The world of managed wireless moved a step forward this week at CES as EnGenius Technologies unveiled a new line of wireless gear designed to be managed and to serve a range of customers, from home automation to large businesses.
The nearly 15 year-old EnGenius is a mainstay at CES, as it hopes to use wireless to transform how home computing and automation is done, particularly through techniques such as the Internet of Things.
Why is this important? Wireless is the way that most of us now connect, and helps makes Internet access ubiquitous. EnGenuis is also helping to bring this all to the outside world, hotel pools, outdoor restaurants, as well as throughout the premises.
The new family includes “Layer 2, PoE+ rack-mounted switches and firmware-linked Managed Access Points designed to provide rapidly scalable high-performance wired and wireless networks for Pro A/V and home automation installations and larger deployments for hotels, resorts, sports arenas and stadiums, shopping malls and schools and universities,” the company said.
Some vendors have very different technologies depending on the size of the customer. EnGenius has another approach. While it can be used in the home, scalability is the name of the game for the new EnGenius Neutron Series. These wireless managed EWS switches can start off low, and move to support hundreds of EWS switches.
“Designed for fast deployment and easy management of the EWS family of wireless indoor and outdoor access points, each EnGenius EWS Layer 2 switch is equipped with Gigabit Ethernet ports and supports 802.3at/af PoE for easy deployment of EWS-series access points. The EWS switches provide browser-based configuration and enable centralized management with quick setup of multiple EWS access points,” EnGenius said. “Other features include: 802.1X authentication, access control lists, cluster AP management, visual topology view, map and floor plan view for multi-site management, intelligent diagnostics for access points, and bulk firmware upgrades.”
The hardware is aimed at both consumer installers and service providers. “Our new family of Wireless Management Switches and managed access points is designed to provide solution providers and ProAV installers with a complete, managed wireless network solution to establish or extend the wireless infrastructure in homes and businesses,” said Eric Chen, Product Marketing Manager at EnGenius. “Users can now easily deploy and centrally manage multiple high-power, long-range wireless access points within the building and well beyond its walls to other buildings or over large outdoor areas to provide high-density wireless network access, or to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as video surveillance or HD video streaming applications.”
Wireless Partners
EnGenius is interested in two kinds of partners, OEMs and service providers such as ISPs. On the ISP front, these providers can offer wireless gear to consumers that can extend the services, and the service provider’s business. The opposite can also be true, where the provider can sell the gear, then upsell services on top of it.
On the OEM front, EnGenius offers its wares to partners on a liberal white label basis.
“EnGenius has proven time and again that it's a dependable partner for solutions-driven joint-design, joint-development and manufacturing for companies who want to leverage their own brand and expand their offerings to businesses or consumers. EnGenius electronics solutions under private labels can be found in a number of markets including home automation, home A/V installations, and indoor or outdoor wireless solutions for the hospitality, healthcare, and other business markets,” the company said. “EnGenius Technologies, Inc. will consider any viable opportunity to private label or co-brand any of its products to serve as an Original Equipment Manufacturer or contracted product/solution development partner.”
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
