Cristiano Ronaldo’s Hotel Chooses Cambium Networks

The Pestana CR7 Marrakech is the brand’s fourth hotel, established after the hotels in Funchal, Lisbon, and Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo himself called it “the most exciting hotel
of them all.” It has 174 rooms, 80% of which are suites, and 2 restaurants. The hotel is also very much wellness-oriented, offering a spa and a fitness center. Finally, a business center with five fully equipped rooms is available for work meetings and all kinds of professional events. The Pestana CR7 brand focuses on absolute digital comfort and is equipped with the most modern technologies.
IT Hospitality Group operates all across Africa and the Middle East through 13 offices and service centers in Kenya, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, and Ivory Coast. It is the only IT integrator to offer pan-African coverage and service to its partners and customers. The missions of IT Hospitality Group’s teams is to design, integrate, combine, and support wired and wireless services and infrastructure for hotel groups in the Middle East and Africa. By providing the best and highest-quality infrastructure, IT Hospitality Group’s customers can in turn offer their own customers the full power of the latest technologies and support and ever-increasing number of connected devices and bandwidth usage.

Challenge
THE PESTANA CR7 MARRAKECH is a high-end establishment. For this reason, it must give its customers all the services they can expect to make them feel welcome, comfortable, and taken care of throughout their stay. One of guests’ main requirements is a fast, reliable Internet connection. In today’s connected world, it is essential to give
people easy and efficient access to their everyday leisure apps (social media, streaming platforms, and messaging).
Workspaces and meeting rooms must also provide professionals with the means to connect to their companies, customers, and partners at all times and in all situations. It is also vital for visitors — whether workers or tourists — to remain connected without any service disruption, wherever they are within the site.

Solution
“THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IS A SECTOR we know particularly well,” says Olivier Hénnion, Managing Director of IT Hospitality Group. “We’ve been working with the main hotel chains on the African continent for many years. We’ve developed the expertise that now enables us to cater precisely to the specific constraints of this market by offering
proven, reliable Wi-Fi infrastructure solutions.”
To meet the requirements of the Pestana CR7, IT Hospitality Group’s team selected Wi-Fi solutions from Cambium Networks. “Approximately 130 E430s (wall plate access points) were installed in the rooms and suites, providing WiFi connectivity and IPTV broadcasting. The lobby, corridors, restaurants, and bar are equipped with 40 E410s. The terraces and pool area are covered by E500 outdoor access points,” says Olivier Hénnion. “Finally, the meeting rooms feature E600 high-density access points. The whole solution is administered using cnMaestro cloud management.”
“In order to provide an efficient technical service while ensuring close proximity to customers, we decided to work with our Moroccan partner HPN on this project,” says Frédéric Van Lennep, MEA Business Development Director of IT Hospitality Group. “First, we conducted the site survey to accurately define the locations of the access points
and models to be installed. The site survey was handled by HPN’s teams, who did the wiring, LAN infrastructure, and physical installation of the access points. Then we configured the infrastructure and handled its acceptance.”
“This way of working is highly effective because it provides the end customer with a local resource to carry out level-1 support operations,” explains Frédéric Van Lennep. “We stay on as a backup for procedures that require greater technical skills.”

Results
AFTER A SERIES OF SUCCESSFUL TESTS, including the implementation of a captive portal for marketing operations, the Pestana CR7 Marrakech has been operating for almost a year. It was one of the first hotel sites in Morocco to be equipped with a Wi-Fi solution from Cambium Networks. “The growth of the Marrakesh hotel area gives us hope that other establishments will be inspired by this experience for their future projects!” Olivier Hénnion adds.