it gives us access to a wider range of interconnect partners, peering, and truly "global" t1 carriers for both voice and data termination.

it allows us to control to a fine degree where and who we reach, and also how. for example - want to improve wow performance/ stand up a peering session with one of the t1 carriers (e.g. at&t) that blizzard uses in Los Angeles!

it gives us better throughput and more direct access to some of the largest content providers on earth - such as Google; facebook;  CDN operators such as Limelight, Akamai, EdgeCast, and Hurricane Electric.

it lets us extend our business and enterprise service offerings to a wider range and reach of customers. for example - head office in Auckland, with branches in Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, and Hong Kong no problem - access circuits from Telecom (NZ), Pipe Networks (Australia), Level3 Comms and Cogent (US), and PCCW (HK), all delivered back to an MPLS or VPLS VPN in our core - and you've got a high-speed inter-office vpn ready to go.

It gives us scale - we're now buying capacity in STM-16 (2.5GB) and STM-64 (10GB) chunks, so we get considerably improved buying power and economies of scale. we also have moved our International network to run on SDH - as opposed to Ethernet - offering improved restore times in the event of failure and much tighter control over network quality of service.

All of this translates to better performance, better quality, and better value for our end users. All very well - but what about the technical details? Well, i can share some things: the SDH core runs on Alcatel-Lucent TSS-110 1850 switches. we use STM-16 and STM-64 cards on the SDH side; 10ge and WDM cards on the southbound side, and they'll scale up to 120GB of interface capacity per box. What do they look like? Well, something like this:

At the Ethernet and IP layer, we've stuck with Juniper - but we've put in a whole stack of their new(ish) MX480 boxes. we've been using MX960s and M-series routers in the Orcon core happily for a good 6+ years now. We've deployed these in pairs at each International node, each pair mated to a pair of the Alcatel ADMS:

For the backhaul, we've laid our own into the Southern Cross landing station in Auckland. Overseas (Sydney and Los Angeles) we use a mix of dark fibre and leased wavelength services.

So far we have the Auckland and Sydney sites deployed and cutover to the new network - as of the last week of December. Early next year we'll be starting work on upgrading our existing Los Angeles site to the same spec.

The fibre termination units heading out to the Southern Cross cable station in Takapuna. each box contains enough fibre pairs to deliver tens of terabits of capacity in the future if necessary. The yellow fibre trays route cables through our datacenter to the racked Alcatel and Juniper equipment.

A Juniper mx480 - racked in our Auckland datacenter ready to go into service. The multiple 1G links on the left hand side run back to the Orcon core; the two 10G ports on the right connect to the Alcatel 1850s.

SDH cards installed in an Alcatel 1850 TSS-100 switch racked in our Auckland lab pre-deployment. The two fibre patch leads run to the a and b legs of the Southern Cross cable capacity - there are another pair just like it at the other end in Sydney.

All you have to do is tell us why you deserve it the most by pleading your case in the comments section below.

We'll decide the winner at 5pm Jan 15. That means those of you lucky enough to be surprised by getting an iPad at Xmas can still be in to win.

The cases are all handmade, and frankly beautiful. They are crafted using book-making techniques, and are the slickest-looking iPad cases we have seen.

More information at www.dodocase.com

Edit: We have a winner! Richard Southall, the case will be with you soon.

And of course TVNZ content is unmetered for all Orcon customers through our Ozone.

The PS3 also lets you jump online to surf the net, facebook or youtube.

Enter and be in to win a PlayStation 3 console, PS3 games, Blu-ray movies and a $50 PlayStation Network card to purchase the latest tracks from SingStore, expansion packs or mini games on the PlayStation Network.

To enter, answer this simple question by November 26: Which company makes the PlayStation 3?

Email your answer and username to: quentin.reade@team.orcon.net.nz

Update: We have a winner! Take a bow Xiao Boa Clark of Auckland - a PS3 will be in your lounge soon. (Thanks again PlayStation - what an awesome prize, and just in time for Xmas too.)

Five of our favourite experiments are:

The Wilderness Downtown

The Wilderness Downtown is an interactive, personalized music video for a song from Canadian band The Arcade Fire , ‘We Used to Wait’. Written and directed by Chris Milk, this was produced by the Google Creative Labs team themselves, and is unlike any music video, or online video that you have ever seen. If you haven’t given it a go yet, go and do it now. Just enter the address of the house you grew up in, and it does the rest.

Darkroom

Darkroom is a great little web based photo editor that is surprisingly powerful. With Darkroom you can fix up your digital photos on the fly, no matter where you are, without any expensive image editing software. All you need is access to the Internet.

Multiuser Sketchpad

Drawing is a great pastime, but it is a lonely one. That is where Multiuser Sketchpad comes in, collaborate in real time with anonymous people from around the world on your very own masterpiece. There is something quite amazing about drawing together with someone who could either be next door, or sitting in the middle of Siberia.I t is also worth checking out the gallery of some of the incredible images that have been created (Just-Draw).

Chain Reaction

Sometimes there is nothing like a good, simple, addictive game. Chain Reaction is just such a game. You pretty quickly pick up the idea behind this one. But be careful because it is wildly addictive. Don’t start playing if your boss is likely to be looking over your shoulder.

InterNetris

It is Tetris, on the Intenet: Internetris. Who doesn’t love this old school block game?

PLANETRUGBY

The name says it all as it covers every major Rugby tournament being played in the world. All the fixtures and results can be found here, from the international game to the domestic competition. It includes extensive news, video and photo galleries. If the site becomes too overwhelming you can split into either the southern/northern hemisphere section. Like talking Rugby? Planet Rugby has a forum section as well.

NRL

All you want to know about your favorite Rugby League competition. It contains the latest news, features about your team, players and representative games. It also offers video content of match highlights and comprehensive statistics. Well presented and quite in-depth the ideal site for all you league lovers.

CRICINFO

The home of Cricket online, it covers all levels from the international game to your local domestic competition. It has quick-links to all the current series being played and profiles the legends of the game. There's homepages for the country you support.

GOAL

The site of the beautiful game, it covers everything you wanted to know about Football. From breaking news to the player transfer market. Catch the latest on the Champions league, European club news and the World Cup. Plus great editorials about a huge range of players.

NBA

If you love the NBA then this is the site you should be visiting. It has all latest buzz about your team, players, trade rumors and much more. It has great video content to catch the latest game highlight or player interviews. Anything and everything about the No.1 Basketball competition can be found here.

PGATOUR

The official site of the PGA tour provides the latest coverage on current tournaments being played and the upcoming ones. Has a great feature on any Golf Holiday that you might be planning in the US. Plus in-depth statistics on players driving distances, rankings and money leaders. Very comprehensive and well put together.

ESPN

Although not purely dedicated to one sport, it is still one of the best sports websites going around and one of my personal favorites. Some might argue that it only focuses on the main US sports but this is hardly the case. It covers all major sports like Soccer, Rugby & Cricket. The other bonus is the inclusion of great sports shows like PTI, Around the Horn & E: 60. So if you are short on time & want to take a quick pit stop from your daily routine, ESPN is definitely a site you want to visit.

This time it is all about creativity and collaboration. We are really excited about what we have managed to pull together.

Kicking off at 7pm on Friday the 10th of September, this edition of the Orcon Great Blend will run as part of The Edge's Deep and Meaningful series in our beautiful new venue, the Civic Wintergarden. Russell Brown and guests will be exploring the nature of creative collaboration.

And "explore" doesn't just mean talking about collaboration, but doing it. The Orcon Great Blend has brought together prominent local creatives to see what emerges when they work together.

Novelist Emily Perkins and graphic novelist Dylan Horrocks decided to jointly create a comic as page-by-page "conversation about writing", and they'll "perform" that illustrated conversation on stage on the night.

The event also brings together painter Karl Maughan and Auckland graffiti artist and video director Askew One to jointly create a large-scale work in Askew's studio. They'll be making a video and photographic record of the process, and presenting the work at the event.

Russell Brown will also interview local music industry legend Simon Grigg - flown in specially from Bangkok - about the interface between commercial management and creative artists, with particular reference to the OMC story, which is the subject of Simon's forthcoming book.

And 95bFM's ukulele queen Silke Hartung will round out the stage programme with a musical collaboration of her own.
After the main stage programme is completed, it'll be party time. Simon Grigg will DJ at a purpose-built "nightclub" within the Wintergarden, there will be a space for relaxed conversation and networking in the Safari Room, and NZ On Screen and Flying Nun Records are collaborating on a special video programme in the adjacent Taj Mahal room.

As usual, the ticket price is a bargain, you lucky Orcon customers can come along for free. Let us know you would like to come along by dropping us an email: greatblend@orcon.net.nz with your Orcon username as our lovely new venue has a strictly limited capacity. We will drop you an email back to let you know that we have saved you a place.

This Friday and Saturday sees speakers such as Storm Thorgerson, Jessica Hische, The Light Surgeons, Pixar, Adrian Shaughnessy, Poke London and many more joining hot talent from closer to home to share some of their amazing work and how they go about making it.

If you would like to get along then we have got good news for you. We have 2 tickets (valued at $290 each!) to give away to 2 lucky Orcon customers.

Because this is one of the highlights of the creative calendar here in Auckland we want you to do something a little creative to get hold of one of these tickets. So, to enter we want you to write us a Haiku explaining why you want to go in the comments section below. On Wednesday the 18th at 5pm we will pick our 2 favourites, and they will both get their hands on a free pass. It's that easy.

In case you need a little inspiration check out this show reel from the Light Surgeons who will be speaking at Semi-Permanent 2010.

Find out more about Semi-Permanent, including the full list of speakers, over at www.semipermanent.co.nz