Case study - Dejay Signs

Gone are the days of a sign writer plying their trade with brushes and paints on a shop window. Today, signwriting is a digital art form that relies on high resolution images, digital photos and computerised printing.

In Midway Point, just outside Hobart, sign writer David Jones faced the same challenge typical of his and other design industries: time lost trying to transfer large photo and image files over slow internet connections.

In the past, David had large files couriered to him on disk or sent in the mail because his connection was too slow. After connecting to the National Broadband Network (NBN) in November 2010, David can now download the larger files in seconds. He describes the change as going from "walking around in sandshoes to driving a Ferrari."

With the faster speed, David has been able to take on new business interstate and sees the potential to improve the way he works with customers overseas now that he has the ability to send and receive large image files almost instantly.

"In the past some customers have thought it's too hard to physically send me their artwork files, so they chose somewhere closer," David said. "Whereas now, over the NBN, location is no longer a problem - there are no obstacles at all.

"I can download most of the files clients send me in seconds and it doesn't matter how close or far away the customer is. The possibilities are endless."

Before connecting to the NBN, there were many things David just couldn't do from his home workshop.

His connection was not fast enough to effectively download artwork larger than five megabytes which meant he had to travel to Hobart 15 times per month to physically collect photos from a graphic designer, or pay to have a disk sent in the mail.

"Before the NBN, I had ADSL broadband set up with kilobits of download speed rather than megabytes. It was that slow that I never used to watch anything on YouTube - it just took too long. A ten minute clip could take up to 40 minutes to download before I could watch it," David said.

"If someone sent me a three or four megabyte file it would take half an hour to download. I couldn't download photos from websites and buy them because my connection just wasn't fast enough. It was horrendous."

For David, the delays in receiving files meant it took longer to complete jobs for customers, cost him money to travel and pay for couriers and made it harder to access artwork from new customers.

David is connected to the NBN through fibre optic cable to his house and a wireless router based in his workshop.

All files are transmitted to the computer in his home and he can also access the internet through his laptop connected to the NBN via wireless.

At first David wasn't going to connect but after seeing the speed the NBN could provide, he quickly changed his mind and signed-up straight away.

"I didn't think it was going to make a difference," he said. "Then my next door neighbour got it and I saw how fast his was - I was just amazed. I left his house, walked home and rang my supplier immediately."

David's business has benefitted enormously from his connection to the NBN. The time saved in the transfer of files has meant that everything he does can move much faster, and he can deliver his signs to customers in almost half the time it took before.

"The first thing I did was download a 17 megabyte file from a graphic artist that took just eight seconds. Before the NBN, I would either have sent it over on a DVD, or let the download max out my connection. The difference is just astonishing," David said.

"If an overseas customer suddenly wants something, I can just draw it up and email it over straight away even if it's a large file," he says. "It's just easy to do with that kind of speed and capacity over the NBN."

Company/Individual: David Jones, Dejay Signs

Location: Midway Point, Tasmania

Website: www.dejaysigns.com

Challenge:

• Reduced in-bound trade due to bandwidth restrictions
• Travel necessary between home-based office and suppliers to receive files
• Increased costs for couriers to receive artwork files

Solution:

• Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) over the NBN
• Wireless router to connect David's workshop

Result:

• Eliminated courier costs to receive artwork files
• Ability to work from home
• Expansion to overseas markets