What's hot in wireless? We ask Communications Design & Management

What wireless technology do you deploy?

 Aruba, HP, Cisco, Juniper, Motorola (Zebra).

When did your company first get involved in wireless?

One of our first major projects was to introduce wi-fi across 80 schools, both metro and regional, for Queensland Education in 2006. This was a 3Com deployment, who was subsequently acquired by HP.

What are your wireless credentials?

Various vendor certifications relating to vendor wi-fi technology (ie CCIE Wireless). CDM also has specialist wi-fi subject matter experts who have completed Masters-level post-graduate studies.

Who are your main distributors for wireless?

Avnet, Ingram Micro and Westcon.

Have you heard about any cool wireless technology recently?

There is a lot of interest around the new standard 802.11ac wave 2 that should see a new range of wireless access points being released this year to support it. Otherwise, some of the exciting innovations that we’ve seen as a managed service provider is on the monitoring and management side. Being able to have complete visibility across the wi-fi network with the ability to identify heavy bandwidth users and applications as well as oversubscribed APs means that we can ensure the wi-fi network runs optimally.

Can you tell us about a recent deployment?

We recently deployed a range of HP wireless devices around the country to support the Asian Cup 2015. This included outdoor units on the field of play that were exposed to the weather. This wireless network supported all the media, photographers, organising staff and VIPs. At its peak we had 450 total wireless users in one stadium with 64 concurrent connections off one access point in the press tribune. The HP wireless handled this volume without any issues.

What is driving customers’ wireless projects?

Some of our clients are driving towards having a completely wireless office, to provide users the freedom to move around between desks and meeting rooms, whilst staying connected. Most people want to have the wireless experience that they are familiar with at home, in the office.

Wireless is…?

The future of connectivity. Everyone is now a consumer of IT and wireless is rapidly becoming, if not already, the standard method for all end-user computing to connect to both corporate applications and services as well as the internet.