From digital ticketing, to food concessions, payments, live broadcasts, social media and venue operations, a reliable event network is critical to ensure a smooth and memorable experience. And that’s not just for the attendees; let’s not forget the dozens to hundreds of venue workers keeping everything in order.
An event network that’s prepared for mass influx of visitors accessing it is just one piece, but what else should the venue consider when building a new event center or upgrading older infrastructure? Let’s cover some important questions:
Why is reliable Wi-Fi essential for venues like hotels, stadiums, and conference centers?
Large venues require reliable Wi-Fi that is built to support many different types of devices, as well as the ability to control and manage the bandwidth for those devices. Just being able to connect will not make a good network because it would merely need a few users taking all the bandwidth to leave the rest of the users without a good experience.
A guest network in these large venues supports devices that might not have the best carrier signal for their cellular network; it also allows the limited carrier network to not be overloaded because data is being sent over Wi-Fi. It’s key to create the Wi-Fi network with good coverage access points (APs) managed by a single controller. Meanwhile, a Nomadix Gateway can administer the network and manage the bandwidth for all users based on the profiles and desires of the site manager.
Here’s an example: You go to a concert with thousands of fans all trying to share pictures and videos from the event, but the cell service has been bombarded and won’t connect. This isn’t just a frustration that can lead to complaints and bad reviews, but can also be a safety concern if guests can’t make calls or send texts. Having a reliable network gives the guests the ability to still communicate from their devices.
What are the biggest challenges in providing high-speed, secure Wi-Fi in large public spaces?
The two largest issues for large public spaces to handle are coverage, including density, and bandwidth.
Coverage and density is managed by the APs and their proper placement based on the number of devices expected to be in a specific area and where people might be able to go to connect their devices. If you have a large area and only cover the center, leaving dead spots on the periphery of the space, it won’t be a good experience for all the potential users of that venue. High-density APs that can handle a large number of connected devices – like the Nomadix AP 6NA – will help manage this issue. Additionally, using a proper heat map for placement ensures full coverage for all devices.
The other issue to deal with is bandwidth for the venue and properly controlling it. Using a Nomadix Gateway allows for scalability and control of the bandwidth. There are multiple ways to control bandwidth and how it is allocated to different end users based on priority, device groups, hard limits and the ability to utilize the full connection pipe when the venue isn’t at full capacity. All of these are easily handled by our gateway.
How do venues prepare for an influx of thousands of simultaneous users or above-average access to the event network?
Having the event network provisioned and designed for the large influx of users allows it to seamlessly support that increase in usage. On top of that, having the network set up for the largest capacity that is projected (with a decent buffer) allows the network to be ready for any influx that might happen.
Some of the items to consider when provisioning those large venues are the redundancy of the parts of the network that are required to properly manage the connected users. The Nomadix Gateway does this well by supporting a high-availability cluster that is scalable and self-healing to make sure the network is up and supporting the client devices without any large network outages. Having a cluster of multiple Nomadix Gateways managing the guest devices can both handle the bandwidth and support redundancy.
How does Nomadix Networks determine allocation to VIPs?
At events and large venues, there is usually a need to provide VIP access not just to the users that are attending the event, but also to those VIP users that either are putting on the event or special guests of the event. Utilizing the Nomadix Gateway to manage the bandwidth and control access to the internet for events allows tiered access to easily be assigned and even prioritized to different levels of guests.
That prioritization and tiered access can be allocated by a simple VLAN for special connections to those that need more access, authentication of some form, or even just pre-assigning devices to have a higher priority than the regular user. For example, the GM of the site can have their devices programmed to have higher access than others, and they never need to authenticate or accept the T&C. Nomadix provides not only the ability to grant different levels to different VIP types, but also the ability to grant that access in different ways depending on what is needed and the information available to those managing the network.
What solutions does Nomadix offer for seamless guest authentication and roaming?
When using the Nomadix Gateway for authentication and bandwidth control, users connect to the network managed by the Gateway (and possibly accept the Terms and Conditions). Utilizing the Nomadix wireless APs and switch fabric would allow the users to be able to connect and roam throughout the network with ease.
The possibility of requiring additional authentication or limiting certain levels of users to specific access and areas is also available with the zone functionality of the gateway. Utilizing both authentication and simple roaming for some devices can be done with Nomadix Passpoint, which can be implemented on our networking gear. Simple onboarding with a venue app can allow those devices to be able to access the network without a landing page.
Nomadix also offers Captive Portal authentication to gather marketing information, charge for, or just require acceptance of Terms and Conditions of using the network. The simple interface of the Nomadix Captive Portal allows for a branded authentication page that would work with the Nomadix Gateway to be easily created and utilized for any venue.
How does Wi-Fi integrate with smart stadium technologies like mobile ticketing and cashless payments?
When designing the network for a large venue, access for non-guest devices are needed as well. Ticketing and payment systems are the first that come to mind that would also need a reliable and managed network. Building the Wi-Fi of a venue with that in mind, the Nomadix wireless network creates a ‘hidden’ SSID just for these venue systems that allows the traffic to be separated from the guest network as well as allowing the Nomadix Gateway to provision specific bandwidth just for these devices and their needs.
The Indian Wells Tennis Garden and BNP Paribas Open is a great example. They use the Nomadix Gateway to handle the different needs of guests, staff and other network devices like their ticketing system and payment systems. The cluster of gateways manage the bandwidth and priority of traffic allowing the ticketing system and payments to always have access to some bandwidth even when the load of traffic demands from the guest devices pushes the limits of their network connection. The management of that traffic by the Nomadix Gateways on site helps to keep their venue working smoothly even with more than 28,000 guest devices connected simultaneously to their network. The high-availability cluster of Nomadix gateways that keep the site running even during peak usage address the needs of the payment and ticketing systems the network needs to stay up and properly managed.
Are there any special considerations for live broadcast or other AV needs for an event network?
Supporting live broadcasts or other AV needs are just as simple as providing VIP levels of access with the Nomadix Gateway managing the network access. Our gateway is designed with the ability to provision and separate broadcast and AV devices from guest devices and provide specific amounts of bandwidth to those devices as a separate priority. It offers the option to provision specific networks or devices differently even though they share the same networking hardware and connection to the internet.
When planning for an event network for a large venue or upgrades to the property, it’s important to plan for the specific needs with a reliable and secure infrastructure. Interested in learning more? Reach out to us.
Jeremy Cook is the product manager for the Nomadix gateways. He has worked with Nomadix, an ASSA ABLOY company, for 25 years, joining the organization in quality assurance and moving through systems and pre-sales engineering and to his current role in Product Management.