Newly built designer hotel QT Melbourne is inspired by the 1920’s rag trade that previously occupied Flinders Lane. The artisan building is designed to pay homage to the ‘Paris-end’ of Collins Street, with its bold industrial chic and emphasis on high-fashion. The hotel prides itself on meeting the needs of the modern traveller—one who is connected to the rest of the world through smartphones and tablets. To stay competitive, good Wi-Fi service is a critical factor to ensure that the guest experience isn’t compromised by difficulties connecting to the wireless network, or by reliability of speed problems.
THE CHALLENGES
The hotel has 188 rooms, all of which have been individually tailored for a unique guest experience. In addition, the hotel also has a number of restaurants, bars and meeting room spaces to accommodate up to 80 people. These different layouts within the hotel make it a complex task for Wi-Fi signals to navigate through solid structures such as walls, corridors and awkward open spaces. The public and private areas of the hotel are in constant use, with guests typically connecting between two to three devices to the network to stream music, videos or make other demands on the network.
Whereas guests in the bars and restaurants may wish to share social posts containing video or photo. All of these tasks consume bandwidth on the network and must be supported by access points which can be discreetly placed so as not to disrupt the design aesthetic of the hotel.
“Hotels are generally challenging places to provide Wi-Fi in,” commented Craig Simpson of EVT, Director of Hospitality Technology. “Cutting-edge design is synonymous to the QT brand so our Wi-Fi access points had to deliver without disrupting the visual appeal of the hotel.”
REQUIREMENTS
- Fast, reliable Wi-Fi for guests who expected only the best
- Access points that would not disrupt the chic aesthetic of the hotel
THE SOLUTION
- Installed 190 RUCKUS Wireless 802.11ac Wave 2 H500 access points, 60 R500 access points and a ZoneDirector 3000 Controller
After accessing the market, RUCKUS stood out above the rest of the vendors as the best partner for QT Melbourne to provide Wi-Fi to its guests.
QT Melbourne had very specific requirements for the distribution of Wi-Fi within its building primarily because of the various guest spaces and meeting rooms. To ensure that the highest level of Wi-Fi is available and the project is delivered within budget, RUCKUS undertook an onsite survey to determine the quantity and location of RUCKUS access points. The surveys conducted took into account the RUCKUS AP patented antenna structure and as such meant that fewer access points are required to meet QT’s stringent Wi-Fi requirements.
Based on the site inspection, RUCKUS installed 190 H500 and 60 R500 802.11ac Wave 2 access points, together with a ZoneDirector 3000 controller. The RUCKUS products came with the patented ChannelFly™ and BeamFlex™ technologies which boost performance. BeamFlex automatically adjusts the signals to the best performing path and steers around interference and obstacles. This ensures the strongest signal, highest throughput and the least amount of interference. ChannelFly leverages BeamFlex in order to select the best RF channel to deliver the highest performance Wi-Fi possible, optimising signals for every client and transmission. The RUCKUS AP and Controller platform is specifically designed to provide hotels such as QT Melbourne with the very best Wi-Fi experience. This means that guests can now experience uninterrupted, fast, reliable Wi-Fi coverage.
THE BENEFITS
- Connected guests reliably and continuously despite the demanding environment.
Since the deployment, RUCKUS has impressed QT Melbourne’s guests with its fast, reliable Wi-Fi. The installation has made doing business and keeping in touch with friends and family online simple and straightforward, and complaints about the connectivity have been few and far between. “We’re very pleased with the RUCKUS solution,” concluded Simpson. “The guest experience wouldn’t be complete without Wi-Fi, and we have found a great partner in RUCKUS.”
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