As a trusted provider of Wi-Fi for exhibitions, festivals, events and conferences, we were interested to read about the debate between the use of 4G or Wi-Fi for stadium use.
We provide bespoke temporary networks created for internet, comms, CCTV & Telephony for important, often large scale events so the outcome of this debate is an important one.
Within the sports industry in particular, there is plenty of talk about stadia connectivity – what is best, 4G or WiFi? One particularly interesting case study is Wembley’s trials of a 4G system.
4G network trials were launched by EE, Huawei and Qualcomm at Wembley Stadium, achieving download speeds of over 400Mbps.
The high download speeds were achieved by aggregating three different EE spectrum bands to achieve 400Mbps speeds to a single device, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor.
However, some question the ability of 4G to deliver connectivity on the scale and density needed for a large stadium, which would also apply to some of the festival locations that we’ve worked on.
Stadium wi-fi deployments have been a hot topic, particularly in regards to football. What could be worse than stands full of frustrated football fans, angry that they’ve got no signal to share the latest goal or mouth off at the awful call the referee just made via Facebook or Twitter. But unfortunately this has been all too common place when people are in a packed sports ground, or a similar situation.
In the States, the technology seems to be a bit more mature. With ever growing commercial uses for good reception such as seat upgrades, ordering food and drink direct to your seat, and even making spur of the moment merchandise buys without having to stand in crowded queues of people, the need for reliable and fast connectivity.
Interestingly, Wembley opted for a 4G option. However, we are of the opinion that stadium connectivity, and any large scale event like conferences or music festivals, is best delivered through high-density wi-fi.
When you’ve got a huge crowd of people all trying to use it at the same time, we think wi-fi is the only way to ensure a mob of happy customers hashtagging your event to their hearts content, through the deliverence of sufficient bandwidth.
To find our more about our work with high profile festivals, successful conferences and large scale events, have a look at our website https://geekabit.co.uk/ or contact us via any of the below. We are the UK’s specialist Wi-Fi consultants.
Contact us: London 0203 322 2443 | Cardiff: 02920 676 712 | Winchester: 01962 657 390 | info@geekabit.co.uk
To read the full article click here: http://www.cbronline.com/news/tech/networks/networking/ee-huawei-and-qualcomm-wow-with-wembley-4g-4522157
