Xirrus, Inc., the only Wi-Fi “Power-Play” that can replace Ethernet workgroup switches with Wi-Fi as the primary network connection, announced today the deployment of their Wi-Fi Arrays at the Water Gremlin Company’s corporate headquarters consisting of offices, manufacturing, and distribution warehousing.
Water Gremlin Company is a world leader in the design and manufacturing of various recreational products from fishing sinkers to battery terminals. Their 160,000-square-foot facilities in St. Paul, Minnesota, are used to manufacture, store, and distribute products worldwide and operates 24 hours per day with 300 workers. To further increase productivity, Water Gremlin simply wanted a pervasive Wi-Fi network connecting wireless MES (Manufacturing Execution System) Stations tied to their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in order to track all materials and products from manufacturing through shipping.
However, every traditional Wi-Fi architecture they tested failed to meet the cost targets and performance metrics desired to service the 58-year-old facility consisting of multiple cinder block walls, varying ceiling heights, large high voltage die cast machines and 30-foot-high steel shelves filled with pallets of lead products.
“Our Wi-Fi Array distributed architecture was the only solution powerful enough to cover the entire facility, and we did so with only 6 Arrays, rather than 19 traditional access points — and the entire network was up and running in a matter of hours instead of weeks,” said Eric Dean, regional manager and application engineer at Xirrus.
“As a world-class company, our clients expect us to deliver consistent quality through custom engineering, design, and automation,” said Clyde Forsland, IT systems administrator at Water Gremlin Company. “The Xirrus Wi-Fi solution not only provides complete Wi-Fi connectivity, but does it with far fewer devices. We now have a Wi-Fi network that will scale as our demands grow and facilities change.”
About Water Gremlin Company
Water Gremlin Company was founded in 1949, in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, as a supplier of innovative products to the recreational fishing market, such as lead sinkers. Water Gremlin has grown into a designer and manufacturer of products servicing numerous markets, including being the world technological and market leader in lead battery terminals. For more information, please visit www.watergrem.com.
About Xirrus
Xirrus, the leader in high performance Wi-Fi, designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array obsoletes traditional Wi-Fi offerings by integrating 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, and embedded Spectrum Analyzer, providing the performance and security to replace Ethernet workgroup switches with Wi-Fi technology. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Array delivers more range, more coverage, more bandwidth, more throughput, and more intelligence per cable drop than anything else available today — resulting in a solution that uses 75% fewer devices, cabling, switch ports, and installation time compared with any other offering. Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays are ideal for any organization moving towards Wi-Fi as their primary network connection, especially those that must cover large areas, support large user populations, and/or use high bandwidth/throughput applications.