In resent years, Wi-Fi
is becoming the lifeblood for event communication. Attendees usually bring one
or more wireless internet-enabled devices when attending events. As business
travellers, they need Wi-Fi to check emails, generate social networks, and get access
to event apps and cloud-base services. Attendees demand barrier-free,
high-speed and cost-free Wi-Fi. Hence, event planners regard Wi-Fi as one of
the key criteria when selecting venues.
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Though Wi-Fi is a
mature and widely used technology. It is still a big challenge for large events
to offer perfect Wi-Fi experience for every attendee. There are several
reasons.
First, the demand
of Wi-Fi is exploding so fast. Sometimes the user density can be very high in
one space. For example, 5,000 attendees consumed one terabyte (one thousand
billion bytes) of data via Wi-Fi in four days at the London Frieze Art Fair,
Oct. 2011. And the number of device to be brought on-site is hard to predict.
Attendees may bring several devices – cell phone, tablet and laptop, and make
them work at the same time.
However, many
venues are not able to keep up with the demand. The facilities are not well
prepared. The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (the world’s largest technology
show) asked attendees to turn off their phones and Wi-Fi to enable access for
the keynote presenters.
As a result, to
provide a good Wi-Fi experience, the venues or event organizers have to bring
in both the access points and the bandwidth. This will drive up the cost of
hosting an event.
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Facing the challenge,
what can be done to improve Wi-Fi service?
First, venues need
to improve and update their Wi-Fi facility according to the growth of Wi-Fi
bandwidth requirements at least for the next five years. According to Ian Bull,
Head of Sales Business Development for the Wireless Technology Group for Cisco,
there is “significant growth potential for Wi-Fi using micro cells and Wi-Fi
Hotspot 2.0 technology. Even very large venues with thousands of simultaneous
users can be managed in a way that good quality wireless Internet signal can be
provided.” The technology is feasible. The venues need to invest in advance.
Second, meeting
planners should calculate the number of attendees and devices well in advance. Normally,
the predicted number of devices can be assumed as 0.5-2 per attendee. And it’s
better to predict how many people will will use Wi-Fi simultaneously and what
kind of devices attendees will use. So that meeting planners can determine the
Wi-Fi capacity with the venue. The venue can prepare appropriate and enough
access points (Aps) and backhauls.
As the fact that
today’s events are more and more relying on Internet and mobile technology, the
demanding of high-speed and smooth Wi-Fi will keep increasing in the future
years. To a large extent, it will effect attendees’ satisfaction towards the
event and whether the event is successful or not. It is the lifeblood of an
even. So the event industry should take the challenge of optimizing Wi-Fi
experience seriously. Venues and event planners, as well as the exhibitors and
attendees, should help each other to find the best way towards the optimal
solution.
Authors:
Hongyin ZHANG & Bao WANG
Sources:
http://www.corbinball.com/articles_technology/index.cfm?fuseaction=cor_av&artID=8816
https://meraki.cisco.com/lib/pdf/meraki_whitepaper_large_events.pdf
http://www.muniwireless.com/2009/11/19/why-conference-wifi-sucks-and-how-to-improve-it/
