad you can’t hear anything but the picture is fine. Which one are you more likely to be able to take.
When we watch a video, it’s the audio we need as much as, maybe even more than the video. We can live with a pixelated image although we might rather it was perfect. But bad audio will give headaches and cause us to be constantly struggling to hear.
So make sure you use a supplier who understands not just the IT aspects but also the video and audio aspects of the project. Make sure you use Present Communications ltd.
Sustainability is of course the buzz word here. But it doesn’t mean anything more than ‘good business’.
These are the three key drivers for any business. What this means is ‘can you operate this business for the foreseeable future without damaging the environment, will people like my business and therefore keep coming back and will I make enough money?’. Lets hope that the answer to those questions is yes.
Business travel is on the rise and it’s one of the faster growing causes of environmental pollution. It’s also very expensive. During the recession, many companies implemented travel bans alongside wider cost cutting exercises. During this period, along with the general increase in internet bandwidth and video traffic, people have become more comfortable with internet video and video conference suites and expect a higher quality video link from their suppliers.
That’s where we come in. We can save money by providing high quality links over the internet where satellite might have been required in the past and in doing so, we can also help companies meet their travel reduction and carbon emission targets. And all this whilst primarily increasing productivity by bringing people together from around the world to work together.
Having spent the last year trying, testing and comparing the C90 to similar products from the same and competitor brands, it has become apparent the Cisco’s product, part of the C-series, released since they bought Tandberg a few years ago has the relaxability in terms of connectivity particularly that the competitors just don’t offer and it’s these features that make is so useful in the live events industry where no two jobs are ever the same.
I can honestly say that we’ve used so many features on the unit that literally aren’t available on other devices, such as DVI input on the main video channel or even just HD-SDI inputs. Actually clean output busses are handy as well as balanced line level in and out.
So what are we going to do about this. Well, we just bought two more!
