Australian Turf Club rolls out Wi-Fi network

The Australian Turf Club (ATC) has completed a Wi-Fi network rollout designed to give punters a fast, free Internet service at Sydney's Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick racecourses.

The introduction of Xirrus wireless arrays started in March 2013 at Rosehill Gardens while the Royal Randwick Wi-Fi network was installed as part of the development of the venues new grandstand.

ATC IT Manager Pablo Pelaez told Computerworld Australia that the project has attracted punters who want to use their smartphone or tablet back to the racecourses, stating "we had 50% of the arrays commissioned at that time. Race-goers reported that they were able to download the latest form and betting odds without congestion."

The most visited websites were Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where visitors posted updates and photos about their race-day.

Peleaz added "the system is designed for 50,000 devices and across the two sites there are 240 wireless arrays."

The ATC is using Xirrus application control to prioritise applications, such as betting forms, and restrict bandwidth heavy peer to peer traffic, with Pelaez concluding "this application control ensures that we can supply bandwidth to our patrons for using key applications."

Up to 500,000 punters attend races at Rosehill and Randwick every year.

ATC also runs Sydney's Warwick Farm and Canterbury Park racecourses.

Image: Royal Randwick Racecourse.

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