Woodstock Early Birds may have noted this device affixed to the Village Green Chamber of Commerce Booth. It looks like it could launch the booth in space shuttle style if a green button is pushed within some subterranean ops center beneath Mt. Tom.
Here’s what it is: In non-technical terms, it is simply a “repeater” device for Wireless Woodstock’s Wi-Fi network. We spoke to Townsend Belisle of Wireless Woodstock who explains this device and location is simply temporary while Village Trustees consider its usefulness and location.
Belisle says the CISCO device makes Wireless Woodstock’s signal “more robust” and does not expand the range of the signal any further. The source signal comes from the Norman Williams Public Library and there are various “access points” installed around the Village.
Last June, Woodstock Early Bird witnessed a bit of an unfortunate “FAIL” during a session on the Village Green that was part of the Green Mountain Digital Media Festival. A session on using a particular “app” was stymied when I-Phone users could not get enough bandwith to open the app.
With the summer comes more visitors and festivals to the Village and the intent — from the perspective of Wireless Woodstock — is to provide more access for those seeking internet connection via wireless technology. In particular, we suspect that the Green Mountain Digital Media Festival participants are likely to experience “SUCCESS” as a result of this technology being made available.
One does hope that the Chamber sign is strong enough to withstand the apparent weight and complexity of the “access point”….Good luck and good surfing. We’ll let you know if the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce has any plans for a shed “launch”…Now, that would be something!
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 