It is March once more.  Apart from it being more like February from the point of view of the weather, it is once more time for the Argus Cycle Tour.  Cyclists from all over the world (including some fella from Texas called Lance Armstrong) will be descending on Cape Town to chase each other around the Peninsula, just for the hell of it.  Takes all types to make a world.

It is also the 6th year running that Umoya will be there, q uietly making some of t he communications for the tour organisers work.

We will be configuring the VoIP phones (on an Asterisk server setup by Connection Telecom) for use as a call centre on the day for various parties.  We track the amount of incoming calls answered, dropped, unanswered etc. & what extensions attended the calls. We will also do voice recording of all calls for playback after the event.

We provide broadband internet access via WiFi and our Wide Area Network for the PC's in the Joint Operations Centre at Disaster Management's Tygerberg contact centre.

This year, the organisers have asked us to assist with connectivity to some of the timing mats along the route. This will provide Race Tec with VSAT & 3G connectivity to the their tracking server from places like Cape Point and Chapman's Peak where signals from GSM networks are not that strong. This will allow them to check when each cyclist passes that particular point.  Apparently some participants have been known to take the odd short cut in order to claim faster times - sies, that's just not cricket (or cycling)!

So if you're "doing the Argus" this weekend, all the best - may the wind be at your back and the road rise up to meet you in the nicest of ways.  Just one word of caution though - don't take any short cuts, will you? ;)