With the NCAA tournament under way and office pools already looking bleak, Waltham’s Colubris Networks Inc. has reason to be optimistic about the Sweet Sixteen.
Beginning with the first game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., Colubris’ wireless local area network (WLAN) hardware will be driving the wi-fi traffic for the hordes of press attendees that will descend on the event.
Recently, Colubris installed two of its CN3200s at the 50,000-seat Carrier Dome to provide wireless access for the press. The Sweet Sixteen will be the inaugural event for the wireless deployment But if it’s successful the units would stay in place as part of the stadium’s amenities, providing wireless access for the entire stadium.
The deployment was executed in conjunction with Time Warner Cable, who will provide the back-end services for the network. This is not Colubris’ first such deployment, however. The company has delivered similar systems to The Wimbledon Tennis Championships and last year’s Major League Baseball’s All-Star game in Houston.
Company executives said these types of wireless deployments are becoming more popular, and they expect to be doing more in the future.
“This kind of service is pretty much expected now by the press and media,” said Brian Berry, sales engineer at Colubris. “We expect to see it coming to most stadiums in the future.”
Press members — and in the future anyone who wants to access the Internet from inside the stadium — would be taken to a login page where they will enter an individual username and password. At the NCAA regional finals, the interface page will have the look and feel of the tournament. In the future, the Carrier Dome will be able to customize the screen to accommodate whatever event is at the stadium, be it Syracuse University football, lacrosse or another national event.
“It is also a revenue generator for the stadium,” said Berry. “Once you get the deployment done, the ROI comes pretty quickly. If they charge $10 per game for access, their payback is quick. They can also put ads on the login page and get revenue there.”
Colubris will also handle the management of the system. It can increase the footprint if it is necessary with new units, as well as track user information. The wireless footprint is now focused on the press area, but can be extended into the stands around it as well.
For sports reporters, the ability to instantly access all kinds of information from a laptop can make their jobs much easier.
Colubris has had a promising start to 2005.
The company closed a $15 million round of funding, led by Menlo Park Calif.-based Doll Capital Management, in early March. It also announced an independently verified, record-breaking 16 toll-quality calls with data on a single device, thanks to the possibilities of voice over Internet protocol over wi-fi.
The WLAN market in general has garnered industry buzz of late, as the demand for wi-fi services has increased worldwide. Framingham-based analyst group IDC predicts the worldwide WLAN carrier and enterprise infrastructure market could grow by an average of 17 percent annually over the next three years, topping $2 billion by 2008.
