De Midland Hotels groep (o.a. bekend van de Holiday Inn hotels) kiest voor Ruckus Wireless

Ook in de toerisme sector is de economische neergang voelbaar, maar toch willen de gasten ook op vakantie bereikbaar zijn op het internet. Door gebruik te maken van de unieke draadloze oplossingen van Ruckus Wireless kunnen de kosten voor de aanleg van het draadloze netwerk sterk worden verlaagt en kunnen de gasten gebruik maken van een "state of the netwerk" met een hoge bandbreedte.

De Midland Hotels groep heeft uiteindelijk gekozen voor 1 Wireless LAN fabrikant, te weten Ruckus Wireless.
Er is gekozen voor Ruckus vanwege:

het grote bereik van de Access Points (minder AP's nodig dan met welk ander merk)
geen kabels nodig om Access Points met elkaar te koppelen
zeer gemakkelijke beheer interface
veel lagere investerings kosten

Hieronder treft u het persbericht.

Value for Money Becomes New Mantra for Companies Looking to Deploy Wireless
 LANs as Tough Economic Times Drive Decisions for More Cost-Effective Wi-Fi
                                  Systems

    SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless announced
that it was been selected by the Midland Hotel Corporation to provide Smart
Wireless LAN systems as part of a $17 million renovation of Midland's group
of Holiday Inn hotels throughout Massachusetts.

    The deal with Midland represents a major move by hotels around the
world to leverage Wi-Fi as a more strategic asset -- migrating Wi-Fi from a
technology of convenience to a ubiquitous utility. In the last 90 days,
over 100 hotels have standardized on the Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart WLAN system
because of its ability to provide a much more economic and feature-rich
wireless environment that does not require elaborate re-wiring or
cumbersome deployment.

    "Today's economic environment is driving companies like ours toward
Wi-Fi solutions that are much more economically attractive while still
providing robust features that typically come with higher end, more complex
systems," said Cecilia Arnold, VP of Hotel Operations for Midland Hotel
Corporation. "Good Wi-Fi has never been more important for hotels but
conventional wireless LAN systems have typically been too complex,
disruptive and costly to deploy in such as large fashion."

    Midland selected One Media Wireless, one of the premiere technology
integrators within the hotel industry, to install and maintain the Smart
Wireless LAN infrastructure. Having installed advanced Wi-Fi systems in
hotels around the country, One Media Wireless is providing systems
integration, call center services as well as Wi-Fi support for Midland.

    "The downturn in the economy doesn't at all change our customers' need
for better Wi-Fi," said Rob Mustarde, VP of Worldwide Sales at Ruckus
Wireless. "Value for money is the new mantra across nearly every vertical
when it comes to wireless LANs. Ruckus is one of the few vendors that
clearly benefits from these macro-economic conditions because our systems
deliver the same functionality at a fraction of the capital and operational
costs."

    Midland is initially deploying Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Meshing WLAN
systems to provide Wi-Fi access for guests, visitors and staff inside and
outside its multi-story hotels in Dedham, Marlborough and Peabody
properties. Part of a massive renovation of its properties, Midland is
investing in state-of-the-art Wi-Fi technology, patented by Ruckus
Wireless, provides a more reliable Wi-Fi connection, extended signal range
and consistent performance.

    "This is what our customers are demanding," said Arnold. "More and more
guests are visiting our hotels with Wi-Fi enabled devices of every kind.
When they are able to consistently connect at high-speeds anywhere on the
property, their overall satisfaction greatly increases. This is crucial to
attracting and retaining customers."

    Midland is providing free Wi-Fi access in all its guest rooms as well
as in corporate meeting spaces, restaurants and outdoor pool and patio
areas. The Ruckus ZoneFlex system is also being used to support
administrative services and ultimately emerging applications such as voice
over IP and wireless point of sale. Previously Midland has provided Wi-Fi
only in the lobby areas and found the experience to be subpar for users who
experienced dropped connections, poor coverage and erratic performance.

    Arnold noted that Midland's selection of Ruckus was based on four
essential criteria: 1) the ability to provide better coverage with fewer
access points, 2) eliminating the need to run Ethernet cabling to connect
all the access points, 3) simple to use configuration and deployment and 4)
dramatically lower capital and operational cost. The Holiday Inns being
equipped with Wi-Fi include the eight-floor, 200-room Dedham property, the
four-floor, 173-room Marlborough property and the four-floor, 184-room
Peabody property.

    The Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart WLAN installation allows Midland to connect
ZoneFlex access points as root APs where existing Ethernet drops are
available and to deploy Smart Mesh APs without Ethernet cables where
Ethernet can not be cabled or where costs prohibit cabling. And because
each Ruckus ZoneFlex integrates a high-gain directional antenna system,
Midland only needs to deploy access points on every other floor.

    "This is a much more efficient model for us and one that delivers
better coverage and performance at a lower total cost of ownership," said
Arnold. "We could only find one vendor with commercial-grade products able
to deliver such an architecture with such as compelling price/performance
ratio."