Over the last couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of working with Pylon One building the network infrastructure for the media facilities at Holyrood Palace for the State Visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI.

This high profile event has attracted massive media attention not only for its unique and historic characteristics but also the controversy surrounding the nature of the state visit granted to the Pontiff.

Pylon One were responsible for providing all of the internet access for the media across every site featured during the four day tour of the UK by the Pope.

At the Edinburgh Media Centre we provided connectivity for some 30 edit booths and radio broadcast rooms and capacity for up to 150 members of the written press.

Pylon One made extensive use of Cisco Catalyst switches and Aironet Wireless Access Points to achieve a robust, secure and reliable network for use by the media, broadcasters, production staff and crew.

External connectivity at the site was provided via a 100Mbit BTNet fibre installed specifically for the event and in very short time scale – something that in itself is no easy task!

Overall the event ran very smoothly with no issues experienced during the course of the media presence at Holyrood. This was my first job working with the team from Pylon One and I look forward to working with them again in the future on other projects.