Tech
Ruckus gears up for networking partnership with TGR Haas F1 Team | Computer Weekly
Promising to bring high‑performance, low‑latency networking to one of the world’s most demanding, data‑driven sports environments, Ruckus Networks has entered an agreement to be the Official Networking Partner of the TGR Haas F1 Team.
A stalwart of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship over the past decade, following a points-scoring debut for the US-owned squad at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, the TGR Haas F1 Team boasts over 200 Grand Prix starts.
Founded by industrialist Gene Haas – owner of Haas Automation, claimed to be the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America, with over 80 worldwide outlets – TGR Haas F1 Team is headquartered in Kannapolis, North Carolina, with additional operations in Banbury, England and Maranello, Italy.
Haas is a mainstay of the US motorsport scene, having started his own Nascar team in 2002, and a partnership six years later with champion driver Tony Stewart led to the renamed Stewart-Haas Racing winning two Nascar Cup titles and two Nascar Xfinity championships. Haas’s personal dedication to Nascar continues with his current ownership of Haas Factory Team – running in both the Cup and Xfinity series.
The TGR Haas F1 Team prides itself on being an ambitious Formula 1 challenger, backed by technical partnerships with Scuderia Ferrari and Toyota Gazoo Racing. This, says the team, further underlines its ongoing commitment to excellence and advancement in the sport. The team recently attracted masses of publicity in Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to survive, mainly due to charismatic and mercurial former team principal Guenther Steiner.
Ruckus delivers purpose-driven networks that the company assures offer optimal business outcomes in the most challenging environments of the industries it serves. Other sporting and esports teams and event hosts around the world have partnered with Ruckus to deliver what are described as “high-performing purpose-driven networks critical for success in sport”.
As the Official Networking Partner for TGR Haas F1 Team, Ruckus Networks says it will deliver purpose-driven network services that will help enable trackside, hospitality and factory solutions for the TGR Haas F1 Team. Moreover, it promises to offer “cutting-edge” connectivity across its Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello HQs.
Ruckus says it will also provide critical race day network operations to meet the demands of the pinnacle of motorsport so the racing team can deploy an advanced engineering service.
It adds that Ruckus AI services will enable the TGR Haas F1 Team networks to exceed performance both on and off the track, connecting the team trackside to the factory, securely, with low latency. It will also deliver a high-speed Wi-Fi experience for guests of the TGR Haas F1 Team hospitality suite within the paddock at Formula 1 Grand Prix.
“Strong, reliable connectivity is fundamental to our global operations, and I’m pleased to be working with Ruckus Networks during an important year for the sport,” said Ayao Komatsu, team principal of the TGR Haas F1 Team. “Formula 1 is about speed, efficiency and reliability, and partnering with Ruckus Networks allows us to showcase how our networking solutions perform in one of the most data-intensive environments in the world.”
Bart Giordano, senior vice-president and president at Ruckus Networks, added: “We are expanding our initial partnership to be the official networking partner of the TGR Haas F1 Team, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
“Speed and excellence are synonymous for the team, and we know our purpose-driven networks can meet and exceed the demand for performance in an ultra-competitive environment. Ruckus … AI-driven solutions [offer] a competitive edge that will enhance this partnership. We are excited to have our technology continue to enable their networks, and we cannot wait to support the team in another winning season.”
As part of the partnership, Ruckus Networks branding will adorn the VF-26 car, the driver suits of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, team kit and the TGR Haas F1 Team garage, alongside digital assets.
I first encountered the Freecash app after clicking on a sponsored TikTok video with dubious claims. The advertisement didn’t promote this app by name, rather it showed a young woman expressing her excitement about seemingly getting hired by TikTok at $35 an hour to watch videos on her “For You” page.
When I tapped the link to “order now,” it sent me to a website with TikTok and Freecash logos, featuring a download link for the Freecash app. “Get paid to scroll,” read the site. “Join thousands earning daily by watching TikTok videos and cashing out instantly.”
In the first month of 2026, Freecash has rocketed to popularity among US users. This week it reached the number two position on Apple’s free iOS download charts, nestled between ChatGPT and Gemini. The bump in downloads coincides with a spree of ads promoting the Freecash app.
The app appears to utilize the familiar strategy of offering rewards to users who share their information or complete online tasks. As a child, I remember entering my dad’s email and address into some pop-ups for a free iTunes giftcard, which never shipped us the promised $20 in downloads and likely just clogged his inbox with spam. (Please forgive me.)
While Freecash does actually pay out money to users, it’s not for scrolling social media. The app’s business model is centered around getting new users to play mobile games and then providing the players with monetary rewards. Those promises of direct payments to scroll aimlessly on TikTok sound too good to be true, because they are.
Ben Rathe, a spokesperson for TikTok, says the Freecash ads violate TikTok’s rules barring financial misrepresentation. Rathe says the ads in question were removed, after WIRED reached out, for what the company deemed as deceptive marketing. The social media platform forbids ads designed “to scam individuals out of money or personal data,” according to TikTok’s advertising policies.
The company behind Freecash claims that it did not directly produce the ads that I encountered on TikTok. Rather, the marketing was “generated by third-party affiliate partners,” says Elizaveta Shulyndina, a spokesperson for Freecash’s parent company. “We’re reviewing activity with relevant partners and tightening monitoring.”
Back on my TikTok feed, after I tapped on that first sponsored post, the barrage of boosted videos promoting Freecash grew incessant. A post with over 150,000 likes showed a mom and her young son traveling to the store together, because she could buy her “son whatever he wants now that I’m paid to watch TikTok.” Other sponsored videos showed more people enthusiastic about the amount of cash they are getting paid to scroll TikTok.
It’s not clear if the women and children appearing in the TikTok ads are actually the people promoting Freecash. Many of the ads originated from TikTok accounts with minuscule followings or accounts with zero other publicly viewable videos.
When I finally downloaded the app, rather than immediately finding ways to receive some kind of kickback for scrolling on TikTok, I was directed to download multiple mobile games, like Monopoly Go and Disney Solitaire.
Then, I was finally given the option to complete challenges in a limited amount of time to earn money. The Monopoly Go challenges included cash rewards ranging from $0.01, for playing the game for two minutes each day, to $123, for reaching level 300 in less than three months.
The company behind Freecash, called Almedia, is based in Berlin. Almedia operates the Freecash app as an advertising platform that matches mobile game developers with new users who not only install the apps but will also spend money.
Human understanding and interactions lean heavily on our experiences with the real world that we are most used to and perfectly suited for. However, skill levels in interacting with digital information are a different issue, and various segments of the population feature widely different degrees of knowledge of how to use digital devices and content.
Comprehensively multisensory engagements marry extended reality (XR) and in real life (IRL) to create genuinely immersive experiences that allow us to perceive them as a true amalgamation of virtual and real worlds. They can also find use to create inclusive interactions for users whose disabilities can make it difficult to access commonplace computing technologies.
Truly multisensory environments require comprehensive technology approaches to address a variety of senses. This requirement creates new opportunities for developers of devices and applications, but also faces substantial hurdles for technological reasons, cost considerations and consumers’ readiness to engage with such environments. Many researchers and developers are taking up the challenge, and are working on a wide range of offerings to address human senses in more comprehensive ways than current applications allow for.
Multisensory technologies are under investigation to expand the ways individuals can interact with digital and virtual applications. Multisensory interfaces and environments have been research and development topics for a long time. Olfactory, haptics and tactile interfaces are available, and even wind- and temperature-interface efforts exist.
Currently, these types of interfaces are relegated to niche applications or small market pockets. But virtual environments and novel technology approaches could result in diffusion of such applications to a wider range of users. Technological, cost and adoption issues exist, but first steps in creating multisensory engagements are under way.
Multisensory environments serve users by connecting in natural ways with virtual information and elements. But companies also can leverage multisensory approaches to create more meaningful – and impactful – connections with consumers and customers.
Paul Silcox, executive creative director at FutureBrand, a brand strategy and design company, believes that from gesture control to in-store design, and mixed, virtual and extended reality, “multisensory marketing is here to stay”. And a crucial aspect of multisensory engagement is the opportunity to make brands and products stand out in a world of visual overload.
Sound and scents for brands
Sonic branding has been around for some time. After more than a quarter-century in use, Intel’s sound logo – the “Intel Inside” musical notes – is perhaps the example that comes to mind most readily. The logo manages to reach consumers if their eyes are focused somewhere else, or even if they are in a different room when watching TV, for example.
Sonic engagement is not new, but there are many more approaches emerging. Recently, a number of experimental sound applications have been launched, and there are many more senses brands – and applications – can make use of.
Smell is another sense that brands frequently leverage. Hotels, shops and entire franchises use scents to evoke a branded experience. Mood Media, an experiential media company, for example, helps clients to create emotional connections with scent marketing. The company is also working with immersive audiovisual solutions, “connecting physical and digital with integrated media for a seamless customer journey”.
For some showings of the movie Heretic, entertainment company A24 partnered with Joya Studio, which researches, develops and produces fragrances and scented objects. During a pivotal scene in the film, selected screenings featured scents that were pumped into the auditorium.
Silcox highlights super-additivity as an important aspect of multisensory branding. Engaging multiple senses simultaneously “is exponentially more powerful than the sum of their individual effects”.
Despite clear benefits, he also points to challenges – challenges that will apply to the entire category of XR-enhanced environments as they become more common. Just randomly embedding sensory effects will not result in desired outcomes – instead, developers will need to focus on “defining individual sensorial assets and bringing them together as a powerful suite for a clear purpose”.
Excitement about multisensory engagements will inevitably lead to designers bundling a smorgasbord of technologies simply because they can. But “it’s important to show restraint and use these tools in deliberate ways in order to avoid an empty, gimmick effect”.
Venues as experiential landscapes
Perhaps expectedly, music venues and events are exploring the use of multisensory sensations to increase the entertainment value. Since the autumn of 2023, the Sphere close to Las Vegas, Nevada, has established a showcase in modern entertainment.
The giant spherical venue features advanced sound systems such as directional sound and virtual acoustic environments, as well as many motion and environmental technologies. The costs were also tremendous, with a price sticker of more than $2bn, providing an understanding of how high the hurdles for wide diffusion are.
However, according to Brian Mirakian, senior principal at Populous, a design firm that focuses on the creation of experiential environments: “Tomorrow’s concerts are more than just performances; they are moments that immerse audiences in environments that engage all five senses, transforming live shows into unforgettable, multi-sensory journeys.”
He adds that “advancements in technology are enabling venues to integrate sensory elements” that require a design and planning process that can be challenging to translate to the many types of venues artists perform in.
Mirakian also cautions that the introduction of advanced technologies, including scents, motion and wind, comes with additional considerations. Creating immersive experiences “necessitates fine-tuning, a process that requires the expertise of those who know the venue to meld the artist’s vision with the venue’s specifications”.
Touch and go on haptics
There exist a wide range of interface technologies, such haptics and selected interfaces, and an obvious market exists for gaming applications, but there are challenges to expanding the use of haptic sensations to create immersive environments in real-world locations that add digital experiences. Marrying haptic sensations of digital interfaces meaningfully with real-world situations and activities is not a trivial task. Nevertheless, new applications are slowly emerging.
“As digital devices evolve, we’re at an exciting inflection point, with the likes of gaming consoles, headphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers and headsets incorporating more features, which will allow brands to develop truly immersive experiences,” says FutureBrand’s Silcox.
FutureBrand created a haptic logo for Mastercard, which uses distinctive haptic vibrations combined with a sonic logo to let customers feel their smartphones when shopping online or paying at shops’ payment terminals with the firm’s credit cards.
Meanwhile, researchers at Northwestern University developed a wearable device to create a “sophisticated variety of haptic sensations”. The device connects wirelessly to VR headsets or smartphones and offers the sensations of “vibrations, stretching, pressure, sliding and twisting”.
The device has a small form factor, attaches to the skin, and can easily be worn on the move. The researchers “envision their device eventually could enhance virtual experiences, help individuals with visual impairments navigate their surroundings, reproduce the feeling of different textures on flat screens for online shopping, provide tactile feedback for remote health care visits, and even enable people with hearing impairments to ‘feel’ music”.
The researchers also mention the use in applications where touch supports users with visual or hearing impairments, and other companies are focusing on related applications. OneCourt has developed a device that enables tactile sports broadcasts. The device resembles a tablet that outlines the game courts, and is described as “transforming gameplay into trackable vibrations”. The entrepreneurs created the offering to help visually impaired sports fans experience games.
Jerred Mace, the CEO and founder of OneCourt, says: “We’ve essentially developed a laptop-sized haptic display that’s capable of communicating dynamic information like sporting events through touch.”
The device is focused on sporting events, but similar services may find use in many more commercial applications to enhance immersive environments – and could support individuals with and without visual impairments.
The long way for puzzle pieces to fall into place
New interface technologies can enable multisensory sensations that will elevate metaverse environments. Initial use cases exist in industrial, healthcare and entertainment markets, for instance. However, truly immersive environments will remain elusive in consumer markets for quite some time.
The long-term prospects look better. Touchscreens, app-supported stores and public venues also required time to diffuse, and are now almost ubiquitous.
For companies trying to leverage these new opportunities, the question remains what sensory technologies to bundle in what form factor. What is the right breadth and depth of multisensory sensations for what kind of applications, and for which consumer segments? Possible combinations are virtually limitless.
A better understanding of human interactions with virtual environments and digital objects will be crucial to drive commercial applications. As Silcox advises, “we need to ask what our end desired purpose or reaction is that we are looking to provoke”.
Martin Schwirn is a strategy and innovation consultant for Global 2000 companies, and the author of Small data, big disruptions: How to spot signals of change and manage uncertainty (ISBN 9781632651921).
As this year’s Oscar nominations rolled out this morning, I told my boyfriend that Sinners, with 16 noms in total, had made history. “Woke is back,” he replied.
He was joking (don’t come for him!), but his quip highlights a pretty stark dichotomy. Last year, as everyone from President Donald Trump down harped on about the perils of DEI, the biggest cultural breakthroughs—Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, Heated Rivalry, One Battle After Another—all showcased diversity in fresh ways. And it succeeded. These works weren’t just popular among leftists or critics, they were bona fide cultural phenomena.
Sinners, a horror movie set in the Jim Crow South, used vampires as a metaphorical device to explore systemic racism and cultural theft—and director Ryan Coogler scored a feat in his deal with Warner Bros. that gives him the rights to the film in 25 years. KPop Demon Hunters, a story by a female Korean-Canadian director who’d been waiting over a decade for her chance to direct a feature, placed a huge emphasis on authenticity and brought the already-massive subculture around K-pop even more into the mainstream. Heated Rivalry, a small Canadian television production picked up by HBO, had an extremely subversive take on hockey by chronicling the horny-yet-poignant love story between two closeted pro players. And One Battle After Another—decried by conservative commentators who felt it lionized left-wing violence—offered complicated views on motherhood and activism while skewering ICE-like agent Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw and his desperate attempts to fit in with other racists.
In a year when the White House issued multiple executive orders doing away with DEI programs in the federal government, the successes of those projects felt like a form of resistance. Corporate media followed Trump’s suit, with Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, Paramount Global, and Disney all reportedly scaling back on their diversity efforts. Skydance, founded by David Ellison, son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison, acquired Paramount, which briefly removed Jimmy Kimmel from the air due to his joke about Charlie Kirk supporters and gave CBS News a seemingly conservative makeover. Meanwhile, shows that offered red meat in the form of farmers, grumpy MAGA adherents, cowboys, and Christian values were greenlit and promoted.
“There is a feeling from … this administration that the only stories that matter are stories of straight white men, and that is just simply not the case,” says Jenni Werner, executive artistic director of the New Harmony Project, which develops theater, film, and TV projects and says it is committed to anti-oppressive and anti-racist values.
“Audiences want to feel transformed. You want to be able to sit down and watch something, whether it’s in your home or in a theater, that takes you into a new place and maybe gives you a new understanding of something.” She adds that she has faith that artists will keep making “boundary-pushing work,” even if it keeps getting harder.
Even before Trump’s second term, trying to get out-of-the-box stories made in Hollywood has been a slog. According to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report, released in December, nearly 80 percent of directors of theatrical movies in 2024 were white, along with about 75 percent of leading actors.
The report also suggests this discrepancy is leaving money on the table, noting that BIPOC moviegoers “were overrepresented as ticket buyers for films that had casts of more than 20 percent BIPOC.” Sinners grossed $368 million at the box office, a feat that puts it in the “horror hall of fame,” per The New York Times.
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