SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Jul 2, 2013) - Xirrus®, the leader in high-performance wireless networks, today announced that the Australian Turf Club has deployed Xirrus Wireless Arrays to provide its 500,000 annual race-goers with a fast and dependable Wi-Fi experience at Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick.
The Australian Turf Club is recognised as one of the world's most desirable destinations for thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality. It delivers the very best in Australian racing week in week out, through its world-class venues.
Rohan Sawyer, General Manager, Sponsorship at Australian Turf Club, said: "Today's race-goers want to stay connected with their friends on social networks, make use of wagering, as well as communicate with the ATC during the race day. Central to enabling this seamless communication is high-quality Wi-Fi. By partnering with Xirrus, the established leader in the space, we'll be able to enhance the overall visitor experience at our iconic racecourses."
The ATC required a solution that would provide its visitors with fast, reliable and free Wi-Fi access, with the security of patrons' intellectual property also being a high priority.
"The modular design of the Xirrus Wireless Arrays enables us to cater for spikes in user numbers and large numbers of smartphones and tablets while delivering consistent application performance. Future proofing was a priority for the ATC and Xirrus technology allows us to do this through simple software and radio upgrade path," Sawyer added.
The club is using Xirrus Application Control to optimise the visitor experience by prioritising critical applications, as well as restricting usage of bandwidth-heavy or blocked applications. Using Application Control, the club can provide a secure, seamless application experience to visitors across its racecourses. "Application control allows the ATC to monitor and control the type of traffic that flows through the wireless network, for instance we restrict bandwidth-hogging peer to peer traffic, which ensures that we can supply optimum bandwidth to our patrons for using key applications," explained ATC's IT Manager, Pablo Pelaez.
The venue chose Xirrus due to its proven track record in delivering high-performance wireless networks in large public venues. The installation of 240 Xirrus Wireless Arrays took less than 3 months and enables thousands of smart mobile devices to be used concurrently throughout the racecourse precinct.
The new wireless service was tested by tablet and smartphone users during the recent BMW Sydney Carnival. Race-goers reported that they were able to download the latest form and betting odds with speed and without the congestion usually experienced at other major events. Some of the most visited sites were social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where hundreds of visitors shared their race-day experiences.
"The greatest benefit has been to the club's members and race goers, being able to access high speed, high quality Wi-Fi free of charge. Customer access to the internet is extremely important in our industry so this is a very positive step in adding to the overall race day experience," commented Sawyer.
Sean Larner, VP International at Xirrus, said: "With its new wireless installation, the Australian Turf Club has been able to solve capacity and density issues that traditional access points could not address in a venue of this scale. The provision of fast, high-performance wireless coverage has enabled ATC to create an engaging, enjoyable race-day experience for visitors, placing it miles ahead of other venues unable to support large numbers of concurrent users and devices."
About Xirrus, Inc.
Xirrus is the leading provider of high-performance wireless networks. Xirrus solutions perform under the most demanding circumstances, offering consistent "wired-like" performance with superior coverage and security. The Xirrus suite of Wi-Fi optimized solutions -- Arrays, access points, cloud services, and wired switches -- provide seamless connectivity and unified management across the network. Xirrus provides a vital strategic business and IT infrastructure advantage to industries that depend on wireless to operate business-critical applications. With tens of thousands of customer solutions deployed globally, Xirrus maintains operations and partnerships across the globe. Xirrus is a privately held company and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, CA. For more information, please visit: www.xirrus.com and follow us on Twitter: @Xirrus.
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About Australian Turf Club
The Australian Turf Club prides itself on being one of the world's most desirable destinations for thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality. Home to the state of the art Royal Randwick, Rosehill Gardens featuring the world's richest race for two-year-olds, the country style racecourse at Warwick Farm, and one of the state's most intimate racecourses -Canterbury Park. Born from a proud and iconic heritage of racing and entertainment in New South Wales, the Australian Turf Club is a uniting celebration of what Sydney truly has to offer. We bring together the past with the future, pedigree with performance, youth with experience and style with excitement. We deliver the very best in Australian racing week in week out, through our world-class venues that effortlessly imbue fashion, sophistication and elegance into every experience. Visit http://www.australianturfclub.com.au