Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) and the South African Wi-Fi specialist, WirelessG, channel partner  have announced that they have been selected by Ellis Park Stadium, a 62,000-seat outdoor stadium in Gauteng, Johannesburg, to provide high-capacity Smart Wi-Fi www.ruckuswireless.com products and technology for a variety of public access applications. Like other indoor and outdoor stadiums where high-density coverage is critical, Ellis Park will be able to deliver reliable, consistent Wi-Fi performance to thousands of mobile device-toting spectators, once the full implementation has been completed by the end of this year.

Initially, the Main Stand, including coverage in the corporate hospitality suites, will be completed by the 5th October for The Castle Rugby Championships, where South Africa will take on New Zealand.

“Ellis Park have a 600MB fibre connection running into the stadium to facilitate the G-Connect Wi-Fi service and we want to use this to light up the stadium with Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi and the Ellis Park fans and supporters something a little extra when they are watching their favourite teams,” said Carel van der Merwe, CEO of WirelessG.

To deliver the capacity, performance, and reliability needed to cope with the expected numbers of visitors, Ruckus worked closely with WirelessG and their client Ellis Park to understand their requirements and challenges and develop a high-density solution for initial deployment in a short period of time. “The nature of high-density environments, where thousands of simultaneous users must be supported in a confined space, presents a unique set of challenges that conventional, enterprise Wi-Fi systems simply aren’t able to handle,” says Michael Fletcher, sales director for Ruckus Wireless sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, when large numbers of access points (APs) are deployed in close proximity, it creates the potential for interference. Ruckus BeamFlex  adaptive antenna technology is ideally suited to this kind of environment as it enables RF energy to be focused at the user. This increases the signal gain, which provides for a much better user experience. For the installation, Ruckus provided over 80 ZoneFlex  7782 www.ruckuswireless.com outdoor APs with narrow beam antennas, which are especially effective in