Finally a close up shot of the upcoming Activision DJ Hero videogame! I’m really contemplating if I should invest in purchasing the game when available, but the DJ in me tells me this has my name written all over it! I can finally play something against my Guitar Hero pro friends and school them in what I can do.
It has come to my attention that during Interop Las Vegas, Xirrus was allowing people to pre-order their Rapid Deployment Wi-Fi Kit. The kit was made specifically designed for disaster relief situations. Being in California, we all deal with those random fires where peoeple do need immediate assistance.
There are two versions of the kit:
Xirrus Rapid Deployment Kit 100
-Covers 100 concurrent users
-Price= $3,999
Xirrus Rapid Deployment Kit 200
-Covers 200 concurrent users
-Price= $5,999
Here is a video that Xirrus released during Interop about the Deployment Kit:
Being an alumni of Moorpark (if that’s even possible, since I was there for a few months), and now having my younger family members attend Moorpark High School, makes me glad that they chose to deploy Xirrus Wi-Fi. I remember the days of sitting outside with my laptop and trying my best to grab a connection around campus. Nothing would happen so I would have to go into the computer lab and literally wait 15 minutes to use a computer. Once I got on the computer, the connection was horribly slow!
With the deployment of Xirrus Arrays, Moorpark is able to deliver mobility for student learning.
Here’s the press release taken from the Xirrus site:
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today the deployment of their 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays across Moorpark Unified School District in Moorpark, CA. Moorpark’s decision to deploy 802.11n wireless mobility district-wide empowers student learning and achievement by increasing mobility and collaboration. Xirrus was chosen by the Moorpark’s technology team because Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays deliver far greater coverage, bandwidth, and user density over traditional access point systems and even Ethernet workgroup switches, saving the district money while making it possible to replace antiquated wired computer connections with wireless mobility.
Moorpark Unified School District, consisting of 7,200 students and 500 staff members, operates eleven schools; six elementary schools, two middle schools, one comprehensive high school, a continuation high school, and a middle college program with strong and innovative instructional programs. Seven out of eight eligible District schools have been named California Distinguished Schools, one a National Blue Ribbon School, two Title I Academic Achievement awarded schools, and Community High has Model Continuation High School status.
“Our department’s mission is to provide our students, staff, parents, and the community with the equipment, training, support in a robust, secure infrastructure that enables student learning and achievement, while preparing the staff and students to meet the ever-changing technology challenges of our global society,” said Julie Judd, Director of Information/Education Technology Services and Support at Moorpark. “I wanted an environment that would allow teachers and students to collaborate at any site regardless of their home base. We are beginning to deploy laptops for students and teachers and it was a goal that we weren’t limited to the classroom walls, as learning happens everywhere, so we elected to begin replacing our wired network classroom connections with wireless mobility. Finding the right solution that would deliver the necessary bandwidth, be easy to install and maintain, and not cost the district an arm and a leg was as easy as calling Xirrus.”
“Xirrus has exceptional products that merge Array antennas, like those found in cellular towers with that of Ethernet switching,” continued Julie. “Unlike the lackluster thin access points, which must be tied back to a closet controller to function, the Arrays encrypt and manage the network connectivity at the edge of the network making our user data much more secure. Further, placing the intelligence at the edge delivers greater efficiencies and cost savings as there is no requirement for expensive and often outdated Wi-Fi controller taking up valuable real-estate in IT closets. We have been very pleased with our decision to go with Xirrus – it doesn’t go down, is consistent, and requires very little, if any, maintenance. From their products to their personnel, Xirrus is a vendor who understands my needs and works to ensure those needs are met. I highly recommend inviting Xirrus in for a quick site survey and demo of their products – seeing is believing.”
“Moorpark is a great example of a district using technology to further enhance the quality of education for students and the collaboration between student and teacher,” said Charles Bettinelli, Regional Manager at Xirrus. “Schools can save time and money associated with wired connectivity like moves, adds, and changes by deploying our Arrays – one 802.11n Array can deliver a few Gigabits of Wi-Fi bandwidth and support a few hundred users off one cable drop. There is no need to deploy an access point every 20 feet like some vendors profess, which costs a lot of money and time while not solving the issue at hand—that Wi-Fi can and ought to be the primary connection for network users.”
Self-contained Kit Enables Fast, Simple Roll Out of Robust Wireless Networks
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry, announced today a portable, pre-packaged kit designed for the rapid and simple deployment of Wi-Fi networks in temporary applications. Unlike other Wi-Fi networking solutions which require many different components, the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array integrates everything needed to deploy a large coverage, high density Wi-Fi network supporting up to hundreds of clients into a single device. This makes the Wi-Fi Array the ideal fit for portable applications such as disaster response command posts; high-density events such as conferences and expositions; and short-term events such as festivals, markets, and fairs.
The pre-packaged, self-contained Wi-Fi deployment kit includes:
“We designed the Xirrus Rapid Deployment Wi-Fi Kit for deployment simplicity. The Wi-Fi Array, around which the kit is based, integrates all the elements needed to deploy a Wi-Fi network into a single device,” said Bruce Miller, Vice President of Product Marketing at Xirrus. “The kit comes with all the necessary mounting hardware and cabling and is pre-configured to work out of the box. A Wi-Fi network for hundreds of users can literally be set up in less than 10 minutes. With a range well over 1,000 feet line-of-site outdoors and 200-500 feet indoors depending on environment, the Array is the only solution of its kind for setting up a pervasive wireless network with such simplicity.”
“Adding the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array to our Disaster Recovery solution has allowed us to become more flexible and provide access to an even greater amount of clients – it covers a large area while providing stable and reliable network services to our clients,” said Jake Cordova, Information Services Department, County of San Bernardino. “To provide immediate assistance to those who have been affected by a disaster, it is crucial to establish this capability quickly with the least amount of devices and power possible.”
Xirrus Rapid Deployment Wi-Fi Kits can be ordered online at the Xirrus Store at http://www.store.xirrus.com.
Xirrus Rapid Deployment Kit 100
Xirrus Rapid Deployment Kit 200
I thought this was an awesome blog that Brian Chee posted about Xirrus. Funny thing was I posted something about Xirrus yesterday for being the Wi-Fi provider at Interop. I would like to share what Brian blogged about:
Back in the day, a network engineer commented that “…we sure had to run a lot of wire for wireless…” The gist being that we needed to put in a whole heck of a lot of wireless access points to support the loads found at a technology trade show. Now this is NOT to say that the InteropNET venue is by any means “normal”, because it isn’t. From the NOC we can typically see hundreds of access points with people stomping all over each other with their AP’s cranked up to full volume in a feeble attempt to drown out their neighbor. We also have one heck of a lot of territory to cover since our guests will find a quiet spot just about everywhere in the convention center. So our challenges for wireless are: (1) the need for LOTS of coverage, and (2) the need for intelligent coverage so that we don’t add to the “shouting match” between the hundreds of access points in the exhibit hall.
Our partners at Xirrus are back with their flying saucer WiFi arrays, hovering over the exhibit hall, and on tripods throughout the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. However, these flying saucers actually have up to sixteen radios in each saucer, with sectional antennas and patented signal guides to more intelligently direct the signal to where it’s needed instead of just blasting in a 360 degree circle. The end result for the InteropNET is a whole lot less wire run to support wireless and instead of a hundred or so access points, we’re talking about a dozen now.
These “sector” antennas are mounted along the rim of the saucer, each one covering a piece of the “pie” so to speak. With each radio being individually controllable, the Xirrus folks can “shape” the radio energy to better cover odd shaped areas. One of their favorite examples are schools and how they tend to have a high density of users in long narrow buildings.
These anonymous “heat maps” are actual measurements from various Xirrus customer schools….the funny thing is that warehouses also have heat maps that look like these but for a different reason. Your typical warehouse has long rows of metal shelves with stuff on them and the signal from traditional access points will bounce around like billiard balls causing all kinds of multipath interference. The Xirrus solution of shaping the RF energy patterns, greatly reduces multipathing allowing more throughput with less energy.
To get a better glimpse of the technology and Xirrus’ role in the InteropNET, I shot a little video of John Merrill at hotstage where he shows off the guts of an array.
Wi-Fi company Xirrus will be the Wi-Fi provider at this year’s Interop in Las Vegas, NV. Xirrus has been the official Wi-Fi provider for Interop for the past few years, so this time it won’t be anything different. However, Xirrus will deliver the 802.11n network that we have been waiting for so long. With Interop coming up in three weeks, I’m looking forward to attending this event and to trying out the “n” network! Check out the press release of the news:
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today that they have been selected to be the official wireless provider for Interop Las Vegas (May 17-21, 2009) and New York (November 16-20, 2009). Xirrus will deliver the 802.11n network for Interop attendees and exhibitors throughout the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. This is the fourth time Xirrus has been chosen as the InteropNet wireless provider due to the power and simplicity of our Wi-Fi Array platform.
“Over the past two decades, Interop has advanced the growth and evolution of the IT industry—this year is no different,” said Lenny Heymann, General Manager of Interop. “Thanks to Xirrus, we can continue to use the latest standards like 802.11n -based network—a network that will deliver vast amounts of bandwidth to thousands of concurrent users.”
The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 802.11abg+n radios with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Wi-Fi Firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, and Spectrum Analyzer into a single device. Xirrus’ solution delivers 4X the performance and coverage along with 75% less devices, cabling, switch ports, and installation time compared to traditional access points because unlike access points the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array utilizes segmented directional antennas to better utilize and manage the RF energy of the device.
“Providing the 802.11n Wi-Fi network for this prestigious gathering of IT experts is an honor and demonstrates the strength of our Wi-Fi architecture in challenging environments such as Interop,” said Dirk Gates, Founder and CEO of Xirrus. “Distributed Wi-Fi architectures, like the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array, are overtaking centralized architectures the same way Ethernet overtook ATM in the 1990’s. The distributed intelligence and simplicity of our Wi-Fi Array allows us to quickly deploy a network with significantly fewer devices and provide exhibitors and attendees with the highest performance possible for voice, video, and data.”
Interop runs May 17 through 21, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Xirrus will showcase its 802.11n products at booth #1331. More information is available at http://www.interop.com.
This gold wireless mouse will make you feel like a million bucks! I do think it would be sweat if my whole computer/laptop setup in my cubicle was decked out in gold, but someone would definitely toy with my blinged out equipment. For $34.68, this mouse can be in your hands with your nifty gold watch!
Xirrus Furthers Technology Leadership with CWNP Certification of Technical Services Teams
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today it has adopted the CWNA® (Certified Wireless Network Administrator) training program, offered by Atlanta-based CWNP (Certified Wireless Network Professional) for certification of all its application engineers and principal technologists. CWNP, creator of vendor-neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certifications, offers four levels of certification for enterprise Wi-Fi.
“As the only Wi-Fi device capable of replacing Ethernet workgroup switches, Xirrus continues to stay ahead of the competition by delivering both superior technology and expertise,” said Bruce Miller, Vice President of Product Marketing at Xirrus. “We believe adding the CWNP certification training will enhance the knowledgebase of our teams, increasing the strength of our free professional services offerings and the technological value delivered to our customers.”
“We believe knowledge is a key differentiator in deploying Wi-Fi successfully,” said Cary Chandler, President of CWNP. “With the complexities and varieties of products and the continually evolving standards within the Wi-Fi industry, ongoing training is critical. Our certification programs teach the technology behind all WLAN products, regardless of vendor product line.”
The CWNA curriculum covers topics from RF theory to 802.11n. The courses include hands-on training labs with the option of instructor-led, online or selfstudy.
About CWNP
CWNP is the de facto standard for enterprise Wi-Fi training and certification. CWNP is the only vendor neutral wireless LAN certification program in the industry, offering four levels of enterprise WLAN certification, from novice to expert. Our focus is to educate IT professionals in the technology behind all enterprise WLAN products, enabling the ability for these professionals to enter an enterprise and manage its wireless LAN infrastructure regardless of the vendor solution utilized. IT professionals in more than 120 countries have achieved CWNP certifications, specializing in how to make wireless LANs more cost-effective, reliable and secure. CWNP is a privately-held corporation based in Atlanta, GA. For more information about CWNP, visit http://www.cwnp.com.
Xirrus Press Contact
John Merrill
E-mail: john.merrill@xirrus.com
Phone: +1.805.262.1644
About Xirrus
Xirrus, the only Wi-Fi “Power-Play”, manufacturers the Wi-Fi Array® architecture that displaces both overlay Wi-Fi offerings and switched Ethernet to the desktop. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 802.11abg+n radios coupled to a high-gain directional antenna system into a single device along with an onboard multi-gigabit switch, Wi-Fi controller, firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi threat sensor, and an embedded spectrum analyzer. The Wi-Fi Array provides more than enough bandwidth, security, and control to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop as the primary network connection. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and user density on a per device and per system basis than anything else available on the market today – resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, power, space, and installation time compared with any other offering.
Xirrus is a privately-held company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. For more information, please visit www.xirrus.com.
Xirrus – Switching: Without Wires™
Xirrus – High Performance Wi-Fi™
Xirrus – The Air is the Network™
Xirrus – Wi-Fi Array®
The Catherine Cook School Solves Performance Issues by Upgrading to Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today the deployment of their Wi-Fi Arrays across The Catherine Cook School, located in Chicago, Illinois. The Catherine Cook School replaced their existing Access Point infrastructure with Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays to gain better network performance for their one-to-one computer initiative and real-time learning applications used by students and teachers. The transition to the Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays was quick, seamless, and provided the school with the necessary bandwidth for Wi-Fi to be their primary network connection.
“We have a one-to-one laptop program in place for our 4th-8th grade students, which requires reliable network access campus-wide to be successful,” said Bill Mierisch, Director of Technology at Catherine Cook School. “In addition to this group of 125 students, we also have two mobile laptop carts with 40 computers serving over 200 younger students, 10 wireless desktop computers stationed in classrooms, and an assortment of more than 100 laptops, Blackberrys®, iPhones®, and Windows® Mobile® smartphones used by our staff and parent volunteers.”
“We called in Xirrus to fix the emerging problems of our Cisco wireless implementation—things like maxed out controllers due to our increasing enrollment, network cost over-runs, and arcane skill sets required to manage the network,” continued Bill. “One particular application that was vital to our classroom success was DyKnow®, a classroom management and instructional software package operating over Port 80. With the Cisco’s products, we were getting persistent instabilities, which frustrated our teachers and students alike. We knew we had to find a solution that was sustainable over the long term, give us the ability to connect large masses of students in small spaces, and scale for future considerations.”
“Xirrus helped us expand our network capacity with both excellent products and great ideas,” continued Bill. “With over 90% of our clients able to use the 5Ghz band, our capacity for connections increased exponentially with Xirrus’ multi-radio Arrays. What’s more, during our roll-out, Xirrus helped us identify a problem that had lurked without our knowledge on a legacy server, which resulted in a dramatic drop-off in support calls relating to client connectivity.”
“Thanks to Xirrus, we no longer need an AP in every room,” added Bill. “In fact, for roughly the cost of what our Cisco upgrade alone would have set us back, we now have a network that works, is stable, and has the ‘headroom’ we need to support an increasing enrollment in our school. As for the Wi-Fi facelift, we were up and running in just hours, and did not need to pull any new wiring or add anything other than the Xirrus Arrays. In fact, we did not even announce to our users that we had made the switch. It happened seamlessly, with folks returning to school from Winter Break not even aware that anything had changed, expect for improved performance. As for DyKnow—we are getting far greater ROI thanks to the increased reliability and ability of the Wi-Fi Arrays to handle heavy traffic.”
“It is crucial to have confidence in your Wi-Fi network,” added Bill. “If teachers can’t rely on connectivity, they simply cannot – and will not – do the exciting, engaging, and rewarding teaching that such a program affords. We are more confident now thanks to Xirrus, and it is making a difference in what teachers are willing to do. That means more opportunities for our kids to learn, and for us, that’s the real measure of return-on-investment.”
“Like many organizations we are called in to help, The Catherine Cook School realized that traditional APs cannot handle the user capacity or bandwidth required to be the primary network connection,” said Eric Dean, Regional Manager at Xirrus. “The school quickly realized the need for a better medium and called us in to see what we could do. Working together, we developed a plan and successfully implemented a Wi-Fi system that will support their students and staff for years to come.”
Xirrus Press Contact
John Merrill
E-mail: john.merrill@xirrus.com
Phone: +1.805.262.1644
About Xirrus
Xirrus, the only Wi-Fi “Power-Play”, manufacturers the Wi-Fi Array® architecture that displaces both overlay Wi-Fi offerings and switched Ethernet to the desktop. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, 12, 16, or 24 802.11abg+n radios coupled to a high-gain directional antenna system into a single device along with an onboard multi-gigabit switch, Wi-Fi controller, firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi threat sensor, and an embedded spectrum analyzer. The Wi-Fi Array provides more than enough bandwidth, security, and control to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop as the primary network connection. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and user density on a per device and per system basis than anything else available on the market today – resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, power, space, and installation time compared with any other offering.
Xirrus is a privately-held company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. For more information, please visit www.xirrus.com.
Xirrus – Switching: Without Wires™
Xirrus – High Performance Wi-Fi™
Xirrus – The Air is the Network™
Xirrus – Wi-Fi Array®
CSU Solves User Density and Bandwidth Issues by Deploying Xirrus® 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays™
Xirrus, Inc., the Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that delivers the most wireless coverage, bandwidth, and throughput in the industry announced today the deployment of their 802.11abg+n Wi-Fi Arrays at Colorado State University (CSU), located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Colorado State is a public institution of higher education and one of the nation’s top research universities, offering 150 programs of study in eight colleges. The Wi-Fi Arrays are being deployed at the newly constructed Computer Science Building, Morgan Library, Andrew G. Clark Building, Academic Learning Center and plans for the future Academic Instruction Building giving more than 25,000 students and 1,400 faculty members higher performance Wi-Fi.
“We have had a Wi-Fi network with hundreds of APs for some time, but some of these traditional APs were being saturated as more and more students brought in Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, PDAs, and phones,” said Greg Redder, interim Director of Networking at CSU. “Throwing more and more APs at the problem in some of these facilities was ineffective and costly, so we looked around for an alternative wireless solution—something that could support dozens to hundreds of concurrent users and supply enough bandwidth to meet current and future needs.”
“We invited Xirrus to demonstrate their claims of having ‘the most powerful Wi-Fi solution’ on the market”, added Redder. “To see what these Wi-Fi Arrays could do, we had Xirrus bring one Array on a portable tripod to support an Obama campaign rally on The Oval, a large open park where thousands participated. The Wi-Fi Array supported over 200 concurrent users without blinking an eye. This scenario fit well with some of our larger and more concentrated locations on campus. Thus, we are rolling Xirrus 802.11n Arrays across several high capacity buildings, including the newest building on our campus – the Computer Science Building, a 4-story, 45,000 square foot facility, comprised of classrooms, lecture halls, three student labs, faculty offices and large meeting areas.”
Curtis Reid, Regional Manager at Xirrus, said, “Our 802.11n Wi-Fi Arrays deliver more with less—more coverage, bandwidth, and user density with far less devices, cables, and switch ports. Organizations need to stop deploying yesterday’s inadequate AP’s and begin deploying Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays—only Xirrus can replace switching to the desktop with wireless and give you the investment protection for years to come.”
For more information on Xirrus, please go to www.xirrus.com
Hip Technology 