Behind the scenes of this beautiful, historic home lies a busy, thriving events and hospitality business that’s dependent on communications.
Having established an appetite for a better suited communications partner (and following a timely introduction during a superb networking lunch earlier this year) Pentillie Castle turned to Agile Comms to provide internet connectivity, hosted telephones and mobile phone services.
Situated amongst breathtaking riverside grounds and gardens, Pentillie is a spectacular venue for weddings, parties and events. The business activity is hugely varied and the facilities are used for a wide range of events including TV production, festivals and stage performances. Like any events space, the team face pressures regularly and the variety of work means the stability of technology and infrastructure is critical.
Most organisations don’t require all the gimmicks modern technology can provide. Instead, they need simple, dependable communications and a partner they can rely upon when needed. It’s on this foundation that Pentillie chose to take on a partnership with Agile Comms. The service provided includes 3 components: Phones, connectivity and mobiles.
The cloud-based CallSwitch ‘unified communications‘ telephone system allows staff to manage inbound and outbound calls to/from the business through their choice of deskphones, desktop apps and mobile apps, meaning the team can work from anywhere.
The Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service is a simple, robust and fast internet connection providing speeds of up to 330Mb/s. The service is equipped with a 4G/5G backup option to ensure uptime is maintained during the unlikely event of unexpected disruption.
The short-term mobile airtime agreement offers the opportunity for the requirements to flex and change if and when the season demands more roaming or data.
Agile’s work here was pretty straight forward. It usually is. In this case, it belies the eccentricity of the place. Agile Comms Director, Ollie asked Sammie a few questions:
Why did you choose to work with us?
Because we were looking to change, had a timely introduction AND liked you. And the 30-day terms suited us.
How has the experience been?
In a nutshell, it has been great! The team are really helpful and friendly and are always on the end of the line if needed.
What are the main advantages of our cloud phone system/connectivity/mobile service?
It does what it says on the tin! Makes calls. All on one invoice. The 30 days terms are also refreshing.
Give us a flavour of the variety on at Pentillie. What are the maddest events you’ve held in recent years?
River concert with Mad Dog Mcrea. Planned in 10 days from inception to event after Weir Quay Boatyard took delivery of a new pontoon and felt it should be christened. A small gig for the boatyard was such fun, so Mad Dog and the boatyard and our team all decided that a bigger event might be even more fun. So, the band came up the river on the pontoon, anchored mid stream and played their hearts out to a field of approx. 850 boogying Mad Dog fans. The weather was amazing, the tides perfect, the mood right and it just worked. https://youtu.be/esJ_xGKHCms
PenGrillie was a BBQ competition, food and fire festival that we hosted for 4 years from 2015. Brought about due to Sammie’s husband’s passion for cooking over fire, and some sloe gin fuelled encouragement over New Year one year. The event was a fabulous combination of BBQ cooking, a healthy dose of competition (including hot chillis), delicious food and live music. Sponsored by family run Cornish BBQ smoker company, Pro Q, the event was a great success until it was sadly curtailed by Covid-19. Perhaps it may come back in due course.
The Festival of Speed was one of the more memorable for the sheer quantity of rain that fell and the amount of mud it generated, after thousands of cars and spectators had taken to the fields over the weekend. Inspired by the newly tarmac’d drive, Ted couldn’t resist the thought of a hill climb. Working with Plymouth Motor Club over many months of planning and discussion, the event took place on August bank Holiday weekend 2012. All was well until Chris Evan’s announced Car Fest and many of our star displays rightly took off to Laverstoke. Despite this, we had a huge numbers of entries and display vehicles, and it was a truly wonderful event regardless of some shortcomings, largely due to the rain!! Only last week a couple came to look around for their wedding having first visited Pentillie as teenagers for the Festival of Speed!
If you are looking for a magical event space or wedding venue, then it’s well-worth speaking with the fantastic team at Pentillie Castle.
If you need to review your communications, and think that straight-forward, flexible services are what you need, then do get in touch with Agile Comms