Ruckus WLAN powers 600 clients at Google’s Think Mobile 2011 event

At Google’s Think Mobile 2011 event held in Sydney, Australia, more than 600 marketing and technology professionals converged to see the latest in Android powered mobile applications and to hear from the industry’s leading visionaries about the trends and direction of mobile internet.

Throughout the conference, a Ruckus Wi-Fi network operated in the background, enabling wireless access for hundreds of mobile client devices. Conference attendees had the opportunity to participate during presentations via the real-time, online polling system and by posting questions to the conference’s Twitter feed.

For Wired Sky, a solution provider specialising in connectivity and cloud-based solutions, the responsibility of delivering the necessary speed, density and throughput Wi-Fi system to support the event was a challenge not taken lightly.

Matt Hall, Wired Sky’s Managing Director said, “Think Mobile 2011 was solely about mobile internet and the incredible opportunities they offer businesses, so showcasing the cutting edge apps and technology, in action, was critical. Poor connectivity would have reflected badly on the demos, or even worse, the event and our brand and that wasn’t a risk we wanted to take.”

What made the mission even more challenging for Hall and his team was the tight timeframe they had to work with. Access to the venue was only available on the morning of the conference, which meant Wired Sky merely had a few hours to design, build and test the Wi-Fi network.

With only two technicians and in less than two hours, Wired Sky was able to deliver a wireless LAN that was capable of connecting more than 600 clients simultaneously.

“That sort of turnaround time, for such a high performance and high density WLAN, would have been impossible on any other wireless product we had used before,” said Hall.

“All events are unique, so it’s quite a feat to be able to standardise with one vendor,” said Hall. “RF interference is a huge issue in high density deployments like the events we work on, so when we started looking for a product to standardise with, smart antenna adaptability was one of the main requirements on our wish list. In addition, the product had to be 802.11n compliant and offer 802.1q rapid provisioning.”

Without the need for ethernet cabling to each, individual AP, due to the solution’s ‘SmartMesh’ networking, the reduction in time, hassle and cost to deploy the event’s Wi-Fi was dramatic compared to other potential solutions.

The solution’s access points featured automatic interference avoidance, meaning client devices at the event maintained 100% uptime at optimal signal strength.