Why Boston, New York and Chicago marathon organizers lean heavily on the capabilities and know-how of Versatile Communications, Inc.

Marathons are big business. With tens of thousands of paying participants, hundreds of thousands of onsite spectators, international media attention and lucrative sponsorship programs, they often rival large enterprises in revenue potential and community impact. Their networking needs also equal those of enterprise corporations. For the Boston Marathon, ING New York City Marathon and Bank of America Chicago Marathon— three of the World Major Marathons—event success is reliant on data and communications networks that feature high availability, rock solid security and precise performance. Adding to the challenge is a dubious timeline that requires the networks to be built from the ground up in six days or less. So far, only one company has hit such a stride: Versatile Communications, Inc.

SUCCESSFUL EDUCATION SOLUTIONS FROM VERSATILE:

Bennington College, Bennington Vermont

Using a combination of HP ProCurve ProVision-based ASIC LAN switches and access points to support the latest wireless standard, 802.11n, Versatile engineers replaced the entire Bennington College networking infrastructure. By using this combination, Bennington College will see a dramatic upgrade in both the wired and wireless capabilities of their network. In order to have the lowest impact on end users, this work was performed during the 2009 winter break. In addition to the complete redesign of the network, Versatile’s MASE-level engineers performed a complete 802.11n wireless site survey and deployment utilizing the Airmagnet site survey suite, ensuring proper wireless coverage.

HP & VERSATILE SUCCESS AT THE CHICAGO MARATHON

The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, now the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is a cornerstone of the Chicago sports scene and one of the largest spectator and tourist events in the city. In recent years, friends and families have been able to follow their runners' progress in real time as the race winds through 15 unique Chicago neighborhoods. In addition, broadcast and print journalists covering the marathon's elite runners can view instantaneous, sophisticated split analysis of the top contenders throughout the race. The technology providing the window into this massive, spread-out event runs on a temporarily set-up network from ProCurve Networking by HP. A combination of wired and wireless capabilities delivers the performance, reliability and security required for this high-profile event.

RACE DAY NETWORK CREATION AT BOSTON MARATHON FEATURING VERSATILE COMMUNICATIONS

The story of the Boston Marathon's HP "Race Day Network" begins in 1996, when in commemoration of the Marathon's 100th running, the Boston Athletic Association sought to further enhance the prestige of its premier event by aggressively using technology to provide instantaneous, real time results through the web to the media and ultimately the public. Over the last eight years, the Marathon has continuously evolved and expanded its network to enhance the media coverage of the race and ensure accuracy of timing and scoring. The "Race Day Network" for this high profile, annual event is a daunting task that must be set up in just six days. With no margin or time for error, security, perform-ance, and reliability were vital considerations when selecting the enterprise networking solution. "When we were reviewing the offerings of other networking vendors, ease of set-up and reliability were our primary concerns," said Kevin Meany, network manager for the Boston Marathon and director of technology operations for Ver-satile Communications, Inc.