Migration to a VoIP Infrastructure at 96rock

Company Profile

96rock, or Clear Channel Radio Atlanta, broadcasts classic rock music and Atlanta Braves baseball games. 96rock is part of Clear Channel Radio, a leading radio company focused on serving local communities across the U.S. with more than 110 million listeners choosing Clear Channel Radio programming each week. The company's operations include radio broadcasting, syndication and independent media representation. Clear Channel Radio is a division of Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE:CCU), a leading global media and entertainment company.

Challenge

Joel Wittenmyer, a network administrator for Clear Channel Radio Atlanta, wanted to find network-monitoring software that would help him determine if his existing network could adequately support the station's planned migration to VoIP.

Wittenmyer and his colleagues at the station operated in an environment that includes more than 400 Windows XP desktops, 30 Windows servers (2000 - 2003), three Novell servers, one Linux server, 15 Cisco 48port 2950s, three Cisco 48port 3750s running at 1gig per port, 75 Avaya IP phones, and an all-fiber backbone.

The team ran MRTG on Linux to monitor their network for a few months, but concluded that it simply “took too much time” for them to add new devices and to make reporting graphs “look right” with the MRTG software.

MRTG's text Graphical User Interface also proved to be incompatible with the team's Windows-based operation and was an ineffective monitoring tool.

Solution

The station's network team replaced their Linux-based MRTG software with Paessler's PRTG Traffic Grapher.

Wittenmyer said that after he downloaded the free trial of PRTG 4, “I knew I found what I was looking for.”

He added that he initially purchased PRTG 4 with 100 sensors and has since graduated to PRTG Enterprise Unlimited.

The Windows-based PRTG has significantly reduced the time it takes Wittenmyer to add devices, and it gives him easy access to revealing data on his network and the ability to create customized graphs on his findings.

Customer Benefits

With Paessler's PRTG, the Clear Channel network team now knows that it has “more than enough bandwidth” to deploy an even larger VoIP solution than they'd initially planned.

Wittenmyer now has the data on his network he needs to make informed decisions related to the scope, costs, and feasibility of station-wide VoIP solutions.

The station's networking team also uses PRTG to efficiently create, analyze and present PDF reports on network usage and no longer spends time overcoming basic configuration roadblocks.

Wittenmyer, who didn't have a network-monitoring program in place, now uses PRTG to effectively monitor both his switches and his various servers.

He added that, today, he proactively tracks server-related problems with just a baseline of CPU and has already recommended Paessler's PRTG to his professional peers and friends.

Joel Wittenmyer, Network Administrator
Clear Channel Radio Atlanta