Wifi Revolution

Ruckus Wireless, a US-based Wi-Fi technology company, has announced that Hamburg Sports Club (HSV), one of Germany's oldest and soccer clubs, has deployed an advanced 802.11n wireless LAN system from Ruckus Wireless (News - Alert) to deliver journalists and guests reliable, high-speed access to online services.

Company officials claim that Ruckus wireless is the only supplier to offer this advanced implementation of 802.11n that extends signal range and enables the support of streaming video over Wi-Fi.

In a release, Heiko Moller, head of the HSV's Arena and Events Management, said providing wireless Internet access has become crucial in facilities like HSV. For this, HSV decided to wirelessly network the playing field, the access area, all the conference rooms, all the press boxes, and the press area by means of an 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN). This network is also used for internal communications between management and house automation.

Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert), the sponsor of HSV, handled the implementation of the network.

Commenting on Ruckus Wireless’ offer, Moller said, “Dynamic beamforming provides the infrastructure for a reliable wireless network with relatively few access points and high bandwidth in large areas with many physical obstructions. This technology is not available from any other provider. Reliability as well as the price-performance ratio is also attractive.”

The installation was first tested during the first home game of the 2009 season. Since then, visitors in the VIP boxes and the conference area, as well as the journalists in the press center and on the sidelines, have been using the broadband WLAN, HSV officials said. Visitors also have access to T-Mobile (News - Alert) HotSpot access offered by Deutsche Telekom.

The fast wireless Internet access has considerably improved the working conditions for the members of the press, says Moller. It has also made life easier for organizers and participants in other events.

HSV sources said they are now planning to extend its WLAN coverage for the final game of the UEFA Europa League, which will be held at the HSH Nordbank Arena on May 12, 2010.

Last month Ruckus Wireless announced that it has been awarded a patent from both the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) on conversion of multicast to unicast transmissions.

Multicast is frequently used for delivering multimedia information to multiple simultaneous recipients. Ruckus multicast-to-unicast patent is particularly significant to the wireless networking industry as the growing demand for wireless multimedia communications coincides with the rise in Wi-Fi usage everywhere, company officials added.

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