Have you been at an event where the WiFi is patchy, slow or non-existent?

That’s down to congestion – too many users sapping the bandwidth of a system that can’t cope with the demand. People today expect fast, reliable internet connections at business and trade conferences, with the success of such events depending on it. But while most business venues have WiFi, there is no guarantee it will be strong and reliable enough. Here are some of the main factors to consider when planning on how best to get your event connected.

Pump up the Volume – Supply and Demand

People are increasingly likely to bring more than one device to an event. In fact, the average works out at two and a half devices per person, so if you’ve got 500 people coming to yours, the WiFi connection might have to cope with 1250 phones, tablets and computers demanding a signal. Different events place different demands on the network, too. At a festival, 10 per cent of the crowd typically go online at a time, but at a party or conference, the entire audience might be invited to log on at the same time. Volume of WiFi traffic is a key consideration at the planning stage.

Wall to Wall – Getting Optimum Coverage

Great WiFi can make a huge difference to your event but we believe it’s something that should be seen and not heard. When people start talking about the WiFi it’s usually for all the wrong reasons. Trusting to a venue’s technology capability risks letting poor coverage overshadow your event. Forward planning is vital to ensure the venue’s main areas have a good, strong signal. Even then, most venues will have black spots that make it impossible to roam while online.

Twice as Good – WiFi Dual Band

It’s useful to understand some of the basic technology of WiFi when thinking about an event’s coverage. The WiFi found in most commercial venues runs on the original 2.4 GHz frequency, but this provides a signal that is often weak, susceptible to interference and increasingly congested.

The new standard is the superior 5 GHz WiFi which is supported by most new smartphones and is better at passing through walls. Get Me Connected uses dual band technology – both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz – to deliver a more reliable WiFi experience and our technology is also fully compatible with the latest AC standard.

Directing Traffic – Shaping WiFi Usage

Restricting the amount of WiFi data is standard practice when putting on a conference, so that heavy use by a few individuals – streaming live video for example – doesn’t affect everyone else.

A quality WiFi connection will allow you to shape and control the traffic to suit your needs while allowing unrestricted access for you and your event team.

Need for Speed – Faster Connections

Above all, a successful business conference will have a super-fast WiFi connection that can cope with user demand. 10Mb per 100 users is our recommendation for a high usage crowd, while 2Mb per 100 users is standard for smaller events. You can test the internet speed at a venue with websites such as speedtest.net. When you run a test, you are looking for a ‘ping speed’ of less than 30ms and an ‘internet speed’ of 2Mb per 100 users, so for 1,000 low usage users (checking emails and social media) 20Mb should be fine.

A poor Wi-Fi connection is bad for business. Together we can ensure your WiFi connection is a fast and seamless experience for everyone. Get yourself connected today.

Never Skip a Beat – Bonded Connections

To provide the resilient connections that people require, don’t just use one, use many. Using software-defined WANs you can have faster, unbreakable connections that allow you to provide seamless WiFi for your event. This is perfect for Broadcasts, Streams and other connection-dependent events that benefit from uninterrupted internet. Using this technology multiple different connections from MPLS, Fibre, DSL and even Cellular can be bonded and utilised in load balancing to make sure that if any device experiences issues such as latency, packet loss or disconnections they would be moved over to another connection.