STOCKHOLM and SUNNYVALE, CA — June 24, 2013 — Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS), a global supplier of advanced wireless systems for the rapidly expanding mobile Internet infrastructure market, and Icecon, an IT supplier and system integrator of Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi solutions, announced today that they are teaming to bring high-capacity Smart Wi-Fi products and technologies to nearly a dozen ice hockey arenas across Sweden in time for the start of the new hockey season this September. It will mean a free, ”Better than Home“ Wi-Fi user experience for Swedish hockey fans.
Hundreds of centrally managed Ruckus ZoneFlex™ access points are currently being installed by Icecon in 11 hockey arenas across Sweden to deliver pervasive Wi-Fi performance to fans, staff and visitors.
The deployment is a key part of the Swedish Hockey League’s (SHL) plans to deliver their ”Better than Home“ experience to fans. The ”Better than Home“ concept is a unique user experience project that focuses on offering value-added services and content to hockey fans attending Elitserien league games starting this fall. The Elitserien league is an elite hockey league that is part of the SHL. One of the first and primary aspects of this concept is the SHL’s investment and installation of Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi wireless networks in all Elitserien league arenas.
The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi network deployments involve installation of over 600 Ruckus ZoneFlex™ access points (APs) this summer. The network will be centrally managed, and will utilize Ruckus ChannelFly™ technology to provide higher levels of capacity and reliability as environmental conditions change in noisy and crowded radio frequency (RF) environments like hockey arenas. ChannelFly automatically determines the best RF channel to be used (in either the 2.4 or 5 GHz bands) that will yield the highest client throughput.
With a Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi network in place in SHL arenas this fall, fans will be able to more effectively use their mobile devices to access and use the Internet, which simply hasn’t been possible before. They will also now benefit from easy access to unique, arena-specific content that can only be experienced inside the league arenas — a key part of the ”Better than Home“ concept.
In addition to experiencing and watching the hockey game, fans will also be better able to access supplementary information about the game, plus information on other hockey games taking place nationwide. For example, information about arena attendance, why a player was injured in the second period, or finding out how long a player has been on the ice is new supplemental information that fans with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets will now be able to easily access and view with Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi networks in place — improving the overall fan experience at games. Other content such as video highlights from other SHL games, and interactive content like the ability to vote for the player of the game, is also planned.
The SHL is also developing plans to utilize their Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi network to run advertisements and sell tickets to future games online to attending fans, and give employees the ability to use it to manage the arenas’ restaurant systems.
Since 2005, Sports Editing Sweden AB (SES) has been a supplier of websites, mobile services, editorial content and video production for the SHL. Early on, SES saw a strong need for a stable, high-performance, reliable Wi-Fi network in SHL arenas to deliver useful, arena-specific services to hockey fans, instead of forcing users to rely on a frequently congested 3G cellular network.
”In order for our ‘Better than Home’ concept to become reality, we knew we needed a very capable and reliable Wi-Fi network,“ said Andreas Brännström, CEO of SES.
Robert Hedén, regional sales manager for Ruckus Wireless in the Nordics and Baltics, was not surprised that SES chose Ruckus Wireless products, explaining: ”We continue to see our Smart Wi-Fi products deliver better performance over competitive alternatives, offering more coverage and capacity for users with fewer access points needing to be installed by our customers. This results in lower costs and easier installations.“
Lasse Wöien, a project manager at SES who is responsible for the ”Better than Home“ project sums it all up, stating, ”The key to our success was really finding the right Wi-Fi supplier that was as concerned about reliable and fast Wi-Fi connectivity as we were. After an exhaustive supplier search — a process that has taken us nearly one and a half years — we found the only carrier-class Wi-Fi supplier focused on solving this problem, Ruckus. That made our decision easy.“
ABOUT ICECON AB
Icecon AB is a Swedish IT company that started at the turn of 2010-2011 and already has around 65 employees. They are located at five locations in Sweden: Kramfors, Umeå, Luleå, Göteborg and Sundsvall. Icecon is a total IT supplier and with services in operation, infrastructure, systems development, ERP solutions and financing solutions through its own finance company. Icecon works all over Sweden and has extensive experience in advanced solutions based on our partners' products. For more information, visit www.icecon.se.
ChannelFly, Ruckus, Ruckus Wireless, and ZoneFlex are trademarks of Ruckus Wireless, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners.