Stadiums and Venues
Stadiums and Venues
Stadiums and venues require specific network designs. Wi-Fi is predominant and typically the stadiums and venues alike require a high density Wi-Fi design to support large numbers of guests.
Stadium and Venue Requirements
Stadiums and Venues have front and back of house requirement. Front of house is all about the guest experience – this typically includes Wi-Fi, but could also mean wayfinding and in-seat ordering via applications.
Back of house means everything it takes to run the site – from EFTPOS, staff communication, security and Audio Visual.
Stadiums
Stadium Guest Wi-Fi is a unique design.
There are two key challenges in Wi-Fi design for stadiums:
- Very high densities of people
- Difficult locations for Wi-Fi access point installation
The first challenge of high density is dealt with by a high density Wi-Fi design. This means that enough channels and access points are in use, with directional capability to support the required throughput.
For the second challenge, there are a range of answers. Stadiums are not the easiest places to install access points and it is well advised to design these in during the construction.
Concourse Access Points (APs) are the easier of the required locations, but seating area Wi-Fi coverage is more difficult. In practice this is achieved with high gain overhead antennas, or low power underseat APs.
Venues
Venues, just like stadiums require great Wi-Fi.
Just like all hospitality sites, staff communication is of the upmost importance. With the setup and tear down of events, the ability for staff to stay in touch is a major advantage.
Here, Wi-Fi plays a crucial role – the support of Wi-Fi phones for voice and tablets for task allocation and management.
The final aspect is analytics – every venue likes to understand the density and flow of people in order to streamline and tune the venue.
Convention Centres
Convention Centres are large, multi-use environments.
Similar to Stadiums, they require high density reliable Wi-Fi and like Venues the environment is constantly changing.
The environment is complex, with conventions often being attended by staff required to stay in touch with the office, so carrying multiple devices.
Some conventions also stream content, so along with great Wi-Fi, very high definition Audio Visual traffic is broadcast (and multicast) across the LAN. Low latency connectivity is a requirement for high definition AV.
