Author: Vladan Jevremovic

iBwave might be celebrating its 10-year anniversary but it has nevertheless experienced a series of exciting firsts this year.

Earlier in March, it took the wireless market by storm when it introduced (as part of the Mobile World Congress that took place in Barcelona, Spain) iBwave Mobile Planner, the very first in-building app that simplifies the design and planning process for indoor Small Cell and Wi-Fi networks.

A mere few months later, it earned international industry recognition, winning its first “Small Cell Tool Design and Technology Innovation” award jointly with Vodafone (as part of the Small Cells Word Summit that took place in London, U.K).

More recently, it continued the momentum that has been generated across Europe and launched its very first European User Group in Munich, Germany! All this in the space of 9 months! Pretty impressive track record of success, wouldn’t you agree?

ABOUT TIMING AND LOCATION

When it comes to iBwave’s first European User Group, one might wonder about the importance of the right timing (why now?) and location (why Munich?).

Well, with the deployment of LTE increasing rapidly throughout Europe, we felt that the time was ripe for us to take the next step and play an active role in paving the way for a stronger and more united European wireless community.

We also knew from our daily interactions with our customers that there was a strong appetite from the leading industry players to learn, exchange knowledge, ideas and best practices as well as a real need to have a forum where they could voice their views and, together, help shape the future of the industry.

Speakers from Cisco, Orange, KPN, TE connectivity, Axell Wireless and subnet comparing the different stages of development of the in-building industry in the USA and Europe, and raising the debate between Small Cells and DAS

As for the location, the Bavarian capital made it the perfect location to have our first European User Group (our very own “In-Building Novemberfest”!)

Recognized for its world’s largest beer festival, the city boasts exceptional infrastructure, a high proportion of modern industries and has established itself as Germany’s undisputed technology leader. Geographically speaking, it is also located in Central Europe, making it easily reachable from Brussels, Budapest, London, Milan, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Zurich.

Munich is Europe’s Top Tech Hub

Not surprisingly then, our event attracted a diversified audience, with participants coming from all over Europe.

“It was very beneficial to meet other market participants and it gave me insight into the current trends and strategies. It’s really great that iBwave is so passionate and takes initiative to bring us folks together” Ingo Flömer, Axell Wireless.

EUROPEAN-CENTRIC CONTENT AND REAL-LIFE CASES

In addition to their desire for increased networking and collaboration, our attendees appreciated the opportunity to better understand the relevance and impact of our productsand gain first-hand experience of how they are being utilized in the real world.

Lars Jessen from Eltel Networks did a great job at illustrating the pre- iBwave issues that they experienced when their RF technicians had to rely on paper floor plan transcripts and compasses.

“All data and valuable information is now collected with one tool, faster and with less mistakes”

Our participants also commented on the quality and pertinence of:

• Cees Spierenburg’s (KPN) presentation on the wireless network at the Amsterdam Arena, which gave a realistic insight into the design and deployment complexities associated with large stadiums (see Behind the network at Amsterdam Arena video here).
• the real-time demo that showcased our seamless integration with leading collection tools (including Ascom TEMS Pocket) and demonstrated how it streamlines the RF collection process, reduces manual steps and leverages measurements in your designs.

To finish things off on a high note, we concluded the day with a truly Bavarian experience at the Augustiner-Keller restaurant where we all got the chance to relax and know each other a bit better over delicious Bavarian delicacies and local brewed beers!

We would like to thank all our participants for making this first event such a big success! We greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with you face-to-face and hope that you all came away with a wealth of valuable knowledge and ideas.

Vielen Dank and looking forward to many more events like this one in the years to come!

Special congratulations to our winners: Martin Weckerle from Kathrein, Lars Jessen from Eltel Networks, Volken Hinze from Vodafone, Jorg Schwarz from TE connectivity, Oliver Schlesiger from Vodafone, Ingo Flomer from Axell Wireless, Gregg Albrecht from Wireless Telecom Group, Thomas Brautigam from Ericsson, , Rafael Lou Mardones from LS telcom, Thomas Riedl from Kathrein, Martin Scheffel from Vodafone, Pierre-Alexandre Bourguignat from LD Consultants, Lina Deambrogio from Teko Telecom, Vincent Fasquelle from Wireless Telecom Group and Miroslav Plecas from vip.