SONAbeam from fSONA, Pacific Wireless Communications, Industry Canadas Communications Research Centre and University of Hawaii Enable Broadband Playground

Pacific Wireless Communications and fSONA Systems today announced their participation in the Broadband Playground at PTC05, Pacific Telecommunications Councils prestigious annual event in Honolulu, Hawaii January 17-19th, which will be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa.

Honolulu, HI / Vancouver, Canada (PRWEB) January 9, 2005 -- The Broadband Playground will demonstrate advanced network technology that enables live, leading-edge broadband applications for global collaboration, education and entertainment. This showcase of network-enabled applications, coordinated by the Communications Research Centre of Industry Canada, will bring together participants at international research and education institutions from four different countries -- Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States.

The Broadband Playground is reliant upon connectivity to the University of Hawaii GigaPop which has direct connections into major advanced networks including Internet2 (U.S.), AARNet (Australia) and international networks such as APAN (Asia Pacific Area Network) as well as peering relationships with other networks such as CA*net 4 (Canada), SURFNet (The Netherlands) and others. While this international network provides the long-haul connections between educational facilities around the globe, it did not extend to the PTC05 Exhibit Hall at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Enabling the applications on display at the Broadband Playground requires high capacity, reliable and dedicated bandwidth throughout the three-day event. Deploying dedicated fiber for an event of such short duration would be cost prohibitive. Pacific Wireless Communications (PWC) suggested optical wireless technology from fSONA for the line of sight path between the University of Hawaiis Manoa campus and the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Optical Wireless is like virtual" dark fiber that matches the throughput performance and latency characteristics of Fiber Optics", says Jim Conroy, Director of Marketing, Pacific Wireless Communications. The Broadband Playground is an ideal application to highlight the benefits of this advanced technology."

Unlike other forms of wireless, optical wireless does not suffer from interference or licensing issues that can stall deployments. PWC used their expertise in deploying wireless systems to get the 2.6-mile link up and running quickly and economically.

One of the significant and challenging applications that will be supported on the link will be multiple streams of bi-directional HDTV. The SONAbeam 1250-M deployed in Hawaii is an ideal choice as it supports standard video protocols, including the uncompressed HDTV (SMPTE 292M) @ 1.085 Gbps and SDI (SMPTE 259M) @ 270Mbps. The SONAbeam link will also support Internet traffic for the entire Pacific Telecommunications Conference Broadband Playground by beaming" over existing gigabit Ethernet services from the University of Hawaii to the Hilton Hotel conference center via 640 mW of certified eye-safe 1550 nm lasers.

[Note to media -- site visits and photos can be arranged through the contacts below]

About Pacific Wireless Communications:
Pacific Wireless Communications is the premiere wireless systems integrator in the State of Hawaii. Previously known as Motorola Hawaii, Pacific Wireless Communications (PWC) focuses on providing best in class service and sales to Hawaii's government and commercial customers. PWC has 100 employees consisting of Project managers, Radio System Engineers, Factory trained technicians, Information Technology Network Engineers, fSONA Certified Engineers, and Customer Service Support Technicians.

About fSONA
fSONA Systems was founded in 1997 to deliver wireless solutions that simplify and speed network deployments for carrier, service provider and enterprise customers around the world. The SONAbeam series of free space optical (FSO) networking products use an unlicensed, wireless technology operating at speeds up to 2.5 Gbps and distances up to 5km. SONAbeam avoids the cost of digging to lay fiber, licensing for radio frequencies, is immune to interference, and is extremely secure. For more information visit www.fsona.com or www.free-space-optics.org

About Communications Research Centre Canada
The Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC), an agency of Industry Canada, is Canadas leading laboratory specializing in research and development (R&D) in advanced communications technologies and applications development. CRC has researchers and facilities dedicated to R&D on the technologies that form the basis of new and emerging telecommunications systems across Canada: terrestrial wireless, satellite communications, broadcast technology and broadband network technologies. The emphasis is to develop and demonstrate how these technologies can work together to form cost effective and reliable telecommunications networks that can serve all Canadians, especially the remote and underserved.

About Pacific Telecommunications Council
PTC is an international, non-profit, non-governmental, membership organization in Honolulu, founded in 1980. Its mission is to promote the development of telecommunications and related industries in the Asia-Pacific region. PTCs annual conference each January in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA is a premier telecommunication and information technology event for the Asia-Pacific region. More information on PTC is available at www.ptc.org.

Further Information:
Frank Isley
Pacific Wireless Communications
710 Kakoi Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96819
franki@pwchi.com
808-837-4378

Jennifer Walsh
fSONA Systems
jwalsh@fsona.com
604-273-6333

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