Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on setting up a reliable private WiFi network for a live event. We’re not very experienced with larger wireless setups, so I’d really appreciate recommendations on hardware and general network design.

Situation / Goal

We are organizing an indoor event in a sports venue. During the event we want to run a private WiFi network dedicated to:

• 5 mobile phones streaming live video feeds over WiFi to a main production computer using DroidCam
• 25 volunteer phones/tablets submitting results to a server over the internet during each round
• Around 30 active devices total on the private network at peak usage

The production computer itself will process the incoming video streams and then send the final livestream out over a wired internet connection.

Important details

• 3 of the 5 camera phones will move around during the event
• The venue already has poor/unreliable WiFi, which is why we want to build our own isolated network
• The player area is roughly 35m x 35m
• There will be around 300–400 people present in the venue, but they will NOT connect to this private WiFi network
• Available wired internet connection:
  • 400 Mbps download
  • 180 Mbps upload

What we can do physically

• Place hardware approximately 2–3 meters high on collapsed tribune stands (in the pictures)
• Run long ethernet cables to most or all access points. If we know which ones have to be connected.
• There are also existing patch sockets in the venue, but I’m not sure whether we can rely on them yet
• We would prefer not to place a node/access point in the middle of the player area, but it might be possible if absolutely necessary

What we are trying to figure out

1. How many access points/nodes would likely be needed for stable coverage in a 35x35m indoor area?
2. Can we avoid a bad coverage area in the middle of the playing field if we place everything on the sides?
3. Would a mesh setup make sense here, or should everything ideally be wired backhaul?
4. Which hardware/vendors would you recommend for this use case?
5. Is roaming/handover likely to be an issue with the moving camera phones?
6. Are there any obvious mistakes or bottlenecks in this plan?

Budget

Our total budget is approximately €1000, including:

• Access points / networking hardware
• Ethernet cabling

I’ve attached:

• Photos of the venue with possible hardware placement marked
• A simple floor map of the player area

Until the red line the 'area' we have. Blue is the end of the players era.

The red square indicates where ethernet/electricity sockets are placed. (Same on the opposite side)

Green is where we can max 'place' nodes. Red is the center of the area. This covers around 35 meter by 35 meters.

Any recommendations or example setups would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on setting up a reliable private WiFi network for a live event. We’re not very experienced with larger wireless setups, so I’d really appreciate recommendations on hardware and general network design.

Situation / Goal

We are organizing an indoor event in a sports venue. During the event we want to run a private WiFi network dedicated to:

• 5 mobile phones streaming live video feeds over WiFi to a main production computer using DroidCam
• 25 volunteer phones/tablets submitting results to a server over the internet during each round
• Around 30 active devices total on the private network at peak usage

The production computer itself will process the incoming video streams and then send the final livestream out over a wired internet connection.

Important details

• 3 of the 5 camera phones will move around during the event
• The venue already has poor/unreliable WiFi, which is why we want to build our own isolated network
• The player area is roughly 35m x 35m
• There will be around 300–400 people present in the venue, but they will NOT connect to this private WiFi network
• Available wired internet connection:
  • 400 Mbps download
  • 180 Mbps upload

What we can do physically

• Place hardware approximately 2–3 meters high on collapsed tribune stands (in the pictures)
• Run long ethernet cables to most or all access points. If we know which ones have to be connected.
• There are also existing patch sockets in the venue, but I’m not sure whether we can rely on them yet
• We would prefer not to place a node/access point in the middle of the player area, but it might be possible if absolutely necessary

What we are trying to figure out

1. How many access points/nodes would likely be needed for stable coverage in a 35x35m indoor area?
2. Can we avoid a bad coverage area in the middle of the playing field if we place everything on the sides?
3. Would a mesh setup make sense here, or should everything ideally be wired backhaul?
4. Which hardware/vendors would you recommend for this use case?
5. Is roaming/handover likely to be an issue with the moving camera phones?
6. Are there any obvious mistakes or bottlenecks in this plan?

Budget

Our total budget is approximately €1000, including:

• Access points / networking hardware
• Ethernet cabling

I’ve attached:

• Photos of the venue with possible hardware placement marked
• A simple floor map of the player area

Red is the 'area' we have. Blue is the end of the players era.

The red square indicates where ethernet/electricity sockets are placed. (Same on the opposite side)

Green is where we can max 'place' nodes. Red is the center of the area. This covers around 35 meter by 35 meters.

Any recommendations or example setups would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!