Mobile World Congress 2012: Showcasing How the World is Redefining Mobile
“Mobile World Congress, again shattered attendance records as more than 67,000 attendees showcased how they are Redefining Mobile. This year’s exciting event, hosted in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, with attendees from 205 countries treated to a wealth of learning and networking opportunities; product showcases and announcements; inspiration and innovation.”
Each year we return to Barcelona to provide support for our client at Mobile World Congress, its always a fantastic and exciting show and this year was no exception. Providing Internet and IT support across three separate venues this year for Grant, Wesley and myself wasn’t without its challenges, and some venues are proving more successful than others:
Venue Number One: The Catalonia Plaza Hotel
Here we are managing the network for an Executive Meeting Space. The ground floor has been turned into small offices with lots of different meeting rooms, we are providing a wired and wireless network to all of these rooms. Unfortunately the hotel does not have the greatest Internet connection. To overcome this and ensure we provide the best connection possible for all executives we ordered a Wi-Max connection from across the road at the Fira, this has given us a solid 25.0Mbps! This is working brilliantly and now everything is going very well at the hotel.
Venue Number Two: The Fira Exhibition Hall
In the Hall we are providing Internet access for phone speed and test demos. Trying to provide Wi-Fi in an environment where there are over 60,000 delegates is an almost impossible task. We are certainly having problems but when scanning the airwaves (pictured) it shows over 100 access points, that’s when you realise exactly what you are up against! We have monitoring tools that enable us to see which channels are the best to use but again when they are all showing at their maximum capacity (red) it is not a good sign, and leaves us with very little room for improvement. We are continuously monitoring the network and making changes and things are beginning to improve but it is a bit of an up hill struggle.
Venue Number Three: El Morino – The Party Venue
Providing Wi-Fi at the El Morino, a venue with very limited Internet access. This was a difficult one, however we arranged for 2 x 10.0Mbps temporary lines to be installed and then by using the venues infrastructure we were able to install wireless throughout the El Morino. This worked really well and we breathed a sigh of relief as everyone had a fantastic party night and the evening was a great success.
This is the 5th year that we have worked at MWC and every year provides us with different challenges, in 2013 although it remains in Barcelona it will be hosted at another venue, which I am sure will present a new set of difficulties. It always helps to know that I have the support of a fantastic team behind me, the sense of team work and feeling of achievement in overcoming certain hurdles is amazing and one I will never tire of…
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