I am sorry, the connection was fiber 100/100 in an envirionment like you described, jclappers. The rigg was mostly upgraded for bragging rights and fun, but also to rule out components being the source of lagg. Plugins were testet separately and together in different combinations but to no avail. 200+ players made it crash on launch day, but 30-50 players shouldn't be a problem.
The 40/40 connection, I wrongly mentioned as part of the old setup, is our only option right now, if we build a new server, which leaves me kind of desperate. I have no clue, how to avoid the bottleneck, you are mentioning, windspeed36. In regards to the song - I've heard better. :D Eurovision isn't what it used to be. :) The player aim is only stated as international. We're going for whoever wants to join and enjoys a more immersive minecraft experience - storyline, expansions and all. :)
I can proudly say that we had more than 100 visitors on day 1, and since then we've had a fair amount of players sticking around for the full experience. Around 15-40 players online depending on time of the day. :) We still hope to find the perfect specs and proper internet provider, so we can host it ourselves.