Popular Las Vegas Entertainment Destination to Blanket Full Urban Block and 1,000+ Hotel Rooms with High-Speed Wi-Fi and Location Services
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced
that the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino, a boutique hospitality and
entertainment destination in the heart of revitalized downtown Las
Vegas, is using Aruba wireless, wired, security and location services
solutions to bring new services and experiences to its guests and the
surrounding community.
The Downtown Grand has been an Aruba customer for a number of years, but
in 2016, Area Director of IT Erik Gavilanes made a decision to
standardize on Aruba infrastructure when the property began planning for
a major upgrade.
Currently, Aruba Wi-Fi covers the property’s indoor and outdoor spaces,
including the pool deck and a section of 3rd Street that runs
between the Downtown Grand’s buildings, which is the frequent site of
music, art, food and entertainment events. With the upgrade, the Hotel
will install high-speed, location-ready Aruba 802.11ac
Wave 2 APs to transform every hotel room into a “smart room” with
location-based services and IoT capabilities. New APs will also be
installed to provide better coverage, performance and services for their
outdoor spaces. In addition, the Hotel will use all-Aruba solutions in
its new tower scheduled to open in 2020, which will add nearly 500 guest
rooms, bringing the property’s total to 1,100 rooms.
Working with Summit
Partners of Las Vegas, the Downtown Grand has also deployed Aruba network
switches to securely connect the property’s IP surveillance cameras,
Aruba AirWave
for wired and wireless network management, and Aruba ClearPass
for simple-to-use guest Wi-Fi.
“Wi-Fi is a necessity for any hotel to stay competitive, particularly in
Las Vegas,” said Gavilanes. “With Aruba, we have the added benefits of
using access points that are location-ready, and include built-in BLE
beacons, and extra ports that allow us to plug in other IoT devices in
the rooms without running additional cabling.” He added, “Location-based
services are very important for us, as they can be used to enhance our
staff's and guests’ physical security, as well as deliver a wealth of
new guest services options.”
Because Aruba’s solutions are built on an open, multi-vendor platform,
Gavilanes said the integration with the Hotel’s existing systems, as
well as those they plan to adopt in the future, is simple and
cost-effective.
Gavilanes and his team are also relying on Aruba AirWave to help in the
design and construction phase of the upgrade, utilizing AirWave’s
VisualRF tool to determine where the new APs should be installed. Once
the AP count has reached the expected 1,300 across the property’s indoor
and outdoor areas, he expects to use AirWave for optimization and
management of the network.
Another crucial piece of the Downtown Grand’s infrastructure upgrade is
Aruba ClearPass. With ClearPass, the IT team can run a customized
captive guest portal that integrates with the Hotel’s property
management system to enable a tiered billing system for hotel guests,
including complementary and premium options. The Hotel is also using
ClearPass to offer non-hotel guests who may be visiting the property –
particularly the outdoor venues during events – free Wi-Fi by using
social media log-in or email.
In the future, Downtown Grand expects to build upon their new Aruba
infrastructure, leveraging ClearPass to unify the wireless and wired
components, and expanding further on the Aruba APs’ location-ready and
IoT capabilities to deliver more smart room functions to hotel guests.
The Hotel foresees integration with HVAC units, lighting and temperature
controls, and even door locks to enable truly smart rooms that could be
prepared and customized for a guest at the moment of check-in.
Said Gavilanes, “It’s an exciting time to be in hospitality and there
are many new technologies that will impact our guests’ experience. We
want to be on the forefront of as many of those as possible.”
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a leading provider of
next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes
worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organizations
to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on
cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal
lives.
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
.
Kathleen Keith
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1-707-529-4507
kathleen.keith@hpe.com
or
Sarah Goodwin
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1 650-236-7233
sarah.goodwin@hpe.com