European sports network Eurosport has selected telecoms and cloud services provider Interoute's video conferencing system to improve communication at the sports media group.
Interoute is deploying the video conferencing systems at Eurosport's headquarters in Paris as well as at its offices in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.
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Marc Amiot, director of IT at Eurosport, told Computing that the company looked at four video conferencing providers, but that Interoute was selected as it was a cloud-based solution and because it already provides Eurosport with its virtual private network.
He did not want to comment further on the vendors that were not selected.
Amiot said that the firm focused on solutions that could integrate with systems from the two main video conference manufacturers on the market: Cisco and Polycom.
"We didn't want to see a smaller solution, and so we chose Interoute as it is partners with Cisco and Polycom," he said.
Amiot added that he was also attracted by the fact that Interoute's cloud-based solution requires little management input from his team.
"I think their cloud solution is really mature and I think it is a trend on the market to go for a more cloud-based solution - even for a video conferencing system and that's something we wanted to do. Particularly for my team, because I didn't want to dedicate people to manage the solution and Interoute manage the problems and manage the solution," he explained.
Amiot said the solution should make it easier for staff to collaborate while at the same time reducing travel costs.
"Our teams are constantly looking for ways to improve communication and collaboration within the organisation and beyond. We have a broad international network of clients, sponsors, marketing teams, and key partners, who are central to the success of our business," Amiot said.
"Maintaining good relationships with them through improved communication is essential. The move to Interoute's video conferencing solution was the obvious next step for Eurosport and initial feedback has been really positive," he added.
