Extracts from:  Q-KON Newsletter  April 2005

Q-KON’s cutting edge VSAT technology - SPOTbytes

The CAPE EPIC cycle race kicked off for the second time on the 2nd of April 2005 in Knysna, Cape Town and more than 800 mountain bikers from over 32 countries across the globe participated in this years event which is the largest full-service mountain bike stage race in the world. 3 days before the race event, Q-KON’s Ku-band SPOTbytes solution was selected to provide a mobile Internet via satellite 256kbps receive and a 512kbps transmit link for the The Cape Epic Central System (CECS) – which is a consolidation of all the technology that is required to provide services at The CAPE EPIC. Q-KON’s exciting, ground-breaking interactive services was set up daily in each stage location and provided the riders with a 20-station Internet Café to communicate w ith their friends, family and supporters around the world. Conference Communications, the official Audio Visual partners for the event, made use of Q-KON’s high speed Internet gateway to provide the wireless network that was established across the entire race area at each location. With 3 independent international TV crews and South Africa’s SuperSport filming the event for broadcast in Africa on their selected DSTV channels, it was imperative that a cost-effective means to upload daily footage was achieved.