Last-Minute Venue-Wide WiFi for a High-Demand Conference
Conference Organiser
Client disclosure: Client identity withheld; publication permission status is not publicly disclosed.
500
Delegate Devices
30+
Access Points Deployed
1.8Gb
Bonded Download Capacity
2
Days Fault Free
The Challenge
This two-day conference puts an unusually heavy load on a network. At a previous conference centre the same event had knocked the venue WiFi over completely. With around 500 delegate devices expected at the East Midlands Conference Centre and no appetite for a repeat, SmartWifi was called in at short notice to make the whole venue wireless. The booking left only a late evening and overnight build, which meant no testing window at all before doors opened.
The Solution
We installed more than 30 access points across the venue overnight, using our own custom stands and pole mounts so the network went in quickly and looked tidy in delegate areas. For capacity, we bonded our portable internet connections together with the venue's own internet line to create around 1.8Gb of download capacity for the event. Delegates joined through a managed WiFi network with a portal page. Because the event went live before the network had been able to settle, our engineers monitored it in real time as delegates arrived and connected.
The Result
During the first hour a handful of devices would not connect automatically through the portal page. Our engineers found and fixed the cause on site, quickly, and before the WiFi was needed for the breakout sessions. From that point the network ran fault free for the rest of the two days, carrying a workload that had previously brought down another venue's WiFi.
Related services
