NEWS

FUSILIERS’ MUSEUM OPENS WITH HELP OF PENNINE TELECOM

But when the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (RRF) and Bury’s famous former Lancashire Fusiliers wanted their new museum to be a ‘living history’ they needed plenty of support from local telecommunications firm Pennine Telecom.

The former Lancashire Fusiliers, established in 1688, amalgamated in 1968 with three other fusilier regiments to form the RRF. Their museum was based at Bury’s Wellington Barracks but the building was old fashioned and no longer suitable to hold the displays.

Plans for the new multi million pound Fusilier Museum and Learning Centre at Bury’s former Arts and Crafts Centre were approved but involved major refurbishment of the property. Funding for the museum came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the North West Development Agency, as well as huge local and community match-funding support.

Over a period of 12 months Pennine Telecom worked extensively with the museum’s development team to ensure that they provided a communications and IT package that was exactly what the museum wanted. The £16,000 ‘in kind’ donation package includes data and telephone switches, computer equipment and user-friendly interactive equipment for visitors.

The package includes:

? an Avaya IP500 telephone system with 30 extensions, voicemail and auto-attendant, I.T. equipment including computers, laptops, projectors and interactive white boards.

? an Extreme local area network infrastructure that offers high levels of resilience and security. Extreme products also assist in reducing energy usage and costs with ‘green’ features such as powering down applications and devices when not in use.

? a Motorola two-way digital radio system enabling museum staff and supervisors to keep in constant contact with each other, improving security, communications and levels of service to the public.

? a Motorola Symbol wireless network throughout the museum for staff and visitors as well as guests using the conferencing facilities to browse the archive or internet.

The RRF is on a tour of duty to Afghanistan and the new equipment will enable visitors to contact the soldiers serving there, as part of ‘living history’ keeping the regiment’s 300-year history right up to date.

Museum visitors will also have easy-access to computer databases of the archives, which will be progressively digitised by museum staff and volunteers.

The new museum will house a shop, café, and conference facilities, all with free wireless access which operates throughout the building. The function rooms will also be available for meetings, exhibitions, training workshops and evening events.

“Pennine Telecom’s generosity enabled us to take the museum forward into the 21st century and allows us to display the museum exhibits the way we want to,” said Mike Booth, museum general manager.

“With Pennine Telecom working so closely with us over the last 12 months they fully understood our requirements. The equipment provided meets our needs perfectly. They suggested a wireless network which not only provides staff and visitors with wireless access to the internet but also eliminated the need to install unsightly wiring and ports. We have known and trusted Pennine Telecom for many years and they went the ‘extra mile’ to ensure our every need was met. We really can’t thank them enough for their commitment and dedication to this project.”

“We were more than happy to help get the new museum off the ground with specialist, up to date equipment,” said Geoff King, Product & Sales Director at Pennine Telecom. “It’s been a great project and we are honoured to be a part of the museum’s future. I am sure the whole community will benefit from the superb facilities available in the museum.”

The museum opens to the public on June 27th 2009, which is British Armed Forces Day. A special guest will perform the official opening at a ceremony on 25 Sept 2009.