London's Royal Albert Hall has been fitted with IP telephony to improve the service provided to its 1.2 million annual visitors.

The building has been equipped with technology based on Avaya's Communication Manager IP telephony product and a data network from Extreme Networks.

The system will improve internal voice and data communications and provide advanced functionality in the box office contact centre.

'We saw the introduction of an IP Telephony solution as offering us tremendous scope in providing our customers with more choice in how they communicate with us,' said Sarah Woods, director of customer relations, Royal Albert Hall.

'We receive some 520,000 calls each year through the contact centre and now we can re-route those who want information and are happy to do so via messaging options, which results in greater efficiency, especially during high volume peaks,' she said.