Belga: operational 24/7

"Source: Belga". Two words often found in news reports on television, the internet and in newspapers. That is of course the task of a press agency: to gather the most important news and supply it to the media. But how do you get hundreds of photos, text messages, online messages, audio bulletins and video reports to these media organisations every day without delay? Tom Wuytack, ICT Manager at Belga, can answer that: "A unique cross-media service package together with Orange." Read more below.

The challenge

Spreading the most important news 24/7

Tom Wuytack: "Our clients–newspapers, news sites and TV broadcasters, but also government organisations and businesses–want to be the first receive the most important news. Take the re-election of the football association chairman, for example: such news needs to be communicated within seconds of the announcement. No matter the time or place, our journalists have to be able to relay the news back to our headquarters as it unfolds. Which means it's a must for us to have a provider who can guarantee this.”

More than just gathering news

And once the news has been gathered? "Then it still needs to be sent out to countless news outlets, governments, businesses and organisations by different means, including via FTP, SMS and email containing both text and images. Not to mention that the news has to be received by all of Belga's clients at exactly the same time. Two minutes can be the difference between a scoop and old news. Which means a powerful, reliable network is crucial. For that, we know we can count on Orange."

The solution

A custom telecoms package

"When we started working with Orange–known in Belgium as Mobistar back then"we met to establish our telecoms needs and expectations. Orange developed a custom-made package for us, with fixed and mobile telephony and data. Because most communication between the editorial staff and our data centre takes place via a high-speed fibre connection. We also still receive a lot of calls on our fixed line."

VoIP trunking, the ideal solution

VoIP trunking is an integrated solution for all your communication. It offers Belga voice telephony via the Orange IP VPN network, for example. What's more, the telephony and data traffic is sent over the same network, resulting in a more efficient use of the IT infrastructure. The SIP certification program (or ‘Session Initiation Protocol’, a specific way of establishing voice and video connections, among other kinds of connection) allows for seamless interaction between your own telephone equipment and the SIP trunk used by Orange.

Belga’s made-to-measure network

Just as important as reachability is a reliable, high-performance network. Which is why Belga relies on the fibre connection offered by Orange. It connects the Belga headquarters with their data centre in Zaventem with a 1 Gbps upload and download capacity. Belga also opted for a 100 Mbps Corporate Internet connection. 'We want to always be able to supply our clients with news without delay, using their preferred method of communication. A 100% reliable network is therefore essential. We know we can rely on Orange for that.' 

The result

All the news, on time, all the time

Belga is the number-one source for both national and international news. This is a reputation Belga has built up over the years, thanks in part to the reliable and powerful tools from Orange.

Many extra cross-media services

'One example is our news alerts service, which gives you up to 10,000 push SMS texts to send each month. Of course, all these messages have to reach their recipients at the same time. We also offer pull messages. Our clients can effortlessly consult our databases for news reports and photos at any time, from wherever they may be. None of this would be possible without a telecoms partner like Orange.'