Ruckus Wireless “Smart Wi-Fi” Wins First Place Finish at Sebring International Raceway

Printer-friendly versionPDF version

Ruckus Wireless™, the smart mobile networking company, today announced that Sebring International Raceway (Sebring) and its systems integrator

Sunnyvale, CA - March 18, 2010– Ruckus Wireless™, the smart mobile networking company, today announced that Sebring International Raceway (Sebring) and its systems integrator, Vipernet have selected and deployed the Ruckus ZoneFlex 802.11n “Smart Wi-Fi” system to blanket the 350-acre property with high-performance, reliable Wi-Fi connectivity.

To cover the entire raceway with consistent 100 MBPS coverage -- indoors and out, including the club seating, media room, tower suites, paddocks, pit and other areas -- Vipernet installed 24ZoneFlex 7762 dual-band outdoor 802.11n APs, eightZoneFlex 2942 indoor APsand oneZoneDirector 3050 controller.

The Ruckus ZoneFlex system was chosen for Sebring’s annual “12 Hours of Sebring” Endurance Race going on now. Hundreds of thousands of fans have converged at the central Florida race track for the four-day event, which includes time trials, celebrations and meet-and-greets with the race car drivers. The event culminates on March 20th in the 12-hour race.

The Ruckus system was selected over competitive offerings because of its comprehensive coverage, consistent performance and affordable price, according to Michelle Delaney, senior vice president at Sebring.

“Our fans have been demanding wireless access at the raceway for quite some time,” she said. “They want to use Wi-Fi to communicate with friends and family back home, share videos and photos through Facebook and Twitter and post other content online. Unfortunately, other solutions we looked at were cost-prohibitive and we were unable to deploy the technology needed to support such a high volume of usage – until now.

“With Ruckus, we can deliver a flawless online experience for thousands of people – even in a primarily outdoor area with lots of potential interference, which is no small feat. Additionally, we’ll be able to leverage the network for new technologies and revenue-generating applications over time,” Delaney said.

Sebring Raceway, located in Sebring, Florida, is a 3.7-mile, 17-turn circuit. It is the oldest road course in North America, portions of which were originally a World War II air base. Today, it’s home to two major racing schools, and also has its own hotel, the Four Points by Sheraton Chateau Elan.

The track is active 365 days a year with automotive testing, club events, racing schools, corporate events and other activities. The raceway’s biggest event of the year is the “12 Hours of Sebring” race, part of the American LeMans Series, which occurs every March. This year’s event is taking place March 17-20, 2010.

Speed, Reliability and Comprehensive Coverage Finish First

Prior to selecting Ruckus, Sebring did not have wireless broadband connectivity, according to Gary Patrick, president of Vipernet, the company responsible for installing the Ruckus network. “Other than hard-wired DSL for communications among the racing teams, there was no broadband network for spectators and other visitors,” he said. “Not only is Wi-Fi needed for the fans, but there are hundreds of reporters on-site during the four-day event, and they need access to file their stories. This year things will be much different, and attendees will be pleasantly surprised.”

In addition to meeting the demands of race fans for ubiquitous Wi-Fi access, Sebring also wanted to deploy a next-generation 802.11n wireless network to capture more revenue-generating opportunities, such as advertisements from event sponsors on network login pages, explained Delaney. “We planned to generate more revenue by charging fans a nominal fee for broadband access. We also realized we could leverage the Wi-Fi network to create more visibility for our sponsors and advertisers, thus incurring further income for the additional placements,” she said.

Delaney said that Vipernet is also installing wireless cameras that will stream live video coverage from the “party zone” and the start and finish line on the track for the four-day race event.

Because most of the implementation is outdoors, Patrick and his team were tasked with providing a system that could perform well in a broad area subject to high levels of interference, support thousands of users and that didn’t come with a high price tag. “At the big ’12 Hours of Sebring’ event, there are lots of vehicles and large objects everywhere – vendor concession stands, food tents, big rigs, RVs and race cars. All of this in a big outdoor area can cause major problems for Wi-Fi performance.

“We looked at the cost and performance of Ruckus and other competing systems,” said Patrick. “Ultimately with Ruckus, we could blanket the area with half the number of access points (APs), at half the cost while delivering solid, consistent performance, even in a large interference-prone environment.”

Patrick also said that the Ruckus system took many days fewer to install than would have been required by the other products considered.

Sebring is also utilizing Ruckus smart wireless meshing technology so that APs can be placed in areas where Ethernet cabling is not available – of particular benefit in an outdoor deployment. The network is configured with multiple SSIDs – a network for the racing teams, a public network, and individual networks for different applications such as wireless cameras for live video streaming.

News Source : Ruckus Wireless “Smart Wi-Fi” Wins First Place Finish at Sebring International Raceway