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Quick, hassle-free Internet connectivity for delegates has
quickly become an essential component of most meetings. Whether attendees are in a board
meeting, a training program, or your annual convention, they don't want to be severed from
the Web or their e-mail.
Many hotels and convention centers are now offering a variety of devices that ensure that
your guests are never far from their digital respirators.
In February, Mobile Area Networks, Inc. (407-333-2350) installed in The Sheraton Orlando
North Hotel a wireless Internet system that transmits data at 1.5 megabits per second
(also known as a T1 line). The purpose of this communications service is to make it easy
for hotel guests to connect to the Internet ... without having to attach telephone lines
to their computers.
To use this wireless system, a hotel guest inserts a PCMCIA card into his or her notebook
computer. (A PCMCIA card is about the size of a credit card.) Once you put this card into
your laptop, two small antennae pop up and transmit a signal to transceivers that are
hidden in ceiling tiles throughout the hotel. As you move your notebook computer
around the hotel, the signal from your antennae simply transmits automatically to the
Nearest transceiver You can even attach a special wireless adapter to desktop PCs that you
use during your meetings.
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A key benefit of this wireless system is
that many of the normal hassles of Connecting to the Internet are avoided.
You don't have to use an Internet service provider, you don't have to order a telephone
phone line in your meeting room, and you don't have to worry about getting an outside
line.
"Wireless systems have other important advantages over wired systems," said Paul
Hart, general sales manager for the Sheraton. "We have had a lot of requests that
would require 50 or 100 phone lines to be dropped. It is very expensive. With this
wireless system, we can provide any number of units that are requested."
For example, let's say that you were conducting a training session and each of your
attendees needed an Internet connection. The normal approach is to either order a separate
telephone line for each participant or to connect all the computers to a network that is,
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in turn, connected to the Internet. Both
options are time-consuming and expensive. With a wire-less Internet system, on the other
hand, all you have to do is plug in a PCMCIA card into each notebook computer and run
configuration software.
The formal launch of this wireless system took place in August 1998. At that point,
Internet access was available on just the first floor of the Sheraton, including the
lounge, meeting space, restaurant, and pool deck. The second stage, which began in
September, offers wireless Internet access from guest rooms as well.
Because the goal is to make connecting to the Internet as easy as possible, arriving
guests pick up their PCMCIA cards with their room keys.
The pricing schedule is $50 per user per day for meetings and $35 per day for hotel
guests.
Doug Fox is a technology editor for
Convene.
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