14 DAY TRIAL // Next time that attendees of a Microsoft event will seamlessly connect their laptops to the Internet they will do so through a Xirrus Wi-Fi Array. This because Microsoft CMG Events & Studios has selected the high-performance and high-density Wi-Fi solution from Xirrus in order to ensure that thousands of participants at its events will be able to enjoy quality wireless connections. According to Xirrus, the Redmond company will leverage the Wi-Fi Array at its largest events, including the Professional Developers Conference, the Worldwide Partner Conferences, TechEd, etc. John O’Gara, group manager for Microsoft’s CMG Events & Studios, explained that Xirrus Wi-Fi Array was tailored to scenarios in which over 5,000 people in the same conference room needed to connect wirelessly.
“When we deploy wireless our big problems and challenges are that we are trying to cover large amounts of space with high density – we’ve got the ultimate wireless challenges in that we’ve got huge capacity in certain areas, but we also need to cover the entire facility – that’s pretty much been the holy grail,” O’Gara said. “It’s not terribly difficult to cover a large space, but it’s been really challenging to cover a large space with high density… and when I say high density, I’m talking theatre-style seating with seven to 12 thousand people… and at least half of them should be able to open up their laptops or turn on some other mobile device and have a good wireless experience.”
Microsoft ended up choosing Xirrus solutions after it test-drove the WiFi Array at the Professional Developers Conference. O’Gara noted that Xirrus succeeded where others before it had failed. With the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array, as many as six thousand people were able to take advantage of high-capacity, high-density wireless connections.
“The other advantage to the [Xirrus] system… is we are able to decrease the amount of access points that are deployed roughly by a factor of two-thirds… in a lot of our facilities we have to pay for the wiring and the drops to accommodate wireless deployments, so this is an immediate cost savings to the company and to our events,” O’Gara stated. “Where we’ve really won here is we’ve increased our capacity and solved a problem that we’ve never been able to solve and we’ve been able to do all the other wireless needs at the event at somewhere under half of the cost for the facility side of things as we have in the past.”