What is Broadband?
Broadband generally refers to the collection of technologies which allow fast, always connected access to the internet, usually for a fixed fee. There are a number of companies which provide this service at the moment, inclusing Eircom, and Esat BT, but there are many more, which you can find out about on our broadband service providers page.

How fast is fast?
Well, typically a modem you'd have on your phone line at home can transfer a maximum of 56 kilobits (thousand bits) per second. This is way too slow to get video or audio down to your computer at any quality in real time. Arguably, connections about 9 times this or faster (500kilobits/sec) would be considered broadband, though there are some services which claim to be broadband while providing services as slow as 128 kilobits per second.

What does this mean?
These kind of speeds allow you to upload or download video and audio in real time. It also means you don't have to pay per minute as you do with a traditional internet connection.

So, what's the advanage to me?
If a lot of your clients have broadband, and increasingly they will, you can allow them to view training videos, client testimonials, AGM coverage, advertisements, or any sort of video or audio material previously too big to be downloaded over the internet.

Optophonic offers a number of packages that take advantage of the new possibilities broadband offers. Why not go to our broadband services page to find out more.

Do you have any examples?
If you have a broadband connection, go to to the example page to see video on the web in action.