Type Private Website www.optilan.com | Number of employees 240 (2015) Founded 24 January 1990 | |
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Industry Communications equipment Headquarters Coventry, United Kingdom Services System Design, System Integration and Installation, Maintenance, Cable and Fiber Optic Installation, Product Build and Test Founders Richard Buckland, Tim Allen, Eamonn McFadden Profiles | ||
Optilan is a communication and security systems provider that is based on the United Kingdom and operates worldwide. The company was founded in 1990. Its head office is located in Coventry, it has offices in Russia, Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, India, and the United States. It is a privately owned business employing around 240 people on a full-time basis in addition to a number of field experts brought in for specific projects.
Contents
- Early years
- Channel Tunnel Rail Link
- Coventry Citywide Network
- Head office locations
- Examples of Optilans projects
- References
The Times- 'Profit Track 100’ named Optilan among the 100 fastest growing private companies in the UK in 2008.
Early years
Optilan was formed in 1990 by friends and co-apprentices from GEC Telecommunications (now Telent); Tim Allen, Richard Buckland and Eamonn McFadden.
Prior to forming the company, Buckland and Allen had been working at Walmore Electronics- a fibre optics company in Central London, from which they left as the company moved into other areas. After discovering that Walmore were no longer continuing in the field of the contracts they had been working on; Allen and Buckland gained their blessing to secure work with the number of the clients including; The BBC, Royal Albert Hall, Honeywell in Taiwan and Dubal Aluminium in Dubai. McFadden, who had been working for GEC in Thailand, then joined the pair to become the third member of the team.
From as early as 1991 Optilan had started taking orders over £100,000, the first of which being in the Isle of Wight for Plessey Radar, where Optilan installed a fibre optic transmission system.
As the company grew in size, Bal Kler and Chris Yarwood joined the three original company founders on the board of directors and more staff were employed on a full-time basis.
Channel Tunnel Rail Link
In 2001 Optilan were given the contract to work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, providing the CCTV, Data Transmission Network (DTN) and the Local Area Network (LAN). Optilan was also offered the maintenance contract for the support of these systems.
Coventry Citywide Network
Coventry City Council’s own network was the first of its kind to be installed in the UK in 2007. With over 87 miles of fibre optic cables being laid around Coventry by Optilan, the system now reaches all the areas council buildings and schools to meet the demands of the city's 300,000 residents and enable local schools to get faster broadband access. This was also Optilan’s first contract for over £10 million.
Head office locations
Optilan’s Head Office is located in Coventry, England. The company had been located in Kenilworth; however had to move due to an increase in company size.
Optilan's equipment build and test areas are also located at the Coventry site. Products from here are distributed worldwide to be fitted within communication and security systems.
Optilan also operates from offices in Moscow (Russia), Baku (Azerbaijan) and the company’s US subsidiary Optilan Inc. operates out of Houston, United States.