Integrator rolls out high-speed WiFi at high-octane theme park

Australian integrator ASI Solutions has won its second big Brocade deal with the installation of a new wireless network for Dreamworld.

The contract marks the second collaboration between Brocade and integrator ASI solutions following their work on Megaport's Asia Pacific interconnect cable in June.

ASI business development manager Graham Wittke said: "The old equipment was 100mbps and the new equipment is 1Gbps and it is wire speed. The individual performance and the speeds they can offer are much higher."

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Dreamworld is one of 138 Ardent Leisure Group's assets located in Australia, New Zealand and the US. Wittke said Ardent intends on upgrading the infrastructure of multiple sites and that it is likely ASI Solutions will work on those in Australia and New Zealand sites.

"It is rolling out at many of the assets they have, including some of the properties they have in New Zealand. We'll probably do the local work or pass it on to a partner.

"It was a competitive tender, but we offered them a better price and a better solution."

None of the parties would reveal details of the other bidders.

Under the upgrade, ASI deployed a Brocade ICX 6610 switch stack in Dreamworld's server room to act as the site's networking core, along with ICX 6430 switches across the amusement park to provide Gigabit Ethernet network access. It supports WiFi access and VoIP phones.

One of the unique things about the network is its failsafe, Wittke said.

"If Dreamworld's network goes down, they can't collect money from people coming into the gate.

"There's a built in redundancy in the design of the network. If something fails there is always another pathway where the information could travel through."

Ardent's networking administrator Steven von Rooyan said: "All the performance bottlenecks have been eliminated and, thanks to manageability of the entire infrastructure, it takes five minutes to turn on a feature whereas it used to take all day to change switch configurations."

Brocade named ASI Solutions its Partner of the Year in 2012. Wittke would not comment on the potential value of the contract.