State Fair Park in Oklahoma City Upgrades to 802.11ac,
Employs New Mobile App for Vendors and Visitors of its 200 Annual Events
Aruba Networks, an HP company, (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that the 435
acre State Fair Park (SFP) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is using Aruba’s
Gigabit wireless infrastructure to bring high-speed mobility to over two
million visitors and vendors of the approximately 200 events it manages
each year.
SFP is using a full suite of Aruba solutions including the ClearPass
Policy Management platform, which provides secure authentication and
onboarding of mobile devices for SFP’s employees, vendors and guests, as
well as the Meridian
Mobile App Platform for SFP’s new mobile app, launched in September
of 2014.
SFP is a 21st Century tourism destination, best known for the
Oklahoma State Fair. It also acts as a Large Public Venue (LPV) that
hosts numerous events each week for a wide variety of vendors and their
visitors. SFP is a significant contributor to Oklahoma City’s economy,
generating more than $300 million in direct spending for the city.
SFP’s previous infrastructure, which combined multiple, disparate
systems, wasn’t conducive to mobility and couldn’t keep up with the
needs of the organization. For internal operations, SFP needed to allow
employees to remain productive as they move throughout the
organization’s 435 acres and 28 structures. SFP also needed reliable
wireless connectivity to enable the ticket office to scan tickets at the
gates, allow food service operations to conduct Point-of-Sales (PoS)
transactions and connect guard shacks for security operations. SFP’s
event vendors and visitors were also increasingly demanding reliable,
high-speed wireless connectivity and the organization’s previous system
required visitors to walk to the SFP offices to obtain an access code
for the network, which was both inefficient and inconvenient for the
guests.
Working with partner, RFIP, Inc., of Oklahoma City, SFP evaluated a
number of solutions and ultimately, selected Aruba Networks for a
complete network upgrade. SFP deployed Aruba’s
220 Series indoor and 270 Series outdoor 802.11ac access points, the 7200
Series Mobility Controllers, Mobility
Access Switches, AirWave
network management and the ClearPass Policy Management platform. The
organization also implemented Aruba’s Meridian Mobile App platform to
create the Oklahoma State Fair App, which gives visitors State Fair Park
information and enhanced capabilities including navigation to direct
them to areas of interest such as concessions.
“With our new Aruba infrastructure, we now have reliable, high-speed
coverage across all of our buildings and a large portion of our grounds
and barn facilities,” said Jason Eddy, VP of Information Technology for
SFP. “Many of the issues we were having went away, public usage of the
network has increased and I rarely get any support calls now.”
Eddy also noted that AirWave is critical for SFP’s one-person IT
department. “While we still have assistance from our partner, RFIP, on
the management front, I use AirWave for visibility into network usage –
to determine if there’s a load on the system, where and how people are
connecting and which devices are being used. I love the visual RF and
being able to quickly log in and see all of the APs and how many devices
are connecting to them, and to detect any rogue APs. AirWave is really
where I spend most of my time.”
ClearPass has also been a crucial tool for securely onboarding and
authenticating devices on the network and in particular, allowing guests
to connect without the inconvenience of obtaining a login code from the
SFP offices. The organization currently offers different levels of
access and different plans for vendors and exhibitors who typically
require access for substantial periods, and for the public who typically
just need access for a few hours.
Future plans include better mobile engagement for visitors. SFP
recognizes the potential of its mobile app to provide visitors with
valuable information, and they are considering the addition of Aruba
Beacons to help deliver more location and contextual information. They
are also evaluating how the combination of ClearPass, the Meridian
Mobile App Platform and Beacons can allow for advertising and push
notifications, specifically as value-add for their vendors.
“A good example of where we could utilize push notifications is the
Oklahoma City Home and Garden Show,” said Scott Munz, VP of Marketing
and Public Relations for SFP. “It’s managed by a national company that
does Home and Garden Shows across the country and has hundreds of
vendors. It would be great if one of their vendors could push
notifications out to visitors as they enter the specific building where
the vendor is located, offering 10 percent off all purchases if they
come in and buy within a specific timeframe. That’s just one example of
where we can take the mobile app now that we have the Aruba
infrastructure in place.”
In late Spring 2016, SFP also plans to open a new 290,000-square foot
Expo Center which will include just over 200,000 square feet of
contiguous floor space, as well as kitchen and catering facilities, a
lobby, box office and meeting rooms. According to Munz, the new building
will allow SFP to house a new level of tradeshows and flat-floor shows.
The building is already under construction and SFP plans to expand their
current Aruba network into the new space.
“Ultimately, we want to provide a state-of-the-art experience at State
Fair Park,” said Munz. “To do that, we need to provide specific
amenities and meet certain expectations. The Aruba infrastructure has
definitely delivered the foundation we need to accomplish this. By
providing high quality Wi-Fi, ensuring secure device onboarding and
offering better engagement through the mobile app, we’re well on our way
to achieving our goals.”
About Aruba Networks, an HP company
Aruba Networks, an HP company, is a leading provider of next-generation
network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs
and delivers Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and
#GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their
mobile devices for every aspect of work and personal communication. To
create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba
Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance
optimization and trigger security actions that used to require manual IT
intervention. The results are dramatically improved productivity and
lower operational costs.
To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter
and Facebook,
and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products
visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
© 2015 Aruba Networks, an HP company. Aruba Networks’ trademarks
include Aruba Networks®, Aruba The Mobile Edge Company® (stylized),
Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™, Aruba Mobility Management System®,
People Move Networks Must Follow®, Mobile Edge Architecture®,
RFProtect®, Green Island®, ETips®, ClientMatch®, Virtual Intranet AccessTM,
ClearPass Access Management SystemsTM, Aruba
InstantTM, ArubaOSTM,
xSecTM, ServiceEdgeTM,
Aruba ClearPass Access Management SystemTM,
AirmeshTM, AirWaveTM,
Aruba CentralTM, and ARUBA@WORKTM.
All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Aruba Networks, an HP company
Pavel Radda, +1-408-419-0294
Director of Corporate Communications
pradda@arubanetworks.com
or
LSH Communications for Aruba Networks, an HP company
Lori Hultin, +1-818-879-4651
Principal
lhultin@arubanetworks.com