Presentation of the joint Internet-project of the State Hermitage Museum and telecommunication holding Golden Telecom

Cooperation between Golden Telecom and the State Hemitage Museum started in 1994. Access to the Internet for the Museum was provided untill autumn of 1999 by the company Sovam Teleport which later was incorporated by the holding company Golden Telecom. At present Golden Telecom provides the access to the Internet for the State Hermitage Museum and starting from 2001 it will increase the speed of getting access substantially thus exceeding that of other cultural establishments in Russia and CIS.

One of the major results of this cooperation that has already been put into practice by Golden Telecom is the project of transmission of high quality video picture from St.Petersburg to the Hermitage representation in England - the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, London. The picture of the Palace Square and the State Hermitage Museum is transmitted in real time on the plasma screen with diagonal of 100 centimetres installed in one of the rooms of the Somerset House. Apart from that through Golden Telecom the visitors of the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House have got access to the server of the Hermitage Museum enabling them to acquaint with the virtual exhibition of the Museum.

"A modern museum exists in the world and for the world. It produces new cultural phenomena that help make its collections to become available for the public. With this in mind we created the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, London, which would have been impossible without modern technologies. We are glad that Golden Telecom assisted the Hermitage to be the innovator again", - said Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum. To realize this project Golden Telecom provided the access to the Internet with a capacity of 2 Mbit/sec in St.Petersburg and London. In physical terms transmission of the picture is conducted through the digital reference channel of Golden Telecom connecting Moscow and St.Petersburg with Stockholm (total capacity of the channel is 622 Mbit/sec). In Stockholm the Glden Telecom net joints with one of the reference European nets of Internet - Ebone. The Ebone net belongs to another American company called Global TeleSystems Group, Inc., which is a major shareholder of Golden Telecom.

"Our company appreciates the opportunity to be a partner of the most honorary museum of Russia", - said Alexander Shkurin, Director of the St.Petersburg subsidiary of Golden Telecom. - We have in prospect our future cooperation with he Museum as we are aware that significant role of the modern technologies for the extended access to the treasures of the world culture is increasing", - he added.

Представление проекта в Эрмитажном театре

Во время телемоста Эрмитаж, Петербург - Сомерсет, Лондон