Air China to Deploy Meru Wi-Fi
09 Sep 2013
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Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 9th, 2013 – Meru Networks® (NASDAQ: MERU), a leader in Wi-Fi networking, today announced that Air China, one of the world’s 10 largest airlines, has deployed a Meru wireless network technology on a number of A330 wide-body jets. The deployment was conducted in conjunction with Meru partner Flight Focus, whose Cabin Inflight Wi-Fi platform integrates Meru technology enabling hundreds of passengers to simultaneously stream HD video directly to their mobile.
The Flight Focus Cabin platform for inflight Wi-Fi and entertainment incorporates the latest and best technologies in terms of both hardware and software. “The Flight Focus PlatformTM integrating Meru virtualized WiFi technology on-board delivers more simultaneous video streams, and at higher quality, than any other on the market. The deployment at Air China illustrates this clearly,” said Ralf Cabos, managing director of Flight Focus. “Historically speaking, and largely, today, when more than 10 or 20 percent of passengers on a commercial airliner start trying to stream video, the experience degrades very quickly. The network just can’t handle the load. This powerful solution changes all of that.”
“The combination of Flight Focus’ open, super light and secure Cabin Inflight Wi-Fi platform, and the high-performance Meru Wi-Fi network technology has enabled us to build our own IFE. We are now able to provide richer entertainment contents to passengers, fulfil the need for cabin-wide HD video streaming, and deliver a much improved user experience,” said the Air China E-project Office. “The ease of installation should help us quickly complete modification of the entire fleet, enabling our passengers to enjoy the service as soon as possible.”
“The Meru RF virtualization has stood the test of time since we first invented and patented it,” said Srinath Sarang, co-founder and general manager of the hospitality business unit at Meru Networks”. The ability to have a Wi-Fi network behave in a deterministic manner like a wired network is one of the hallmarks of the Meru Networks solution. Meru’s RF virtualization delivers plug-and-play deployment and easy capacity expansion for the highest-density, most demanding and harsh environments, such as inside an aircraft. We partnered with Flight Focus to deliver this industry leading solution having built up our expertise in other in-flight and cruise ship deployments around the world.”
The in-cabin wireless network integrates a dual-radio, dual-band, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless access point (AP) with a 3X3:3 MIMO design. Operating over the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands to deliver a maximum data rate of 450 Mbps per radio, it supports streaming video, voice, and other data traffic with superior predictability and reliability.
As a result of the deployment, Air China has become the first Chinese carrier that operates flights with on-board Wi-Fi system. Air China is in the process of upgrading their entire wide body A330 fleet with the system.
About Flight Focus
Flight Focus is a certified provider of leading edge avionics platform solutions for Cockpit and Cabin, and an innovative systems integrator for aircraft connectivity (DOA/POA/MRO from CAAS & EASA). The company designs, develops, manufactures and delivers open computing and communications platform configurations, and integrates versatile 3rd-party applications to enable Connected EFB, as well as Wireless IFE & Connectivity solutions and services.
Flight Focus allows partners to benefit from state-of-the art and ready-made open platform configurations to offer best quality of service as well as enhanced performance in all environments (Android, iOS and Windows 8).
Flight Focus enables airlines to build their own EFB or IFE while reducing their costs (fuel, paper, communications, and operations), enhancing flight safety with real-time connectivity, and creating new communication and entertainment ancillary revenues.
Leveraging its end-to-end vertical integration services from design and in-house certification to technical support and system upgrades, 100+ aircraft are already equipped with the company’s proven technology and turnkey expertise.
For more information visit: www.flightfocus.net.
About Meru Networks
Meru Networks (NASDAQ: MERU) is a market leader in the development of mobile access and virtualized Wi-Fi solutions. Meru’s MobileFLEX wireless architecture addresses the ever-growing need for higher bandwidth and higher client densities. The Meru Identity Manager solution greatly simplifies secure device on-boarding and the company’s unique Context-aware Application Layers enable dedicated channel assignments for specific applications, devices and usage scenarios. Meru customers include Fortune 500 businesses as well as leaders in education, healthcare and hospitality. Founded in 2002, Meru is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Japan. Visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300 for more information.
Meru Networks and Meru are registered trademarks of Meru Networks, Inc. in the United States. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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Press Contact Meru
Wilson Craig
Director of Public Relations
Meru Networks
+1 408 516 6182
wcraig@merunetworks.com
Press Contact Flight Focus
Alexandre BENOIT
Marketing Manager
+ 60 16 36 77 470
alexandre.benoit@flightfos.net
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Twitter: @flightfocus