Radio network tunes in to unified comms

Commercial radio network ARN (Australian Radio Network) has completed a company-wide telephony and networking rollout.

ARN owns and operates eleven capital city stations for 25-54 year olds, including Mix, The Edge and Classic Hits formats, among others.

The company previously operated five standalone PABX telephony systems, each of which was between five and 25 years old. The company replaced these legacy systems in order to connect offices in five states and standardise on a unified communications system from Cisco Systems.

The solution, from Logicalis Australia, uses VoIP to provide centralised telephony services (such as interstate call transfer and contacts) and support a new mobile sales workforce strategy.

ARN went to tender in late 2010 and chose to upgrade its switching and routing hardware simultaneously with its telephony network.

The project, completed in June 2011, was delivered on time and within budget. Upon selection, ARN gave details of its new infrastructure plans to Logicalis which then designed, configured, tested and installed the new network to sit within ARN’s WAN. The rollout began at the Sydney head-office and progressed to Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra.

“We’re in the business of providing entertainment to our listeners and advertising opportunities to our clients. Consequently, how we communicate with these audiences is critical to our commercial operations,” said Graeme O’Connor, National Technology Director at Australian Radio Network.

“The Logicalis team was exceptional in the design and delivery of the project and worked well with our internal technical team to deliver a solution that fits into a wider strategy for ARN. Already our phone costs have been significantly reduced, and we’re realising the benefits of an improved mobile sales workforce,” said O’ Connor.