RSC gets 21st century comms

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has signed a six-figure deal for an undisclosed sum to install a new internet protocol (IP) based network as part of as part of £112.8-million development project of new and existing Stratford-Upon-Avon sites.

More than 75 per cent of the RSC’s box office ticket sales are handled by its call centre operations, where the new telephony systems will enable it to deal more easily with peaks in demand – such as the busy summer period - and manage capacity across multiple sites.

Its 700-strong workforce are spread across its main Stratford campus and sites across the country, including offices in London’s West End and rehearsal rooms in South London.

The IP networked telephony system, based on Avaya Communications Manager Server and Gateway technology, will provide centralised control of a virtual communications campus for all the UK sites using one main server.

And, based on the RSC’s exiting data network infrastructure, the introduction of new voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities will cut costs, essentially enabling voice calling for free.

The RSC is working with IT integrator, CCT to roll out the new telephony platform. The project will be carried out in phases and users will be migrated onto the new platform as they relocate as a result of the redevelopment work, which includes the reconstruction of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, due for completion in 2010.

“In this period of massive redevelopment, maintaining communications is absolutely critical to the success of the company,” said Chris O’Brien, the RSC’s head of IT.

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