EDS Provides Technical Support For U.S. Government Conference
11 Mar 2008
When the United States hosted a conference at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Md., last November, it called on EDS for technical support.
The Nov. 27 conference served as a launching point for negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace. The EDS Program Team for the U.S. Department of State supported the event. For its technical support, the team was recognized in January at a U.S. Department of State awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Behind the scenes, the EDS program team, which included partners AT&T, Henkels & McCoy and TWD & Associates, provided critical infrastructure for the conference, creating a voice and data network that supported the participants from the more than 40 invited countries, the international press, U.S. and international security details and the Department of State conference staff.
“From start to finish the focus was on delivering customer satisfaction,” said Account Executive Ed Hunter.
Quick Turnaround
Given less than a month to plan, the EDS team took quick action to serve the communications needs of the conference. The USNA campus basketball arena, Alumni Hall, was the center of conference activity, where more than 500 members of the U.S. and international press spent most of their time and where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made her closing remarks. EDS turned Alumni Hall into a large Internet café, with 20 WiFi access points strategically placed around the building to provide service to all portions of the arena.
Local phone service was provided by EDS using a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) specifically designed for temporary events. Knowing that cellular phone signal strength was weak within the building, EDS arranged for AT&T Wireless, Sprint and Verizon Wireless to install temporary truck-mounted cellular towers to boost signal strength within the arena, allowing participants to use their cellular phones as well as the EDS-provided wired phones.
Making creative use of the campus cabling infrastructure, EDS networked six other buildings to Alumni Hall, extending the WiFi and voice service to six other key conference support locations. Many campus buildings are historic properties that cannot be modified without special permission, so adding new wiring was impossible in many buildings. EDS' use of wireless technology within those buildings provided service while leaving all portions of the historic buildings intact.
In all, EDS provided service to more than 1,000 users at the one-day conference. “Communication and teamwork were the keys to the success of this event,” Hunter said. “Working on a very short timeline, the EDS team brought together the right people with the right skills and equipment to make it all work.”
At the Jan. 25 award ceremony hosted by the Department of State's Information Resources Management bureau, EDS team members were presented with Certificates of Appreciation signed by Secretary Rice.
The certificates were presented “in recognition of outstanding contributions and assistance to the U.S. Department of State on the occasion of the Annapolis Conference at the United State Naval Academy, November 27, 2007.”