Setting Up WiFi for Your Event
- By Peter Simmons
- Published 02/1/2012
- Internet
- Unrated
Setting up WiFi services for an event is never easy, and sometimes near impossible. But for a lot of events WiFi is important or even essential. Often existing WiFi services provided by a venue will not be able to provide adequate coverage and bandwidth to support a large number of users at the same time. And yet there are many purposes of providing WiFi services at your festival, performance, sporting event, conference or meeting.
WiFi access at events can be a big draw to visitors, and conferences and seminars may rely on WiFi for use by the hosts and attendees, for research, working, blogging and presentations. Event WiFi may be necessary for promotional purposes; a press presence may require WiFi access for publication, and WiFi access can lead to promotion through your visitors’ use of social networks.
This is why more and more event organisers are turning to temporary internet. Supplied by IT systems companies, temporary Event WiFi will allow you to set up WiFi services wherever you are hosting your event, whether you are hosting 100 or 10,000 people. Planning a connection is difficult, and best left to the experts, but they may require your help to assess your needs. The following points are worth considering to help your temporary WiFi providers:
Know your venue:
Knowing your venue is essential to provide suitable WiFi. Think about the shape and size of your venue, and where people will be sitting. Consider where the access points could be set up; they are usually located as high as possible to provide wider coverage. Think about possible dead spots, and whether this might be an issue. In outdoor venues make sure that nothing could block signal from a transmitter by being based in front of it. Lorries can block a 13 or 14 foot access point.
People,
furniture and architecture can affect the strength of a WiFi signal, and microwaves can with it interfere too. Think about providing power sources for devices to be charged from; particularly important at conferences which are more than a few hours long. If your event relies upon internet access then tell your IT systems WiFi provider. They should be able to provide backup equipment in case a piece of their kit fails. Failure to provide a promised or essential network will reflect on you badly as an event organiser and leave an unimpressed crowd.
Understand your crowd:
Your event WiFi provider will need to assess how big of a bandwidth your crowd will require. Think about what kind of attendees you are expecting; are they tech-savvy, young or particularly likely to own portable devices? Try to predict what proportion of attendees will be bringing a WiFi enabled device and how many will be using your WiFi service at a set time. Consider your crowd’s needs for downloading, streaming or uploading.
Safety:
You should make sure that you’re providing a safe network. Think about sites which you may want to block, and take precautions to prevent people from uploading viruses. You should make users accept a list of terms and conditions before they use your WiFi services.
Managing the network during your event:
Your event WiFi providers should be able to provide people to manage your bandwidth. This is important as bandwidth demand will rise and fall throughout your ongoing event. Considering these areas will give your event WiFi providers a good idea of what you require and how best to provide it to ensure you have a strong and reliable connection at your event.
WiFi access at events can be a big draw to visitors, and conferences and seminars may rely on WiFi for use by the hosts and attendees, for research, working, blogging and presentations. Event WiFi may be necessary for promotional purposes; a press presence may require WiFi access for publication, and WiFi access can lead to promotion through your visitors’ use of social networks.
This is why more and more event organisers are turning to temporary internet. Supplied by IT systems companies, temporary Event WiFi will allow you to set up WiFi services wherever you are hosting your event, whether you are hosting 100 or 10,000 people. Planning a connection is difficult, and best left to the experts, but they may require your help to assess your needs. The following points are worth considering to help your temporary WiFi providers:
Know your venue:
Knowing your venue is essential to provide suitable WiFi. Think about the shape and size of your venue, and where people will be sitting. Consider where the access points could be set up; they are usually located as high as possible to provide wider coverage. Think about possible dead spots, and whether this might be an issue. In outdoor venues make sure that nothing could block signal from a transmitter by being based in front of it. Lorries can block a 13 or 14 foot access point.
People,
Understand your crowd:
Your event WiFi provider will need to assess how big of a bandwidth your crowd will require. Think about what kind of attendees you are expecting; are they tech-savvy, young or particularly likely to own portable devices? Try to predict what proportion of attendees will be bringing a WiFi enabled device and how many will be using your WiFi service at a set time. Consider your crowd’s needs for downloading, streaming or uploading.
Safety:
You should make sure that you’re providing a safe network. Think about sites which you may want to block, and take precautions to prevent people from uploading viruses. You should make users accept a list of terms and conditions before they use your WiFi services.
Managing the network during your event:
Your event WiFi providers should be able to provide people to manage your bandwidth. This is important as bandwidth demand will rise and fall throughout your ongoing event. Considering these areas will give your event WiFi providers a good idea of what you require and how best to provide it to ensure you have a strong and reliable connection at your event.