Sharks Cut Loose With Wi-FiSharks Cut Loose With Wi-Fi

Small-scale wireless networking hot spots are commonplace today, serving users in coffee shops, airports, and even fast-food joints. And a few adventurous companies have set up wireless LANs. But outside of some colleges and tech companies, not many large entities have created wireless LANs or Wi-Fi networks that cover entire buildings.

That's about to change as the technology matures, standards are set, and prices fall as more vendors enter the wireless networking market with products that are robust and reliable and offer the kinds of tools companies demand.

There's booming interest among business-technology executives about how to best exploit wireless LANs, according to information's quarterly IT Priorities survey. In the first quarter of this year, 40% of respondents said they were working on wireless IP-based applications. By the second quarter, the percentage of companies with projects under way jumped to 50%.

Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment has been looking into wireless networking for some time, says Malcolm Bordelon, executive VP of business operations. Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment manages operations for sports teams, including the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks hit the ice in one of America's most technologically advanced geographic regions, and Bordelon wanted the team's tech-savvy fans to be able to get online from anywhere in the building. Aside from providing the fans with Internet access, the Sharks figured they could custom deliver relevant content to users from the Sharks' home page and provide scores of other NHL games.

Yet the team worried that deploying a wireless network in an arena, or just part of one, would be a management nightmare. "We had concerns, and we didn't want to jump out and buy the first thing on the market," Bordelon says. Most bids required fans to use hardware from a specific vendor or would be difficult to manage from the back end.

That changed when Bordelon heard a pitch from startup Airespace Inc., which this month released its first product, the Airespace Wireless Enterprise Platform. It includes a wireless LAN switch, wireless access points, and control software, putting the brains of the network in a company's IT shop, instead of in the field. What's more, the software handles most of the difficult configuration tasks.

Easy-to-use management functionality was a critical reason why in April, at the Sharks' last game of the season, the team announced plans to "unwire" all the luxury boxes in the arena.

"It's an ease-of-use issue," Bordelon says. If he couldn't manage the wireless LAN centrally, "I'm not certain we would have proceeded with this. We wanted something that was easy to set up and maintain."

So far, one luxury box is a Wi-Fi hot spot. Bordelon uses it for presentations to visiting clients and to gauge fans' reaction to the technology. When the Sharks' season begins in the fall, all 64 luxury suites will be equipped with Wi-Fi. Eventually, the coverage will likely extend to the press box and the Sharks' business offices.

Photo by Lou Dematteis/Reuters