Got WiFi? That’s a question Magic Waters WaterPark (7820 N Cherry Vale Mall Dr, Cherry Valley, IL) asked itself in response to growing consumer demand for public WiFi accessibility. The award-winning attraction, which is managed by the Rockford Park District, is always a crowd pleasing destination so its desire to provide patrons with free WiFi service was a perfect add-on to the park.

James Shaw, Systems Administrator/Communications Specialist for Rockford Park District’s IT division, was tasked with leading the project. The objective, Shaw explains, was to create an additional network throughout the park as a back-up to their aging fiber network.

The installation got underway after the waterpark closed for the 2013 season. The mesh network was completed in the Fall of 2013, and was put into operation during the Summer 2014 season.

Shaw selected Fluidmesh for this install for a variety of reasons. “We needed a redundant network that could grow and adjust to the constant changes within the waterpark,” he says. “And, the mesh network is also used to provide wireless access throughout using Aerohive Access Points at each mesh hop point.”

THE CONFIGURATION OF THE SYSTEM
The network encompasses Fluidmesh1100 radios arranged in a ring formation throughout the water park with eight hop points.

Each hop point also has an Aerohive AP connected only to the mesh network. Two Fluidmesh Access Points are configured as mesh-ends and both are located at the site?s main Cisco switch.