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VIVATO WI-FI SWITCHES SCORE FOR SPOKANE HOOPFEST
World's Largest Three-on-Three Basketball Tournament Chooses
Vivato to Create 40-Block Wi-Fi Hot Zone
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - June 26, 2003 - In what constitutes
its most expansive deployment to date, Vivato, a wireless infrastructure
company, today announced that Hoopfest, the largest three-on-three
basketball tournament in the world, will use Vivato 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
Switches to blanket the City of Spokane, Wash., with Wi-Fi during
its 2003 event scheduled for June 28-29, 2003.
Vivato will provide six of its flat panel outdoor Wi-Fi switches
to Hoopfest, which will host over 6,200 teams on 400 basketball
courts in Spokane city streets during the two-day event. Hoopfest
is using Itronix Wi-Fi GoBook Q-100 PocketPCs to relay scores to
a central, secure Web site from 30 locations among courts. Players
and fans can register at www.spokanehoopfest.net in advance of the
competition to receive real-time tournament scores on their mobile
phones via SMS. As an added benefit, the hot zone created for Hoopfest
will provide free Wi-Fi access throughout the 40-block area of downtown
Spokane for the weekend.
"The role of technology in producing an exciting, high-quality
outdoor event the magnitude of Hoopfest is increasingly important,"
said Tom Heavey, technology manager for Hoopfest. "Vivato's
Wi-Fi switches allow us to quickly deploy a wireless local area
network that covers the whole of downtown Spokane."
Vivato's unique phased array antenna and switching electronics
are integrated into a single flat panel, which can support standard
802.11b Wi-Fi devices at a range of up to four kilometers outdoors.
The six Vivato switches will be mounted on the rooftops of the KHQ
TV station tower, The Spokane Club, the Spokesman-Review newspaper
building and Spokane City Hall, with backhaul to the wired network
provided by 180 Networks (www.go180.net).
"The range of the Vivato Wi-Fi switch is amazing," said
Joel Hobson, technical services manager for the City of Spokane.
"You can get a wireless connection virtually anywhere in downtown
Spokane. The City of Spokane and its citizens have benefited greatly
from partnerships with local technology firms such as Vivato and
look forward to growing these relationships."
"This is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the amazing
range that Vivato's switches achieve outdoors," said Ken Biba,
Vivato CEO, chairman and co-founder. "We are thrilled to participate
in this great community event."
About Vivato
Vivato is the inventor and first manufacturer of Wi-Fi switches
for enterprises and service providers designed to enable high bandwidth
Wi-Fi wireless networks everywhere: in the enterprise, across campuses
and throughout metropolitan areas. Vivato is headquartered in San
Francisco with a research and development center in Spokane, Wash.
For more information, please visit www.vivato.net or call 415.495.1111.
About Hoopfest
Spokane Hoopfest Association is a nonprofit and tax-exempt organization
under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Hoopfest has
brought basketball to the streets of downtown Spokane since 1990,
and has grown to become the largest 3-on-3 street basketball tournament
in the world with a record setting 6,200 plus teams expected in
2003. More information is available at www.spokanehoopfest.net or
call 509.624.2414 x11
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