Projects & Awards

2022 NECA SA/NT Excellence Awards Winner & National Awards High Commendation

2022 NECA SA/NT Excellence Awards Winner 

2022 NECA National Awards High Commendation

MIMP is proud to announce another NECA SA/NT award, this year in the ICT & AV Project Category for their GigCity Whyalla and Mount Gambier Wireless Gigabit Business Internet project. MIMP also received a High Commendation in the NECA National Awards for the same project. Great achievements for the whole team!

MIMP was recognised for their success in the rollout of GigCity internet to Whyalla and Mount Gambier – a project supported by Department for Industry, Innovation and Science.

This State Government initiative and partnership with MIMP Connecting Solutions has provided two major regional towns in South Australia with fast, low-cost Gigabit internet using new technology. Whyalla and Mount Gambier have become the first regional centres in the state to connect to the state government-funded and MIMP privately funded GigCity network. 

https://www.widenet.com.au/ 

 

GigCity network to expand to Whyalla and Mount Gambier

High speed gigabit internet will be available in the state’s two largest regional cities, Whyalla and Mount Gambier, by the end of the year.

Eligible businesses in Whyalla and Mount Gambier will be connected to the GigCity network by MIMP Connecting Solutions, through a $1 million State Government funded project.

“Building the GigCity network to additional precincts is a key action item within the state’s strategic action plan for future industries and entrepreneurship, or the FIXE strategy,” Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said.

It is expected more than 220 businesses in Mount Gambier and around 70 in Whyalla will take up the service, at prices comparable to those available in metropolitan Adelaide GigCity precincts – ranging from $49.90 to $179.90 per month (ex GST), depending on the size of the business and the chosen plan.

“MIMP Connecting Solutions has begun preliminary works to build a new wireless broadband network and eligible businesses in both cities will be invited to register their interest to connect soon,” Minister Pisoni said.

City of Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin said: “GigCity will provide existing and new businesses with opportunities for innovation and development through high speed connectivity that will further enhance the attractiveness of Mount Gambier as a place to invest and do business.”

Whyalla City Council CEO Chris Cowley said: “GigCity is an essential element for the transformation of Whyalla, which will allow businesses to gain a technological competitive advantage and drive innovation.”

MIMP Connecting Solutions has been a supporter of regional SA for many years and is very excited to be able to work with the South Australian Government and the two City Councils to extend GigCity to Whyalla and Mt Gambier via this initiative.

Eligible businesses will need to be located within geographic reach of the wireless transmitters to receive a reliable, high speed connection.
With broadband speeds of 1 gigabit per second, startups and growth-focused businesses of all sizes can work with partners at home and around the world to develop and share opportunities and access new markets.

GigCity locations in Adelaide’s innovation precincts and co-working spaces have provided businesses with the capability for large scale image processing and simulation, augmented reality, data analytics, cloud computing and film and media production.

“We have a vision to make South Australia the nation’s startup capital, with the highest rate of business startups per capita within a decade,” Minister Pisoni said.

“The FIXE strategic action plan outlines a list of objectives, strategic directions and specific actions, ranging from immediate projects to longer-term initiatives, that will get us there.
“We have committed to explore options to build upon the GigCity network to connect additional regional innovation precincts with gigabit speed internet.”

Click here to register your business for GigCity Services.

 

For more information:

widenet.com.au 

Whyalla News, July 29 2019

 

 

MIMP doubles in size for 30th anniversary year

MIMP Connecting Solutions has started its 30th year in business on a roll, after doubling in size during the past two years.

Established in 1985, the privately owned company has doubled its headcount to nearly 30 employees since 2013, driven by strong demand for its expertise in installing and maintaining wireless networks.

With its head office in Richmond, MIMP has undertaken ground-breaking projects throughout Australia including Adelaide’s first Internet-enabled buses; building a multicast mesh wireless network to make Darwin’s streets safer; and deploying a 480km wireless network in regional Queensland. MIMP has also actively worked to link up remote SA communities such as Arkaroola.

MIMP CEO Allan Aitchison said demand for the company’s services came from the growing ubiquity of communication networks. “When we started, Telecom had the only national network and a handful of businesses had networked computers in their office,” he said.

“Today, even our homes are plugged into multiple networks - 3G, 4G, telephony, pay TV, the Internet - so MIMP has grown in both size and expertise to meet the demand from organisations that want to use this network technology to work more efficiently.

“What makes MIMP stand out is that we love solving difficult problems, whether that’s providing wireless communications for a mine in the outback or linking up aged care homes across metropolitan Adelaide.”

Despite three decades of boom and bust cycles in the technology industry, MIMP has steered a sure course from the day it was founded by managing director Doug Mackie.

Indeed, Doug came up with the company’s name before the business was even conceived. During a backpacking holiday in Europe, he told a bunch of friends in an English pub that if he ever started a business, he’d call it MIMP - which stood for Money In My Pocket.

Later in that trip, Doug visited an electronics trade show in Germany where he had to register under a business name, so he wrote down “MIMP” and gave the address and fax number of his father’s veterinary clinic in Adelaide. Six months later, Doug was back home when faxes offering the latest communications technology started rolling off his father’s fax machine - so he set up MIMP for real.

Doug, who remains actively involved in the business, said he believed MIMP’s best years were still ahead of it. “We are very confident about the next 12-24 months,” he said.

“We’ve been involved in networking since the industry was in its infancy, but it has now come of age. We’ve got the team, the experience and the agility that makes us an attractive partner for both Australian and multinational companies.

“What I love about MIMP is the pride all of our employees have in the company. It’s like they own it. Some of our employees have been with us for more than 15 years. Everyone has input into what a project is, so our employees are helping us to grow the business and change it. Done wrong, change management can kill a small company, but, at MIMP, it keeps on making us stronger because our people are behind it.”

See the article from The Advertiser here.

2014 Commendation Award: Arkaroola Station High Speed Internet Connection

Arkaroola Station is a last frontier in Australia, not having any service other than 3 radio telephones and poor satellite low speed NBN internet connection that was so slow even internet banking was not possible. The idea of high speed communication was a dream.

Although tourists travel from around the world to visit the unique archaeological features of this area, visitors had very little contact to the outside world other than 3 shared lines.

Arkaroola is a magnificent place to visit. Not many Australians realise that the ranges in this area are 1000 feet taller than Mt Lofty in South Australia and have unique plant and animal life seen nowhere else in the world.

MIMP were trusted to design a robust system that could provide a staged implementation program and provide known ongoing costs. The project commenced in 2009 and was completed in November 2013.

The project involved the design, engineering, construction and maintenance of a reliable high speed private service from Adelaide to Arkaroola traversing 200km in the Far North Flinders Rangers across Sacred Cultural Indigenous land. One link is 120km operating at 100 Megabits per second full duplex.

This project had multiple challenges, including the logistics of delivering personnel and 4 tonnes of equipment to a self-contained site 3800ft above sea level only accessible by helicopter, lengthy negotiations with a number of bodies and Government departments, arranging approvals to build a 25m free standing tower and providing solar power for long term unmanned connections. The system was built completely off site. Free standing towers were built by bolting the tower to 3 million year old ironstone. 

This new, bold, innovative connection is capable of 100 Megabits per second connecting Arkaroola to the outside world. The design incorporated path profiling links and surveys in remote areas on a trail bike, engineering and selection of equipment to cope with extreme wind, horizontal rain, dust, extreme heat and freezing temperatures and completely independent solar powered relay sites. Backup access was developed to remotely access, monitor and fault diagnose the equipment, solar charged battery life, link performance and network issues via satellite to maintain the system 24/7.

2013 MIMP scores NECA award hat trick

A 480km wireless networking project in Queensland has earned two major communication industry awards for wireless specialist MIMP Connecting Solutions - because it wasn’t groundbreaking!

MIMP collected three NECA (National Electrical and Communications Association) awards at the SA finals, two for the APLNG pipe microwave network in Queensland and one for MIMP’s Life Care network.

Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd is an incorporated joint venture between Origin Energy, ConocoPhillips and Sinopec. The Australia Pacific LNG project includes development of Australia Pacific LNG’s substantial coal seam gas resources in the Surat and Bowen Basins, a 530km transmission pipeline and a multi-train LNG facility on Curtis Island, near Gladstone.

MIMP designed, built and managed a 480km 100 megabit per second, full duplex Aviat Microwave Network from Miles to Gladstone, Queensland, in 12 months, with a further 12 months of managing the complete network. The project, which was carried out with no delay during the worst flooding period in Queensland on record, commenced in February 2012 and reached practical completion in June 2013.

MIMP’s APLNG project incorporates a number of Australian-first innovations including mobile solar relay sites, digital TV transmission, remote management, VHF relay traversing on multiple microwave links over 480K and remote monitoring of specific devices online.

NECA judges recognised the value MIMP delivered by presenting two awards for its APLNG project, the Voice & Data Large Projects over $300,000 category and the overall NECA Perpetual Award.

MIMP CEO Allan Aitchison said the APLNG project had been challenging. “We designed and delivered mobile 25m and 30m solar-powered microwave towers mounted on semitrailers so as to leave zero environmental impact when the camp packed up,” he said.

“With no ground penetration, the design allows vegetation to grow around the trailer and leaves no footprint when removed. These mobile towers included 20m outriggers with wind-down jacks to lift the entire structure off the ground completely, so it was both self-supporting and self-sufficient.

“Traditionally, shifting camps is a staggered process that could take quite a while to get the communications working. With our network, the network is ready from day one and, when they pack up and leave, there’s no impact left on the ground.”

See the NECA award presentation here.

MIMP also won a NECA award in the category of Voice & Data Small Projects Valued $300,000 and less for Life Care microwave network that connects aged care nursing homes across Adelaide suburbs. 

MIMP was the only company that could offer high-bandwidth links to its facility at Aldinga, 50km away. With licensed spectrum, Life Care receives an uncontended network, so it does not compete with any other network traffic, and has the ability to upgrade bandwidth when required.

A compelling benefit of the MIMP solution was it offered twice the return on investment of the other tenders. Life Care, which invested about $300,000 in the project, expects to break even after two years. MIMP deployed Aviat Networks licensed wireless links on the 18 gigahertz spectrum, running at 100 Mbps.

Life Care chief executive Allen Candy said "The big selling item was that this is a 'set and forget' for us in the sense this has got leveragability for five or 10 years, it is not just a two or three-year solution."

See the NECA award presentation here.

2011 Energy Efficiency and Environment Category: Warrawong Wireless Network

When the Royal Adelaide Zoological Society (Zoos SA) took over management of Warrawong, its only connection to the outside world was a low-speed 256 kilobit-per-second service at a very high cost. None of the business applications required by Zoos SA could run efficiently while Internet email was non-existent.

MIMP installed four Aviat microwave devices to connect up the Zoos SA head office at Adelaide Zoo, on the Adelaide plain near the Central Business District, with Warrawong, south of Stirling, about 25km from the CBD. One device is installed at each end of the link, with two more located at Mt Lofty, a geological high point on the Adelaide Hills face, which provides the central connection point.

MIMP designed and installed a high capacity licenced microwave link providing a low cost 32-megabit-per-second (Mb/s) full-duplex connection between the sites with minimal ongoing costs. In fact, the Aviat microwave devices use less power than a 40-watt light bulb.

Because building a 35-metre mast was out of the question due to its environmental impact, MIMP used its own profiling software to plot a solution from Warrawong via the Mount Lofty Fire Tower to Adelaide Zoo in North Adelaide. The solution was based at ground level excluding vegetation!

2010 Voice & Data (Large) Category & 2010 Perpetual Award: Darwin Police Microwave Mesh Network

When NT Police planned an $8.612 million Closed Circuit Television system to monitor trouble hotspots in Darwin, it needed a self-healing wireless network to manage 109 cameras covering 6sq km of the city's streets. Project manager STS selected network specialist MIMP to design and deploy Australia's first multicast mesh IP-based wireless network, with the ability to self-heal any points of failure and to survive lightning strikes. Since the Darwin Street Camera wireless network was deployed in December 2009, it has successfully transported hundreds of gigabytes of video data each day without any major disruptions or outages.

2010 Voice & Data (Small) Category: I-Commute Bus

Australia's first Internet-enabled bus hits the roads for a six-month pilot program in Adelaide today, providing an advanced transSpot™ Real-time Passenger Information System and real-time security. It also offers free Web access and free gaming programs to passengers. Dubbed i-Commute, the system has been developed and funded by a coalition of technology companies including MIMP Connecting Solutions, transSpot™, Cisco, Adam Internet, Podmo Mobile and Webshield Content Filtering. Also, the University of South Australia's Institute for Telecommunications Research assisted in testing the system. The first bus equipped with i-Commute contains an advanced GPS-based real-time Passenger Information System supplied by transSpot™ Ltd from Israel. transSpot's solution provides valuable and useful information to the passengers on two LCD screens, including accurate estimated time of arrival to the next stop, real-time news feeds provided by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), community information, and time and location-based advertising. Adelaide is the first city in Australia to offer real-time route information with free Internet access aboard a public transport bus, putting the South Australian capital on a par with world-leading cities that include San Francisco, Seoul, Lisbon, Madrid, and Hamburg.

2009 Voice & Data (Small) Category: Forestry SA Microwave Network

Wireless network specialist MIMP has won another National Electrical & Communications Association (NECA) award in SA for a wide area network it developed for use in the forests of South Australia. MIMP's network for the SA Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry collected the NECA award for a voice and data project that cost less than $500,000. The licensed and unlicensed microwave wide area network, which has a 60-megabit full-duplex capacity, provides a platform to distribute forestry applications through the Greater Mount Lofty and the South East areas of the state. This is the seventh NECA award won by MIMP.

2008 Voice & Data (Small) Category: SA Heart Centre Communication Network

Adelaide-based network specialist MIMP has installed one of the fastest privately-owned wireless networks in the world to help SA Heart Centres deliver better patient care. When Australia's largest cardiology group, SA Heart Centres, recognised that its computer network was holding back its development by an inability to transfer large medical imaging files between branches, it turned to MIMP connecting solutions. Using secure 120 megabit-per-second licensed microwave links, MIMP installed one of the fastest privately owned wireless networks in the world, which went live in November 2007. The major benefit has been better patient care through providing immediate access to centrally stored patient records from any SA Heart Centres cardiology branch throughout metropolitan Adelaide. "MIMP has future-proofed our technology with a high performance network and predictable costs. We are gaining a rapid return on our investment," said SA Health Centres past chairman Dr Bill Heddle.