Australian Turf Club taps Xirrus for free WiFi
Xirrus has been selected by the Australian Turf Club as the communications equipment vendor for its WiFi networks at Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick raceways.
The Australian Turf Club had planned to provide fast and free WiFi access for racegoers and opted to rollout Xirrus Wireless Arrays because of its modular design and ability to cater for spikes in user numbers, according to the club, which receives around 500,000 visitors annually.
"Today's racegoers want to stay connected with their friends on social networks, make use of wagering, as well as communicate with the club during the race day; central to enabling this seamless communication is high-quality WiFi," Australian Turf Club general manager, Rohan Sawyer, said in a statement. "By partnering with Xirrus, we'll be able to enhance the overall visitor experience at our iconic racecourses."
The club rolled out 240 Xirrus Wireless Arrays in less than three months. The WiFi service was then tested by tablet and smartphone users during the Sydney Carnival event in April. The Australian Turf Club was pleased with the results and noted the lack of congestion.
Xirrus Application Control is being used to manage the traffic flow to avoid things like peer-to-peer traffic from clogging up the network.
In January, Moonee Valley Racecourse also set-up a public WiFi network to service patrons. Ruckus Wireless was the technology provider.
Along with a five year managed services and maintenance contract, the Moonee Valley Racecourse Wi-Fi project came in just under AU$500,000.