Case Study: Royal College of Music achieves reliable, campus‑wide Wi‑Fi with half the APs using RUCKUS Networks ZoneFlex Smart Mesh

London's Royal College of Music Makes Wi-Fi Sing with Smart Mesh Networking and 802.11n

Founded in 1882, London’s Royal College of Music is a leading conservatory serving over 600 students and 300 staff across several historic, brick-and-concrete buildings. Facing growing numbers of Wi‑Fi devices, poor coverage from standalone APs, and the challenge of providing stable, centrally managed wireless without extensive new Ethernet cabling, RCM needed reliable connectivity, simple administration, native Active Directory authentication and dynamic RF management.

RCM deployed a Ruckus ZoneDirector 1050 with a mix of ZoneFlex APs (19 802.11g and 6 802.11n) and Smart Mesh Networking to cover both the main Kensington facility and a remote residence hall over a high‑speed fiber backbone. The mesh-enabled solution halved the number of APs required versus comparable systems, enabled plug-and-play installation, seamless roaming, automatic interference avoidance and native AD authentication, and delivered significantly improved performance and simplified centralized management.

Royal College of Music

Kevin Ward

Network Engineer, Royal College of Music