volume 2 issue 5 2009 - Mobile Production Pro

pm featureWANetics
A Life Long Passion
“No problem,” said our Production
Manager Ed Hobson as he unplugged the
phone line and jacked it into his laptop,
“but this is gonna take a while… why don’t
you guys go to lunch.”
feature
Janet Rogers & How WANetics Came To Be
By Mike Wharton
Back in 1995, I was on a tour showcasing the new
Martin PAL (mirror based automated light similar to the
Cyberlight). Other than a few hardware glitches with them
during rehearsal, things went fairly well. Bob Looney, the
lighting designer, was happy with the show our programmer
Brian Beck had in the HOG 2. We loaded out and headed
to our first show. During focus the next day, “software“ issues
arose and after a few calls it was determined that we
needed to download some information to update the HOG.
The internet was in it’s infancy at the time
(as was the HOG 2), and I was amazed that
we could fix a problem on the road through
a telephone line, no matter how long that
download took.
Janet Rogers, CEO of WANetics, has
been instrumental in the development and
deployment of methods to “fix a problem
over a phone line” since 1994.
As one of the founders of InfoRamp, its
Chief Technology Officer and a significant
stockholder, she worked with a group of
internet marketing professionals in the
Chicago area. Around 2000, InfoRamp
merged with ANET, where Rogers became
the Chief Operating Officer. By 2003 the
decision was made to sell ANET. Once
that deal closed and all the shareholders
were paid off, there was a bit of money
left over. She and a couple core members
from ANET realized they still had to make
a living.
“So,” Rogers said, “We decided to put
the band back together. We took our past
experience and applied it to what we saw
as the hottest segment of the market, voice
over IP (Internet Provider) which was in
transition over traditional phone service,
and that’s how the current incarnation of
WANetics came about.”
The WAN in WANetics stands for Wide
Area Network. It is a network that connects
together multiple networks of two or more
geographically distinct sites. It is very
similar to the internet; an interconnection
of multiple networks. A hosted phone
system is virtually a phone system in the sky
as opposed to your typical phone system
in the closet of an office space. All the
features are moderated off premise then
delivered via an internet connection.
During its internet years from the mid 90s
to 2004, Roger’s team had established its
services in practically all Chicago’s major
venues including Soldier Field, Allstate
Arena, and Alpine Valley. Through this
association as the venue provider, the
company was often called upon for special
projects to service various touring needs.
above: Peter Kornas – Field Services, Chris
Nibeck - Engineering, Louisa Keefe – Customer
Service, David Bauman – CTO & co-founder,
Randy Rogers – Sales Engineer, Janet Rogers –
CEO & co-founder, Paul Dault – Sales
The Dave Mathews Band was one of its
first major clients. On its 2000 tour it was
at Soldier Field and had contracted with
a local telephone company to install a
dedicated line for its productions offices.
The company had failed to provide the line
as contracted and at the 11 th hour Janet
and her team were asked to come in and
fix the problem, which they did gaining
DMB’s loyalty .
“At that first DMB show, I definitely caught
a buzz when I saw what they were doing.”
Rogers recalls, “I remember how impressed
I was with the size of it all, talking to their
IT guy, telling him, ‘Wow, I really like what
you’re doing here, it’s so cool.’ This was
back when bands didn’t have IT guys; he
was one of the first people doing it. He
looked at me and he says, ‘NO, NO, I don’t
think you’d think that at all if you were out
here doing it. 46 year old guys should not
be sleeping on boxes.’”
“When we sold the internet company
we had this sort of ‘box within a box’ of
special entertainment business within the
internet business.”
This “box within a box” had its beginnings
during Rogers' years at North Point
University.
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