So I wanted to do a quick little physical comparison between two wall-plate style Access Points. I think this market is pretty open, maybe not so much for greenfield projects, but this fits in a nice place for the brownfield folks.  Lots and lots of hotels need wireless access. And I think cost is a huge factor. If you have people paying $50 to $600 a night for a room you want excellent wireless connectivity. That might be hard for the hotels/motels that have been around for 30+ years. Hence why I think wall-plate APs are a very good fit. And, it goes well with “don’t put the APs in the hallways” chant.

So I have an AP from two different folks, one from UBNT: AC IN-WALL and the Cisco Meraki MR30H. (I think the MR30H sounds like MR38, should be renamed to MRH30)

Now this is just a physical comparison, nothing about performance, setup etc… or any other metrics have been done yet. I just wanted to show what they look like and because I think these units fit two different needs, and I’ll explain that thought a little down the road.

Alright, picture time. (UBNT is the smaller of the two)

They are roughly about the same size, however the MR30H is much heavier. If you tossed it in your backpack–you’d know.

For thickness they are roughly the same. One thing that is interesting about the UBNT is how it mounts. The AP is actually inside a plastic mounting “case”. You can see the little plastic push part at the top that you press to remove the top half cover. The back half is then mounted to your wall or junction box, or whatever. The AP has a couple screws to secure it to the back cover, then the front cover snaps on. It’s actually pretty difficult to pop off, a few times I thought it was going to break by the amount of force I was using on it. I would say it’s pretty secure–but if you are determined to get into it, well whatever, you’ll get into it.

The MR30H has a metal bracket that is mounted, then the AP connects to that, you have to use a special tool to release a little bracket, then the AP tilts off the bracket. I think this is a little harder to remove, because you need a specialized tool.  But you’ll need a screwdriver to remove the UBNT unit from the back cover too.  So bottom line is—for maintenance, a tool is needed. Not really a big deal.

And here is the UBNT unit…

And as for what comes in the box, MR30H has more, typical foam/sponge(Meraki does this with other products) that holds all the little screws etc, normal docs and mounting plate.

The UBNT is very minimal also, tiny little bag of a few screws and a little folded install, setup guide.

I mentioned early, I think these fit two different areas. On one hand, you could install a couple UBNT vs. one MR30H. What does that mean? Well, it’s the price. List price on UBNT is just under 100 US Dollars and the other is around 400.  Now, the MR30H does have four network ports. Personally I can’t remember the last time in five years I plugged into a hotel network port. But then again, my hotel stays have been in large metro areas. Good thing they do have networks ports though, as I always see some type of IP phone in the hotel room. Lets say one CAT cable is ran, you then have an AP and IP telephony. Cool.

Also, one requires a “cloud license” and the other a “controller” of some type.  If you’re reading this blog, then you know how one operates. But, the other can do local, cloud, or a hybrid controller. I think UBNT is fitting the perfect need of the smaller hotel/motel. As you know you need wireless access, but how? And, budget is a huge deal. Maybe you only have 75 or less rooms? If your facility is older, you probably have cinder block walls which equals nice attenuation. So you do one AP per room, drop the power or do whatever(but seriously though, do a predictive model–if you can).

So basically this is it, you just became a little more familiar on some wall-plate Access Points.