Ultra-Fast Broadband will deliver much faster downloads for a veterinary radiologist and an innovative, integrated technology company.
Mark Owen provides reports for veterinarians around the globe who require specialist assessment of images from digital radiographs, ultrasound and CT/MRI scans.
He is looking forward to UFB reaching Palmerston North under the Government's $1.5 billion plan, because it will significantly reduce his image download times, and improve his ability to serve his clients.
Dr Owen's broadband download speed is only 12Mbps, but UFB will dramatically increase this to 100Mbps.
"Having Ultra-Fast internet access is critical for the success of businesses such as veterinary radiology. Worldwide, there are far too few veterinary radiologists to undertake radiological diagnosis - so having access to the fastest broadband technology available is essential," Dr Owen said.
"Many cases have large amounts of data that need to be downloaded, and some downloads can currently take several hours. In urgent cases time is critical, in order to give the patient the best chance of a good outcome, and often there is an agreed time frame for me to report back to the veterinarian handling the case.
"One of the advantages I have is that I can prepare my reports for my Northern Hemisphere clients during their night, and they very much appreciate the fact that my reports are there waiting for them when they arrive at work in the morning. That's far better service than they receive from veterinary radiologists in their own countries."
Dr Owen grew up in Wanganui, the son of Malcolm (Dick) and Olwyn Owen. He went to Gonville Primary, St Johns Hill Primary, and Wanganui Boys' College, and completed his veterinary degree at Massey University.
After graduation he worked in general practice in Taranaki before deciding to undertake specialist training, equivalent to that provided in the medical system. He has post-graduate veterinary qualifications from New Zealand, Australia and Europe, and is one of only three registered specialists in New Zealand. In addition to providing imaging services worldwide, he also works at New Zealand's only veterinary school at Massey University.
Improved serviceThink3 provides electronic design and industrial automation services. Primarily, this involves the integration of technology into business processes, which not only increases efficiencies, but improves management decisions through the presentation of more timely information.
"Think3 (think3.co.nz) recently completed the installation and commissioning of several remote data-collection stations for Watercare Services Ltd, at the Manukau Wastewater Treatment plant, Auckland," Think3's director, James Cooper, said.
"At these sites we collect and manipulate wastewater flow rate information, and report this back to the client for the management of their downstream processing plant. But the collection of this 'real-world' information is only half the project. All the data is stored for historical and meaningful access, which in this case was on the client's servers.
"However, with the introduction of UFB, Think3 will be in a position to provide significantly improved services for projects such as this, because we will not only be able to collect this data, but also to store and display the information online to our clients. Our servers are highly specialised, and UFB will enable us to house and maintain them at our own premises, without in any way sacrificing performance at the clients end.
"Think3 also provides remote support for many of our clients, such as CMP Rangitikei, by "logging in" to their networks or devices (for example, industrial Programmable Logic Controllers [PLC's] and SCADA systems) over the internet."
With UFB, the performance of that process would be greatly improved, he said.
Rural benefitsAn important conference highlighting the opportunities UFB will make available to the rural community, will be held at the Wairakei Resort on November 8-9. Interested parties are encouraged to respond to the call for papers which close on August 22. Details of the symposium can be obtained at www.tuanz.org.nz
Article contributed by the Chamber of Commerce UFB Business Focus Group. To learn more, or contact the group, email john.patty@xtra.co.nz