Barrett-Jackson Leverages Airband Best-of-Class Internet and Business Continuity Solution for Las Vegas Car Auction
- 100 percent uptime even during last year’s record-setting 90mph monsoon winds
LAS VEGAS – September 14, 2010 – Barrett-Jackson Auction Company and Airband Communications today announced that Airband (formerly known as Sparkplug Communications), has been selected as the Internet provider and exclusive business continuity solution for the 3rd Annual Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Auction at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Thursday, Sept. 23, to Saturday, Sept. 25. The Las Vegas event will kick off a year-long celebration of Barrett-Jackson’s 40th Anniversary.
The Barrett-Jackson website logs more than 80 million page views and 3.5 million visitors annually, and the demand for bandwidth to manage the automotive catalog, online bidding and video streaming/archiving between the auction event location and their corporate server is significant. Airband is providing 30MB of guaranteed symmetrical bandwidth to Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas event via a stand-alone fixed-wireless tower transported to Mandalay Bay just for the auction.
Airband’s service provides the extra bandwidth that is critical during the event, and serves as second diverse network as part of the auction’s robust business continuity plan established by Barrett-Jackson to ensure a successful event. In the event of a cut cable, weather outage or catastrophic network failure of any kind, connectivity will be instantly re-routed to the wireless Airband network within seconds, providing a failover solution to ensure uptime.
“Barrett-Jackson must use the best-of-class technology provided by Airband to make our auctions the ultimate experience for car collectors and enthusiasts,” said Craig Jackson, Chairman and CEO, Barrett-Jackson. “Access to a 100 percent reliable network is critical and Airband offers carrier-quality high-bandwidth service. Their fixed wireless network gives us the diverse second network path that guarantees zero downtime, regardless of circumstances that might otherwise interrupt the wired network. The network they establish for our short-term need is every bit as solid and reliable as a high-dollar, permanent corporate installation.”
During the auction in Scottsdale earlier this year, a state of emergency was declared by Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer and auction attendees experienced record-setting 90mph monsoon winds and tornado warnings; however, the Sparkplug fixed wireless network experienced zero downtime. Operating as Sparkplug Communications, Airband has provided high-speed broadband internet access and business continuity planning to previous Barrett-Jackson auctions in Scottsdale and Las Vegas.
About The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company
The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company was established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Barrett-Jackson specializes in providing products and services to classic and collector car owners, astute collectors and automotive enthusiasts around the world. The company produces the “World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions™” in Scottsdale, Palm Beach, Fla., Las Vegas, and Orange County, Cali. Barrett-Jackson also endorses a one-of-a-kind collector car insurance offering for collector vehicles and other valued belongings. For more information about Barrett-Jackson, visit www.barrett-jackson.com or call (480) 421-6694.
About Airband
Airband Communications, Inc., is the largest fixed-wireless broadband provider for businesses in the U.S. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of high-speed data, Voice over IP, security and other managed solutions – delivered over one of the industry’s most scalable last-mile networks. Airband bypasses the local phone company to provide faster provisioning intervals, immediate scalability and complete redundancy for its customers. Thousands of businesses nationwide already count on Airband for their broadband service. For more information, please visit www.airband.com.
Media Contact
Automotive media contact: Scott Black (www.tprm-usa.com), (214) 520-3430, sblack@tprm-usa.com
Local media contact: Kelly Reeves, KLR Communications, (949) 509-1888, kelly@klrcommunications.com