Sohonet

Founded in 1995 by a group of Soho-based post-production companies, Sohonet now links the British Pinewood and Shepperton[?] film studios to London's post-production community. Sohonet also provides access to the Internet, and wide-area links to its customers in other countries.

Within Soho, Sohonet is notable for its use of free-space optical communications links. The use of this technology, not usually practical for last mile[?] links, is made possible by Soho's small size, combined with careful beam placement and geometry.

Both of the leading British film studios, Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios[?], have direct optical fiber connectivity to the Sohonet core, with campus connectivity on the sites provided via fiber and VDSL technologies.

With connectivity to the United States, (Los Angeles, New York, etc), Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the ability to provide connectivity to locations worldwide via fibre and satellite links, Sohonet is now in the process of becoming a global media network.

Sohonet is the winner of numerous industry awards, and was a pioneering user of ATM networking. However, Sohonet is now transitioning to using Gigabit Ethernet and MPLS technologies over an optical backbone.

External links:

• Sohonet (http://www.sohonet.co.uk/)
• http://www.ten-telecom.org/en/highlights/H8-sohonet