Speedlink to Connect Meadow Brook Festival and DTE Theatre With Palace; Palace Sports & Entertainment Will Use High-Speed Connections to Link its Detroit-Area Venues to Internet

Business Wire, April 24, 2001

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

PONTIAC, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2001

Speedlink, Inc. announced today that it has been selected by Palace Sports & Entertainment to establish high-speed (T1) connections linking Meadow Brook Music Festival and the DTE Energy Music Theatre back to the company's main offices at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

As part of the project, Speedlink, a Pontiac, Michigan-based provider of high-speed Internet connections for businesses, will maximize a high-speed (T1) connection from the Palace directly to the Internet. All three venues will be able to utilize this single connection for web access, e-mail and related services.

The new connection system will allow Palace Sports and Entertainment to use a single high-speed Internet connection to replace multiple dial-up connections that had been used at each venue.

Speedlink said the agreement also includes the establishment of back-up (ISDN) connections throughout the Palace system. Such back-up connections provide an extra level of reliability and access should the primary connections be disrupted for any reason.

"Palace Sports and Entertainment operates many of the premiere facilities in Detroit and across the nation, and has an established reputation for quality and service extending across each of these venues," said Speedlink President & CEO Melih Oztalay. "We are pleased to be working with them in establishing a more efficient and secure path to the Internet for all of their Detroit-area operations."

Palace Sports & Entertainment venues are routinely rated among the best in the country. The Palace, DTE Energy Music Theatre and Meadow Brook Music Festival, average more than 300 events and three million patrons per year.

"Like any business with multiple locations, it is more important than ever that each one of our operations has highly reliable, cost-effective Internet connectivity," said Brian Juga of Palace Sports & Entertainment. "Speedlink's local presence, experience in the market and understanding of our technical needs made them a natural choice, and we are happy to be working with them on this project."

Speedlink has been providing Internet connectivity and related solutions since 1995, and has established itself as a service-oriented business resource for clients such as ABC Warehouse, Championship Auto Racing Team (CART), Wayne County Community College, Oakland Press and many others. Speedlink serves its customers through a direct fiber-optic connection to the Internet backbone and utilizes Sun Microsystems Unix-based servers for their mission-critical Network Operations Center.

Speedlink offers a full range of services including dial-up, ISDN and T-1 connectivity, as well as Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Internet security, webcast streaming and web-based point-of-sale systems. Speedlink is a recognized partner of Cisco Systems and Comcast Business Communications. For more information call 1-877-689-0627, ext. 105 or visit www.speedlink.net.

Palace Sports and Entertainment ownership includes The Palace, DTE Energy Music Theatre, and the leasehold rights to the Ice Palace in Tampa, Florida. The organization also manages the Meadow Brook Music Festival on the campus of Oakland University.

Voted "Arena of the Year" eight times by Performance magazine and twice by Pollstar magazine, The Palace hosts approximately 200 events and 2.5 million patrons per year and is listed by Amusement Business magazine annually among North America's top-grossing arenas. Voted "Best Outdoor Concert Venue" in Pollstar magazine's Annual Readers' Poll, DTE Energy Music Theatre has been listed as the most attended amphitheater by Amusement Business each of the ten years of PS&E ownership. The Ice Palace was a 1999 recipient of the Prime Site Award by Facilities & Event Management magazine and was ranked as one of the 10 top-grossing arenas in North America for the third consecutive year by Amusement Business.