City of Thomasville and Sunbelt Expo

Wi-Fi Boosts Tourism and Commerce from City Center to Agriculture Expo

City-of-Thomasville-Sunbelt-Expo-case-study-hero500

Wine connoisseurs, cheese lovers, flower enthusiasts, antique hunters, and history buffs all flock to Thomasville, Georgia. In Thomasville, there are showy treasures, like colorful Victorian homes and a fragrant five-acre rose garden. And there are hidden treasures, like the whimsical Lost Quail scavenger hunt.

City administrators are committed to making Thomasville a great place to visit and live. Especially with technology investments.

Over twenty years ago, the city had the foresight to build a fiber optic network to serve schools, libraries, local businesses and hospitals. Today, Community Network Services (CNS) reaches the whole city with high-speed Internet, television and telecommunications services.

More recently, Thomasville decided it needed a serious Wi-Fi overhaul. “Indoors or outdoors, the existing Cisco Wi-Fi was slow and unreliable,” says Clint Wilkerson, information technology director at city of Thomasville.

Requirements
  • Existing guest Wi-Fi couldn’t handle high-density usage, interference, or coverage over expansive outdoor areas
  • Applications like mobile apps and point of sales were constrained by unreliable Wi-Fi
  • Management complexity and poor performance made it difficult to expand services or strengthen security
Solutions
  • 28 indoor and outdoor Access Points
  • Virtual SmartZone controller
  • Sunbelt Expo
  • ZoneDirector Controller
Benefits
  • RUCKUS® Wi-Fi easily and efficiently covers large outdoor areas and supports big crowds, supporting visitors and vendors in Thomasville’s downtown and the Sunbelt Expo
  • Thomasville IT now has stronger, more granular cybersecurity
  • Sunbelt Expo staff can plan more advanced offerings for exhibitors and create new revenue streams
To learn more about this project:

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