As the summer festival season draws to a close for 2022, organisers are busy debriefing teams and discussing what improvements can be made for next year. There will also be those just beginning their planning for the growing winter season of festivals and outdoor event experiences, including Christmas installations, Christmas markets, and retail centre brand activations.
WiFi and internet connectivity are crucial elements for any event, and with cashless solutions leading the way for public events, you need to get it right.
Here’s why you need to prioritise high-grade connectivity to ensure your teams, vendors, audience, and sponsors have a positive experience and want to return to your event next year.
Why do you need a fast, reliable, dynamic network and WiFi solution?
1. Support your event production
- Site offices: Robust WiFi is now a critical element for a vast range of event infrastructure. Many production specifications require a stable, fast and secure network. Festival and outdoor event sites can take weeks to build, and site offices need access to various resources such as video conferencing and complex file sharing solutions.
- WiFi Calling and VoIP: During large site setups, instant communication with staff and suppliers is essential. There’s nothing more frustrating than walking around the site to try and find a corner with a signal to solve an urgent problem. Getting your connectivity right means that WiFi calling or VoIP are reliable communication channels for everyone.
- Live Broadcasting or Streaming: Even though the emphasis will remain on attending live music festivals, the rapid adoption of Live Streaming for avid music attendees and people using other entertainment mediums adds another string to the industry’s bow. It’s been proven that people will tune in if it’s shown live, leading to greater reach and even more significant revenues if rolled out favourably. However, streaming live content relies on robust connectivity, so using an experienced supplier is essential.
2. Support your catering outlets and traders
Rock-solid WiFi is a crucial element of live event infrastructure. Essential features such as ticketing, bars, and catering need seamless WiFi connectivity. In addition, cashless solutions are becoming more than just a payment method. New POS hardware also enables brands to raise awareness of products and service and influence sales.
3. Reduces queues
Ensuring you have high-grade internet and wireless connectivity will enable all essential elements of your event to run smoothly. In addition, it will facilitate quick ticketing and entry, along with supporting efficient contactless payments at bars and catering outlets and no more waiting for a connection or switching to cash due to WiFi failure.
4. Maximise your revenue
The faster your audience can enter the event, the quicker they can spend. If you are running a commercial event, visitor spending is often the measure of your success and the deciding factor for whether traders and sponsors return. Fast, seamless ticketing and wireless payment solutions mean less queuing and more spending.
5. Support your sponsors
Brands increasingly see the value of activations within a public and live event environment, and these generally now require high-quality connectivity. Proactive discussions with sponsors at the start of engagement will help identify what’s needed and what can be supported with the proper connectivity.
Brands are moving towards more technology-based activations to enhance the experience and drive brand awareness.
Brands are now adopting the following technologies to engage their audiences, which all need reliable, high-grade connectivity.
- Creative Photobooths – And we’re not talking the vintage kind, but those that utilise the latest technology. The technical production partner, The Flash Pack, creates photobooth installations that capture the environment and everything within it.
- Socially Integrated Photo Booth with DSL
- Augmented Reality Integration
- 360 perspective and bullet time effect
- Socially shareable photo experiences and games
- Branded social vending machines – Exchange social currency for physical items in the real world. With every tweet, Instagram post, or Facebook upload or check-in, the vending machine will reward the recipient with a free item. Reliable connectivity is a must.
- Intelligent Recognition / Connected Experience – Using new technologies such as intelligent recognition, you can project augmented displays over faces or recognise an individual by their face or presence in an event space.
- Arduino / Raspberry Pi Integrations – From LED light tunnels to robots, an Arduino or Raspberry Pi is usually integrated into the mix. Arduinos and Raspberry Pi’s are essentially little computers that can be custom programmed to do just about anything.
- RFID/NFC/BLE Sensors – Using radio frequency chips, you can do really cool things with proximity and movement, as well as tracking behaviour.
- 3D Printing – Using 3D Printers, you can let your consumers create their own additions to your products or services or let kids create and print their own toys.
- Interactive Games and Virtual Reality – These are now regularly integrated into events. For example, VR, video games, e-sports, social media contests, leaderboards, brainwave headsets, and more.
- Internet of Things ( IoT Technology ) – This tech continues to develop and amaze. You can now socially share content based on certain actions or movements you take in an event space. For example, you can control an art installation or application by simply waving your arms or repositioning your body. Using the internet of things, you can integrate the internet into physical experiences in all sorts of immersive ways.
6. Safeguard your event site
CCTV for events, both mobile cameras and CCTV towers, enable event managers and security to remotely monitor activity in highly populated areas for information gathering, crowd control, health and safety, incident alerts, traffic management and crime reduction. CCTV is fast becoming a must-have for event organisers to protect themselves from liability and financial loss.
7. Future proof your event
A positive event experience, with fast entry, efficient service and rapid, flexible payment options at traders, bars and catering outlets, and access to a reliable WiFi network, will mean audiences will return.
So, how do you procure the right supplier to deliver a high-grade WiFi network for your next event or brand activation?
Choose the Right WiFi Supplier
Many companies claim to be event WiFi providers. Some companies are two men in a van, and others are national corporations with thousands of faceless employees. It’s not hard to purchase the equipment required to start an event WiFi business, and it’s also not difficult to set up a website to promote your services. The difficult part is finding a company that delivers services well. So, how do you choose the right provider?
Large companies are large for a reason; they have to be good at what they do. Wrong. Some large companies prioritise their bottom line at the expense of the quality of services they deliver. If a technician for one of these companies takes too long to set up your event WiFi network, they risk being labelled inefficient and unprofitable. It’s in their best interest to rush the job and head back to prepare for their next job.
Noba looks to build long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with clients and a stellar reputation. As the first event-specific IT company in the UK, we specialise in high-quality event WiFi. We have been working in live events for over 15 years, so it’s fair to say our experience is varied and vast. With a wealth of experience in delivering faultless connectivity to a diverse range of events in various locations, we have a deep understanding of the sector and the challenges our clients face. Our team lives and breathes what we do. We are proud of what we have achieved, and our clients know they are in safe hands because we work hard to keep it that way!
So, do your research before choosing a provider. Ask fellow eventprofs, check out their website, and look at their work. Look for more than an event WiFi and Internet provider, but a partner that cares as much about your event’s success as you do.
Learn the Language
Learn how to speak the language. This doesn’t mean you have to become a certified network engineer, but it would benefit you to learn a few terms that will make your communication process much more manageable.
Download our Event WiFi guide to learn more
The event WiFi provider you choose shouldn’t overcomplicate things for you. However, if you find yourself lost in a slew of obscure network terminology, it might be time to back away and look for a second opinion.
