Ruckus Wireless said 5 Bars, a provider of high-capacity, wireless infrastructure for big public venues, has deployed the vendor’s WiFi tech for the 45,483-seat Angel Stadium of Anaheim, home to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
The new Ruckus-based network, owned and operated by 5 Bars, went live during Thursday night’s (October 2) game 1 of the American League Division Series (ALDS). 5 Bars has deployed more than 200 Ruckus ZoneFlex narrow beam and ZoneFlex sectorized beam outdoor access points around the venue’s “Big A,” and more than 100 high-capacity, three-stream Ruckus ZoneFlex indoor access points, all centrally managed by the vendor’s SmartCell Gateway 200 platform. Angel Stadium is also using the WiFi network for food concession operations, including 150 wireless-enabled, mobile cash registers and more than two dozen handheld point-of-sale devices.
Ruckus noted that stadium WiFi requires a sophisticated architecture and technology that confines WiFi signals to groups of fans in order to reduce media contention. The set-up at Angel Stadium relies on narrow beam, sectorized smart antennas integrated within Ruckus ZoneFlex access points in order to focus RF energy into a specific area, reducing the opportunity for interference while boosting network performance, Ruckus said.
Other large venues outfitted with Ruckus WiFi gear includes the 74,738-seat Estadio Jornalista Mario Filho in Rio de Janeiro; Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC; American Express Community Stadium, a 30,750-seat venue in Brighton, England (UK); and M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, a 70,000-seat facility in Chennai, India, among others.
