New Article Part 2
The Royal Oak is located in a quiet, picturesque village, close to the leisure and event facilities at Goodwood, with the home of Rolls Royce Motor Cars also nearby, generating significant patronage for the venue. Craig Eldridge, a chef at the Royal Oak, and the venue's IT champion, explained their choice of the Telkonet system: "WiFi seemed an obvious candidate at first, but concerns were raised over its viability, due to the presence of lead-covered roofs, plus metal railings around a large balcony area, and the sheer quantity of metal in the kitchen's catering equipment and air extraction system. Achieving adequate wireless coverage would have taken the cost to an uncompetitive level, and we were also nervous about WiFi's security aspects, as we could not afford our clients to feel that their communications were anything less than rock-solid secure. Our preferred solution also had to minimise the need for any technical support, as our clients would not appreciate us delving into their laptops to help them connect. Fortunately, Telkonet's solution does not require this degree of support, and our first client to try the system ran downstairs into the kitchen to tell us how pleased he was that he'd connected so easily!"
The Telkonet iWire System's network backbone capability is also providing additional benefits to the Royal Oak, as it is being used to connect the venue's NFS room reservation system and is also scheduled to encompass its Comtrex restaurant ordering system. Following the success of the Telkonet installation at the Royal Oak, owner Nick Sutherland has engaged Systemax to deploy the same solution at another of his venues, Trents, in the nearby cathedral town of Chichester. Trents has 6 guest rooms, all furnished and equipped to the same standard as the Royal Oak, plus a busy drop-in bar, and is repeating the Royal Oak's formula in a more urban setting. Each guest room will have a Telkonet iBridge to provide the secure Internet connection, and a further iBridge is being installed to feed a WiFi hotspot in the bar area for casual users, underlining the overall flexibility of the system. These two installations also emphasise the suitability of the Telkonet system for the widest range of venues and building types. Combining high-speed Internet access with the ability to incorporate other IP devices into the same data backbone - such as wireless access points, PoS systems and surveillance cameras - provides a very high degree of flexibility and allows for long-term expansion without additional wiring.
Systemax Communications' Mike Coakley commented: "Telkonet's solution is extremely straightforward. Its inherent scalability makes it very suitable for this kind of multi-building site, and if further rooms are added in the future, they will be Internet-enabled automatically via the power circuits. As a systems integrator and installer, our company values Telkonet's solution very highly - compared to the alternatives of CAT 5 cabling and wireless, this system wins for us on the grounds of simplicity, security, economy and reliability. It is also very quick to install. At the Royal Oak, we worked around the restaurant opening times to complete the initial installation in around 3 hours! This was achieved without disturbance to the restaurant or any of the guest rooms. Each room has a Telkonet iBridge, which provides the connection to the Telkonet backbone from a guest's laptop, and connecting is quick, simple and hassle-free."
