Wifi Revolution

The Crowne Plaza Houston North Greenspoint today said that the hotel now is offering high-speed Wi-Fi access throughout the facility thanks to BelAir Networks and AFL Telecommunications.

 

AFL Telecommunications, a fiber-optics and wireless engineering company, says that it selected BelAir Networks for the Crowne Plaza Houston Greenspoint because of BelAir’s track record in delivering the “industry’s highest performance” wireless mesh networks and their outside-in approach for hotel and resort deployments.

 

Last year, the Carlyle Group and Davidson Hotel Company acquired the Crowne Plaza Houston North Greenspoint, and began a $12 million renovation of the hotel. The renovation, according to the hotel, included an upgrade to the dated Internet services offered through two different customer interfaces.

 

The new network leverages the legacy infrastructure while providing “higher speeds and an improved guest experience,” hotel officials said. Also, a “consistent customer interface” enables guests to access free or paid service options in their room, in the lobby or pool area, or in the conference facilities, they say.

 

AFL’s officials said that by replacing the previous wireless network – which required more than twice the number of access points – AFL had the new wireless network up and running providing high-speed access in less than a week, with only eight BelAir Networks nodes.

 

AFL’s turnkey solution for the Davidson Hotel Company in the Crowne Plaza Houston Greenspoint included a detailed analysis of their installed infrastructure, leveraging of existing infrastructure where possible, replacement and upgrading as necessary, and extensive structured cabling.

 

Officials said that in addition to replacing and upgrading the wireless equipment, AFL also supported installation of a new Internet connectivity management and billing system along with equipment to support application-specific traffic management and bandwidth shaping.

 

Ron Hardin, IT director at Davidson Hotel Company, said, “With the new network deployed by AFL using BelAir Networks’ wireless mesh nodes we were able to quickly and easily provide world-class Wi-Fi services in the guest rooms, and throughout the conference area, lobby and pool.”

 

Tom Chigoy, general manager at Crowne Plaza, said that by working with AFL and BelAir Networks, his team was able to bring high-speed wireless to guests throughout the hotel using “very few” wireless nodes.

 

“We’ve worked with BelAir Networks on a number of deployments, from large college campuses to downtown hotels, so we knew that a BelAir wireless mesh solution would be the ideal replacement for the Crowne Plaza Houston Greenspoint’s previous wireless network,” said Kent Brown, director for access solutions at AFL Telecommunications.

 

Dave Park, vice president of product marketing at BelAir Networks, said his company is pleased that AFL, with their extensive networking experience and commitment to creating a reliable and flexible networks, have chosen company’s wireless mesh solution to replace the previous wireless network at the Crowne Plaza Houston Greenspoint.

    

 

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