Telecom news

• NewVoiceMedia wins Digital Innovation Award for speech analytics solution

  13-11-2018 10:00
  Conversation Analyzer identified as most innovative technology in customer excellence categoryLONDON, 13 November, 2018 – NewVoiceMedia, a Vonage Company (NYSE:VG) and a leading global provider of cloud contact centre and inside sales solutions, has been named winner of the Ventana Research 2018 Digital Innovation Award for Customer Excellence. Ventana Research is one of the world’s most respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firms, providing insights
  
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• Entente Cordiale exhibition shows off the secret pact between Britain and France

  16-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  As you might have seen in the news recently, it’s the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale, when Britain and France signed several agreements to stop bothering each other.There’s also a short-run exhibition about the diplomatic shenanigans that led to the two European powers agreeing to be cordial over their territorial disputes — being held at the Institut français du Royaume-Uni in South Kensington.
  It’s predominantly a lot of history boards which start on t
  
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• Celebrate the centenary of London Underground’s Camden Junction tunnels

  16-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This Saturday (20th April) marks the centenary of one of the London Underground’s most impressive engineering feats. Despite thousands of people using it every day, hardly anyone ever gets to see it in its full glory.
  Reproduced with kind permission of Dan Dare Corp Ltd.
  This is Camden Junction, the massively complicated set of tunnels that linked the two branches of the Northern line and they carried their first passengers on 20th April 1924.
  The junction owes its existence to a number of
  
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• Pitzhanger Manor acquires Julian Opie’s walking man

  15-04-2024 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A walking man who has approaching Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery since 2021 but never arriving will remain stuck in place as the digital artwork has been bought by the gallery to go on permanent display.
  (c) Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery
  Julian Opie’s LED sculpture, Curly Hair, 2021 was first shown at Pitzhanger in 2021 as part of Julian Opie’s solo exhibition, coinciding with the reopening of the gallery post-COVID lockdown.
  The acquisition of Curly Hair was made possible by the ge
  
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• Dalston’s Kingsbury Road pedestrian and cyclist bridge has reopened

  15-04-2024 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  An important cycle and pedestrian route over the London Overground in Dalston has reopened after Network Rail completed bridge replacement works.
  The reopened Kingsbury Road bridge (c) Network Rail
  The bridge, originally built in 1913, closed late last year as it need to be replaced as the iron girders that supported it were becoming corroded. Engineers demolished the old bridge over Christmas 2023 and then lifted in the replacement with a crane over the last weekend of January 2024.
  Now that it
  
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• Umbro 100: Exhibition looks at sports clothing’s cultural impact

  15-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Down a goods delivery ramp and past the bins is an unexpected location for an exhibition about football shirts — but that’s what you can find underneath a Marylebone building at the moment.The exhibition marks the centenary of the British sportswear brand Umbro, which was founded in 1924 by brothers Harold and Wallace Humphreys. The company’s name is a portmanteau of um, from Humphreys, and bro, from brothers.
  However, it’s not entirely a look back at the history of the c
  
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• London’s Alleys: Cavendish Court, EC2/EC3

  15-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is a narrow winding alley close to Liverpool Street station that’s been here in some shape or form since Tudor times.This part of London is just on the outskirts of the old Roman Wall around the City of London. The name of the road the alley leads off on the western side, Houndsditch, comes from the “moat” that ran around the outside of the Roman wall, where it’s suggested feral dogs scavenged from rubbish dumped in the ditch.
  The land was fairly undeveloped and used
  
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• You’ll love this Intercity 125 video set to electronic music

  12-04-2024 17:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The music group, Vieon recently released a single as an ode to the venerable Intercity 125 train with a ton of retro film footage set to rather soothing electronic music.It reminds me of how Kraftwerk wrote a hymn to the Trans Europ Express service, which, for a while, ran trains across the mainland, linking far-flung cities in comfort and speed. In the UK of course, the Intercity 125 was the future once, and it still manages to evoke a certain sense that somehow rail travel had a golden age (it
  
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• Wrecking Telecom Italia’s landline deal would widen shareholder losses

  11-04-2024 18:41 via ft.com
  Only those shorting the shares would be winners if KKR’s purchase is scuppered
  
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• Ibrahim Mahama wraps the Barbican Art Centre in massive pink fabrics

  11-04-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Barbican Art Centre has been covered in a gigantic bright pink wrapper providing a sharp contrast to the rest of the Brutalist estate.This is Purple Hibiscus, a monumental site-specific artwork by the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama created from some 2,000 square metres of bespoke woven cloth created by women weavers and sewing collectives in Ghana.
  It’ll probably remind many of the works by Christo artistic duo, where the two partnered to cover buildings in sheets of fabric. The differ
  
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• Jools Holland and a free light show to mark the National Gallery’s 200th birthday

  11-04-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Jools Holland will be headlining the National Gallery’s Friday Lates next month as the gallery celebrates its 200th anniversary, with music inside and a light show outside.
  Lightshow render (c) Visual Edge Media / nVisible Productions
  On Friday 10th May 2024, Jools Holland will perform in the Rausing Room as part of a curated programme with musical friends Ruby Turner MBE, Louise Marshall, and Sumudu. Across the rest of the Gallery, there will be DJ sets, music from London Contemporary Voi
  
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• Consultation into housing next to Hampton Court railway station

  11-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A long running plan to build houses on the car park next to Hampton Court railway station has been referred to a new consultation to see if it can proceed.
  The site is a combination of Network Rail land next to the railway station and the demolished site of the Jolly Boater pub, and there is an approved application to build several blocks making up nearly 100 flats and a small hotel on the site.
  The riverside building would comprise three storeys with an additional storey accommodated within gab
  
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• Exploring Ranjit Singh: A warrior King’s exhibition at the Wallace Collection

  11-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Shining brightly in the middle of an atmospheric exhibition is a gold lotus flower throne, on a rare loan that, for the first time, lets us see the intricately decorated back, which is even more impressive than the front.This is the throne of Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire, which stretched across parts of modern-day northern India and Pakistan. Normally kept in the V&A Museum, it’s very rarely loaned out to a London museum. Here, it’s freestanding instead of up against
  
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• There’s now a range of London Underground themed craft beers

  10-04-2024 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A brewer has released a London Underground-themed beer range and an exclusive London Craft Beer tube map. Beer52, in collaboration with Transport for London (TfL) launched the range of 16 beers to celebrate London’s craft brewing scene and its transport network.
  (c) IMG / Beer52
  The London Beer Tour, in collaboration with TfL, showcases the diversity and creativity of London’s breweries. Each brewery featured within the collection has been inspired by its own corner of the city, its
  
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• More details about the LNER wagon found buried in Belgium

  10-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  New information has come to light following theunexpected discovery of a former LNER storage wagon in Belgium, 500 miles from the train operator’s UK headquarters. That an old LNER luggage wagon was found in Belgium isn’t hugely surprising as international freight was widespread — but why it was buried in the ground is a very big mystery.
  (c) Archaeological Service, City of Antwerp
  A team from the Urban Archaeology department of the City of Antwerp unearthed the train carriage
  
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• A phoenix emerges: New public sculpture unveiled near Gallions Reach DLR station

  10-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A phoenix has appeared near Gallions Reach DLR station in East London as a new public sculpture for the University of East London’s Docklands Campus.It was commissioned last summer from the Architecture and Visual Arts (AVA) students, who were asked to create a large sculpture to celebrate UEL’s 125th anniversary. Students were challenged to present their designs to the UEL executive board using computer-generated images to showcase their sculptures in situ, coupled with details of w
  
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• South Africa’s MTN to boost investment in generators to combat blackouts

  10-04-2024 06:00 via ft.com
  Telecoms group joins growing list of companies plugging shortfalls from state electricity provider
  
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• Perivale golf course to be converted into a public park

  09-04-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A large swathe of land in west London that’s currently operated as a private golf course is to be opened up as a new public park. The Perivale Park Golf Course is a 9-hole course covering 21 hectares of open space built in 1900 but will soon be turned into a public space.
  In a peak month, as a golf course, it can see as many as 600 people using it. However, that’s far fewer people than a popular public park of that size would expect to see on just a single summer weekend, so the golf
  
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• Holy Crispiness! Worship at a stained glass window shrine to fried chicken

  09-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  In north London there’s a very unusual stained glass window – where you can pray to the god of fried chicken nuggets.Before the righteous start writing letters of protest, it’s an artwork by the Margate-based painter Jack Hirons and is a sort of homage to a locally famous chicken-in-a-box seller
  The Chick-King fast food restaurant is next to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and is a legendary location for football fans to get some greasy protein, so the artist has created a shrine
  
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• There’s a 30-year old dead rabbit in Seven Sisters tube station

  09-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  For over thirty years, a dead rabbit has hung inside Seven Sisters tube station, and thousands of people walk past it every day without noticing.The dead rabbit is a legacy of an early form of mobile phone technology, albeit one that lasted less than two years before closing down.
  We need to jump back to 1989, when the government awarded four licenses to operate Telepoint services, with the aim that their lower costs would offer competition to the country’s two mobile networks – Cell
  
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• London’s last unprotected cabmen’s shelter gets heritage protection

  09-04-2024 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There are a baker’s dozen surviving cabmen’s shelters in London, with their distinctive green shed appearance. All but one are protected from demolition. Now, the last of the thirteen —  near Lord’s Cricket Ground — has been granted Grade II heritage protection from demolition.
  Cabmen’s shelter on Wellington Place, St John’s Wood (c) Historic England Archive
  A  charity, the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund built the wooden huts as rest stops for lic
  
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• Rare chance to see a Titian painting prior to sale

  08-04-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A date for your diaries as a painting by Titian, estimated to be worth as much as £25 million, but once stored in a plastic carrier bag, is coming to London. Painted around 1512, the painting by the Italian artist Titian, Rest on the Flight into Egypt shows Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as they stop to rest during their flight into Egypt.
  (c) Christie’s
  Over the centuries, the painting has been owned by Dukes, Archdukes and Holy Roman Emperors, looted by Napoleon, and 145 years ago, it was
  
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• HS2 reaches peak tunnelling activity with final west London TBM launch

  08-04-2024 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Construction of the HS2 tunnels under London has hit another major milestone with the launch of the fourth – and final – machine being used to build the giant Northolt Tunnel beneath the capital.
  Cutterhead of TBM Anne from the Victoria Road Crossover Box (c) HS2
  The 8.4-mile tunnel will run from Victoria Road in Ealing to West Ruislip in Hillingdon – carrying trains in and out of London – and is being constructed by four huge tunnel boring machines (TBMs).
  In keeping wit
  
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• Tickets Alert: See the conservation work inside St Bart’s Great Hall

  08-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The oldest historic parts of St Barts Hospital near Smithfield are currently being restored, and they’re offering tours of the restoration works.
  (c) Barts Heritage
  The tours include the Grade I listed James Gibbs-designed North Wing including its Great Hall, as well as the Hogarth decorated grand staircase.
  During the tour, visitors will be able to watch the expert team, led by Stephen Paine and Sophie Stewart, clean, conserve, and repair the Hogarth paintings and the walls and ceiling of
  
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• Hammersmith Bridge to get a long-term cycle lane

  08-04-2024 11:05 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The long running saga over repairs to the Hammersmith Bridge took an unexpected turn when the Department for Transport approved funding for a new semi-permanent cycle lane across the bridge.Since the bridge closed to road traffic five years ago, cyclists are (supposed) to dismount and walk their bikes across the bridge in a shared space with pedestrians.
  Due to delays in repair works caused when the bridge was hit by a boat last December, Hammersmith and Fulham council was able to install a temp
  
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• London’s Alleys: Holly Mount Steps, NW3

  08-04-2024 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is a pretty little winding passage, with, unsurprisingly, a lot of steps that run from the main Hampstead streets up the hill to Holly Mount and the locally famous Holly Bush pub.This part of Hampstead is littered with Holly Bush references, but that seems to be a later addition.
  George Potter writes in Hampstead Wells, published in 1904, that the streets around here were originally named Cloth Hill, as the area was well known for its wells and, hence, as a location for laundries serving th
  
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• Finding the Lost Churches of the City of London

  05-04-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If you wander around some of the churches in the City of London, you might spy a small pack of what looks like old cigarette cards — showing images of lost churches.
  A sample of some of the cards
  They have been left there by the Lost London Churches Project, which aims to promote interest in the ancient church buildings and parishes of the City of London through collectable cards, books, maps, and explorers’ walks.
  In 1600 there were 110 churches in the square mile of the City of Lon
  
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• Flash sale on tickets to see The Mousetrap from £31 per seat

  05-04-2024 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Famously the world’s longest consistently running play – pandemic excepted – Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has now been running for over 70 years, and is one of those plays that everyone is presumed to see once in their lives.The murder-mystery storyline is set in “the present”, presumably England as it was around the time when the play came out in 1952, including the postwar continuation of World War II rationing.
  The play is based on a short story but Christie
  
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• Norwood Junction station upgrade put on hold

  05-04-2024 12:15 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Plans for a major redevelopment of Norwood Junction station in south London have been put on hold as it’s no longer considered a priority project.
  Proposed station layout (c) Network Rail
  Plans to redevelop the station were tied in with a wider project to clean up the tracks around East Croydon to improve the capacity of the lines through the area, but the station upgrade was also a stand-alone project.
  The plans for Norwood Junction station were expected to see the tracks and platforms re
  
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• Fenwick on Bond Street to be converted into offices

  04-04-2024 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The former Fenwick department store on Bond Street will be getting a roof garden as part of a rebuilding project which has been granted planning permission by Westminster Council.
  Formerly Fenwick (c) ianVisits
  Fenwick opened their department store on the site in 1891, but they only had a small shop on the corner — and slowly expanded over the next century, buying up and rebuilding neighbouring shops to form the current department store. The store closed earlier this year, and the building
  
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