This year’s Borders Book Festival was able to livestream events for the first time thanks to Scottish independent broadband builder and provider GoFibre connecting it to the company’s ultra-reliable, lightning-fast full fibre.
Borders-born GoFibre, together with its partner SPG Innovation and Technologies, provided the festival’s site with an upload and download connection speed of 1Gbsp, allowing it to confidently livestream to audiences around the world.
Virtual delegates were able to livestream and enjoy festival sessions led by speakers, including journalist and broadcaster Sophie Raworth, author Alexander McCall Smith and TV presenter Lorraine Kelly.
The Borders Book Festival took place over four days, from 11–14 June at Harmony Garden, Melrose. Having started in 2004, it has grown into one of the UK’s leading book festivals, attracting around 40,000 visitors each year for four days of ideas, entertainment and conversation.
Andy Hepburn, Chief Operating Officer, GoFibre, said: “This is a great example of partnership working from companies with deep roots in the Borders, using our telecoms expertise to boost one of the region’s most important cultural events. We were incredibly excited to be able to provide the Borders Book Festival with fast, reliable full-fibre broadband, allowing it to livestream the magic of this prestigious literary festival to audiences around the world.”
Ryan Cass, Sales Director at SPG Innovation & Technologies, said:
“What an incredible experience being part of the Borders Book Festival has been. As a business rooted in the Scottish Borders, getting to support an event that draws visitors from far and wide to this amazing region is just fantastic. Doing it alongside our brilliant partners at Go Fibre made it even more memorable. Knowing that visitors, authors and staff could stay seamlessly connected throughout the festival, thanks to the Wi-Fi network SPG designed and delivered — powered by Go Fibre's full fibre connection — is exactly the kind of thing that puts a skip in your step and makes you proud of what you do and where you come from. The Borders Book Festival is a fantastic showcase for this incredible region, and we couldn't be happier to have been part of it.'
Kat Shearer, Sponsorship Manager, Borders Book Festival, said: “GoFibre’s installation of full-fibre broadband has been a game changer for Borders Book Festival. Alongside delivering seamless Wi-Fi across the site for audiences, staff and guests, it has enabled us to livestream events for the first time, opening up the festival to wider audiences and making our programme more accessible than ever before.”
GoFibre’s support of the festival comes as it continues its full fibre rollout across the Scottish Borders and East Lothian as part of the Project Gigabit programme. Project Gigabit is the UK government’s programme to enable hard-to-reach communities to access lightning-fast, gigabit-capable broadband. The Scottish Government is playing a key role in delivering Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland by administering and managing the delivery of the contracts.
To date, more than 6,500 homes and businesses are now able to connect to GoFibre’s network, with well over 1,000 already connected across the Scottish Borders and East Lothian.
With the network build now complete in Innerleithen and Oxton, work is taking place across Chirnside, Eyemouth and surrounding villages, Lauder, Denholm, Coldingham, St Abbs, and Jedburgh.
Further expansion is also underway in Kelso and Galashiels, where around 2,000 additional premises in each location are expected to benefit, contributing to the 20,000 total premises set to benefit across the wider region.