Tracing its history as the spiritual heart of Dublin back to circa 1028, Christ Church Cathedral is one of the capital’s most popular tourist attractions. Open all year round, with a full educational programme, a calendar of events and a functioning liturgical space to support, Christ Church’s connectivity requirements are thoroughly modern.
The Connectivity Challenge Despite a city centre location, connectivity was a huge challenge for the team behind the scenes at Christ Church Cathedral. The existing line was unreliable. Downtime was having a detrimental impact on day-to-day operations.
The Viatel Solution Viatel Technology Group stepped in to engineer a solution. Damien McCann, Chief Commercial Officer with Viatel, explains, “Viatel operates our own extensive network infrastructure. Our reach, combined with strategic partnerships with other carriers, means we can survey every available connection to devise the best solution for any location.”
Licensed Radio
Christ Church’s Account Manager, Eimear Nealon, continues, “Our team are experienced in guiding organisations through the options to find the best outcome for them. We were delighted to offer that expertise and reassurance to Christ Church Cathedral.” Viatel’s team recommended Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) via a licensed radio link. These links are licensed by ComReg, the Communications Regulator, to protect from interference and can deliver next generation speeds. The dedicated connection has transformed visits to and work in the cathedral.
Enhancing Visitor Experience Christ Church Cathedral uses audio guides to bring the cathedral’s history to life in a new and exciting way. Mary Reilly, Office and Facilities Manager at Christ Church Cathedral, explains that with the Viatel connection in place visitors can log into free Wi-Fi and download the audio guides seamlessly. “Download time has reduced from an average of 50 seconds down to 8 seconds so visitors can start exploring right away.” Improved User Experience It is not just the tourists who are benefitting. A busy team runs the commercial aspects of the cathedral’s operations. Having migrated fully to cloud based storage, an upgrade in reliable and strong connectivity was essential. On reflection, Mary feels that there are very few elements of the cathedral’s operations that have not been positively affected since partnering with Viatel.
Recommending Viatel
Mary feels the Viatel team really devised the right solution for Christ Church Cathedral,
“We had been offered other connections that were more expensive or not powerful enough for our needs. Viatel’s licensed radio solution was far more suitable. Viatel’s experience of working with unusual sites was also encouraging: We knew that Viatel worked with the OPW to connect sites like Newgrange. That gave us confidence in their ability to work with and respect the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of our site like our thick, medieval walls.”
Finally, Mary concludes that scalability was also a very attractive selling point of the solution: “It is encouraging to know our current service has the capacity to grow with us as we add even more interactivity or services in future.”
Connect with Viatel
Viatel Technology Group is Ireland’s leading independent comms and digital services group. Viatel provides best-in-class business comms, connectivity, voice, cloud, and digital transformations services to over 4,000 enterprises nationwide. To explore your organisation’s connectivity or other services, please contact our team on 1800 930 860 or email getstarted@viatel.com To learn more about Christ Church Cathedral, worship, visiting and events please visit www.christchurchcathedral.ie
