The Eden Project has installed an IP-based communications system as the foundation of an extensive IT overhaul.

The Project, the third largest tourist attraction in the country and home of the famous biomes, will use the system to boost its relationship with its partners and allow it to send, receive and run multimedia intensive applications.

BT Convergent Solutions has installed the IP system, which uses Cisco Catalyst switches that deliver IP-based data and voice services over a local area network (lan) using fibre optic cabling, that was installed when the site opened.

About 250 PCs at the Eden Project and 288 IP telephony handsets will use the network.

'We have a great need to be customer facing, whether they're onsite or remote,' said Howard Jones, head of organisational development at the Eden Project. 'We draw our strengths from our partnerships, and there is a huge amount of sharing of information, and we want to go far, far, beyond that.'

'The basic infrastructure, starting with IP, will allow a quantum leap in how information is shared across the world,' he said.'

The Eden Project has spent some £500,000 on the IP system, which forms the first stage of a major revamp. According to Jones, the Project is building a very 'capable' and scaleable IT system.

'These are the first steps of a very, very capable IT system,' he said.

Desktop systems will be the next area to be addressed.

'At the opening stage we didn't do this because that was funded through European funding and the Millennium Commission and IT installations were not a priority at that time,' Jones said.

The IP system will allow Eden to hold elearning sessions with schools across the country, as well as providing the platform for web cams in the biomes and global connectivity to educational establishments, research bodies and companies, among other things.