DETROIT— The newly renovated 1,298-room Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center has begun offering wireless computer networking (WiFi) to link guests to each other and to the Internet. With this system, Marriott can link each room to give guests shared e-mail, instant messaging, notes or private networking to their home offices. Meeting managers can use the system to connect multiple laptops by inserting wireless PCMCIA network adaptors. Meeting attendees can then access whiteboard applications, messaging systems, video feeds or other services, or can stay connected while moving from the lobby to the hotels restaurants or other meeting rooms. For an events media center, WiFi means Marriott does not need to run cabling or be concerned with having the correct number of plugs for reporters laptops. The network connects the Detroit Marriotts 70 floors, meeting rooms and lobby/registration areas through a vertical fiber-optic backbone which was installed during the hotels three-year, $100 million renovation. Marriott connects to the Internet via a high-speed T-1 connection. The wireless local area network (LAN) is accessible in the hotels lobby and meeting rooms and, on request, can be extended to guestrooms that are now hard-wired, according to Chuck Day, the hotels At Your Service manager. “Wireless works just like a cabled system linking one piece of equipment such as a laptop to a printer, a server or the Internet, except that its all done with radio waves instead of wiring,” Day explained. “The big advantages of WiFi are that guests can have continuous, cable-free access to their networks, e-mails and the Internet as they move through the hotel. And, if security is an issue, we can easily add measures that protect network traffic,” he said. Marriott will eventually have access points all over the hotel, according to Day.
