Robert Henderson, The CCD’s ICT Operations Manager, explains the service requirements an internationally recognised conference venue has when competing in the industry’s top tier.

“Our business operates in event mode and non-event mode. What we look for, in our service providers, are high specification services for both. We need high levels of bandwidth in event mode, while in non-event mode our internet access requirements would be smaller. We also require a speed of about 100MB with the option of scaling that up if we need to. That’s one of the advantages that Virgin Media provides us with — the ability to quickly scale that service up to a higher level when it is required.“

To best reflect the standards of a modern world-class convention centre, a high level of information and communications technology (ICT) has been incorporated into the design of The CCD. Supporting this is a team of IT experts offering flexible ICT solutions for each event. In order to best serve the needs of a wide and varied range of clients, it’s essential that The CCD continues to incorporate industry leading Wi-Fi throughout the venue.

“We are constantly looking to see where the market is going in the next three to five years, and what effects technological changes are having on the industry,” explains Robert.

“An area we are constantly seeing change in is wireless connectivity, and we have recently upgraded our systems to grow with this trend”.

The CCD is Wi-Fi enabled to the very latest connectivity standards (802.11ac), allowing visitors to connect and stay in touch with work or search for useful information while attending an event at The CCD.

The centre’s infrastructure can support up to 12,000 devices across the venue. In addition, The CCD can create custom wireless solutions to meet the particular needs of different clients, including custom SSIDs, passwords and landing pages, which clients often use as sponsorship opportunities.

When choosing a service provider, the keyword for The CCD is ‘flexible’.

“We can also provide micro-telecoms services to CCD clients, including voice and broadband access as well as other data services,” Robert elaborates.

“Everyone wants more bandwidth because they want to do bigger and greater things and sometimes clients bring in their own circuit from Virgin Media and we provide support. We want to be able to work with our clients’ infrastructure, and we want them to be able to work with our existing infrastructure. We need to be flexible.”

Virgin Media provides The CCD with a diverse internet connection that consists of a dual connection: The fibres delivering the separate connections never cross each other thus ensuring continued internet service if one of the connections goes down. The CCD only uses one of these connections at a time.

According to Robert, this is something that delegates are starting to expect as a standard and not a luxury when choosing their venue. “Within our internet access we have what is called a diverse redundant path from Virgin Media. This service sees two different fibres come into the building from two different parts of the city. This gives us a great redundancy system. If our main connection went down, we would automatically roll onto our back up service. It’s something our lager scale clients look for when choosing a conference venue.”

The CCD has a reputation for best utilising its position in the Dublin skyline to project captivating, often event-specific, graphic displays on its outer structure for the whole city to see. Among these, the visual display for the Brian O’Driscoll testimonial dinner is one of the most talked about examples. Use of this service falls under the remit of The CCD’s highly professional AV team and has its own set of specific technical requirements.

To date The CCD has won 27 industry awards, including the Meeting & Incentive Travel (M&IT) Gold Award for Best Overseas Conference Centre, which is has won for four consecutive years. Widely recognised as one of Europe’s most popular conference venues, The CCD continues to position Ireland on the world stage by bringing an exciting range of international events to Dublin, and generating valuable business tourism revenue for the local economy.