SEPTEMBER | SECTOR FOCUS
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interact with performers or
other attendees.”
5G AND EVENT WIFI
The topic of internet
connectivity is one that has been
in the public consciousness quite
a bit recently, as 5G has become
a political hot potato. Adam
Steadman, CEO of Rugby and
North London-based Event WiFi,
is keen to distinguish between
WiFi and 5G.
Says Steadman, “They’re
complementary technologies.
We have already done our first
events using 5G, and will use
5G as well as other connections
for our main internet feed, then
share this out to users as WiFi.”
Steadman points out,
as do many of the other
companies, that 5G is unlikely
to revolutionise connectivity at
events because it is much less
durable: “If somebody burns
down the 5G mast near you,
which has happened quite a
bit during this pandemic, then
you have lost that connectivity
until it is repaired. This is why
it is important to have multiple
redundancies. To do that with
WiFi is easy enough because we
have control of that system, but
with 5G you are reliant on just
one ISP.”
Noba’s Nick Taylor agrees:
“5G will never replace quality
internet and WiFi in the live
event space. There is no control
over it. Who do you phone when
the Vodafone mast fails mid
keynote and you are relying
on 5G to stream the event and
also for journalists to upload
content? It may have a place
in lower budget events where
connectivity is a ‘nice to have’
rather than critical to the event
success, but it would be very
foolish to replace enterprise
grade connectivity with 5G.”
While 5G might not
revolutionise event connectivity,
there are other new technologies
on the horizon that have the
possibility to. WiFi 6 is the latest
generation of WiFi technology,
with a theoretical maximum
speed limit of 9.6 GB/s, up
from 3.5GB/s on current WiFi
5 technology. However, WiFi
6’s biggest selling point isn’t its
speed but the way it can improve
connections when accessed by a
large number of devices at once
– something that will massively
benefit outdoor events.
Max WiFi’s Rob Watson says:
“WiFi 6 provides new technology
that allows simultaneous use
of wireless airtime and will
hopefully reduce interference
between access points utilising
the same wireless channel. Until
now only one device [has been]
attached to an access point, or
the access point itself is able to
broadcast at one time, which
creates a bottleneck as you add
more and more devices to an
environment.
“This development would
allow us to provide a more
robust wireless deployment
and support a greater number
of clients in a space than we
are able to do today, with the
likelihood of also providing a
greater cumulative bandwidth
to those users.”
CHANGE OF PLANS
Lockdown has dramatically
changed the working days of
those in the WiFi sector.
“If somebody burns down the 5G mast near you, then
you have lost that connectivity until it is repaired.”
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