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Voice, Data, Video over Satellite

Spanish Steel Producer Grupo Gonvarri Links Production Facilities Worldwide with MAXcess Data/Voice Gear

Grupo Gonvarri is one of Spain's largest corporations and a world leader in steel mining and production. Its factories produce a wide range of metal products, from bottle caps to cables used in bridge construction, to auto bodies for most automobile manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Ford, Renault and Citroen.

To maintain a competitive edge while supplying high quality components to the automotive market, Gonvarri set up production plants at lower cost locations. In addition to its main factory in Madrid, Gonvarri operates production facilities in remote areas of Bulgaria, Morocco, and most recently, Brazil. Keeping the production plants working in harmony when separated by thousands of kilometers introduces an additional complexity to an already complex industry. The Madrid office needs to be in constant contact with the other facilities to ensure efficient day-to-day operation.

Because there is no adequate terrestrial communication infrastructure at the remote sites, Gonvarri installed a satellite network to conduct its business. "We required a voice and data network that would integrate all existing sites, enhance their operational aspects, add services and allow connection of new users at additional sites," says Pedro Klett Butragueño, Director of Administration and Information Systems at Grupo Gonvarri.

Now that Gonvarri is extending its network to the Brazilian plant, Butragueño returned to Payma, RAD's exclusive distributor in Spain, because he was "impressed with the knowledge and level of service offered by Payma. More than this," adds Butragueño, "RAD equipment gave excellent results in our previous installations in Bulgaria and Morocco."

The 256 kbps VSAT network uses a MAXcess-3004 integrated bandwidth manager at the central site, MAXcess-300 units in the remote production plants and ASN routers from Bay/Nortel Networks to transmit the voice, data and videoconferencing transmissions vital to Gonvarri's operation. MAXcess is well-suited to the satellite environment, as its jitter buffer, echo cancellation, segmentation and prioritization mechanisms minimize delay that is characteristic of satellite communications.

"The network functions smoothly and provides all the services required, integrating our own equipment with third-party equipment," says Butragueño. "We have plans to continue expansion in order to remain competitive in our markets. Networks such as this one help us accomplish these goals."