BottleRock sees increased festival-goer engagement and 23,000 concurrent users thanks to OpenRoaming’s seamless connectivity & performance in data intense dense environment
London, UK, October 2, 2024 — The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the global industry body dedicated to driving the seamless and interoperable service experience of Wi-Fi across the global wireless ecosystem, has today announced that global live event production services company, Clair Global, has implemented WBA OpenRoaming™ to dramatically enhance wireless connectivity experiences for guests at live event and hospitality environments.
First to deploy was large-scale BottleRock Napa Valley music festival which attracts more than 120,000 attendees over its three days. With approximately 45,000 visitors onsite at any one time, concurrent OpenRoaming connections reached 23,000 – over 50% of visitors. Each device automatically connected to the OpenRoaming network as visitors moved around, demonstrating its ability to handle high data demands efficiently and reliably. This enabled festival goers to buy merchandise, post videos and other social media, or make calls over Wi-Fi without a hitch.
OpenRoaming allows users to seamlessly move between different Wi-Fi and cellular networks, through a profile installed on their mobile device, automatically authenticating them, and ensuring the highest standards of security and data privacy.
Clair Global has also implemented an OpenRoaming network at Hotel Rock Lititz, Pennsylvania, providing seamless connectivity to guests throughout the hotel, which is part of the 96-acre Rock Lititz campus, a one-of-a-kind production community that supports innovative creativity within the live event industry.
For Clair Global, OpenRoaming has not just meant better connectivity for guests and improved customer experience for events. Network reliability also supported enhanced operations for event organizers and vendors, particularly in areas such as digital payments and service delivery, where efficiency was improved.
Service quality, security and confidence in 33 terabytes
The improvement in service quality by using OpenRoaming has translated into better engagement and more traffic. The improvement in service quality through OpenRoaming increased attendee confidence to use digital services. It was so high that data usage reached 33 terabytes across the BottleRock festival – an increase of 36% since implementing OpenRoaming.
The implementation of OpenRoaming, means that event operations teams and the public can securely use the same OpenRoaming network with authentication and data encryption built into the framework. Data privacy is ensured for all, and only authenticated devices and users can access the events operational IT services.
Matthew Clair, EVP, Business Operations at Clair Global, said: “OpenRoaming has significantly improved the connectivity experience at events by providing seamless and automatic Wi-Fi access. This has led to a better overall customer experience, with attendees enjoying uninterrupted connectivity. Feedback from festival owners has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting enhanced user experiences and increased attendee engagement.”
Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, added: “Clair Global’s achievements with OpenRoaming demonstrate the true business value that a seamless connectivity experience can deliver for a brand. WBA OpenRoaming removes the barriers to getting online, improving user engagement, satisfaction, business efficiency and revenue opportunities, particularly for high density scenarios, such as venues and events. As a federated and secure solution, that authenticates all users, it enables businesses and visitors to get on with enjoying a frictionless experience.”
The BottleRock Napa Valley implementation was built using Cisco Spaces, which connects to the OpenRoaming federation of identity providers. This enables the network to automatically authenticate users, apply the relevant policies and service level agreement relevant to their identity and network provider contract. The network across the festival site used Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series Access Points, ensuring a high-quality connection for all users.
Clair Global’s success with OpenRoaming is set to continue, as it expands its implementation to new venues, and at high density events. New technologies, such as Wi-Fi 7 will further improve network speeds, performance and signal ranges, alongside offloading between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
For more information on OpenRoaming visit the WBA OpenRoaming and WBA Resources pages of the Wireless Broadband Alliance website.
About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is the global organization that connects people with the latest Wi-Fi initiatives. Founded in 2003, the vision of the WBA is to drive seamless, interoperable service experiences via Wi-Fi within the global wireless ecosystem. WBA’s mission is to enable collaboration between service providers, technology companies, cities, regulators and organizations to achieve that vision.
WBA undertakes programs and activities to address business and technical challenges, while exploring opportunities for its member companies. These initiatives encompass standards development, industry guidelines, trials, certification, and advocacy. Its key programs include NextGen Wi-Fi, OpenRoaming, 5G, IoT, Smart Cities, Testing & Interoperability and Policy & Regulatory Affairs, with Member-led Work Groups dedicated to resolving standards and technical issues to promote end-to-end services and accelerate business opportunities.
Membership in the WBA includes major operators, service providers, enterprises, hardware and software vendors, and other prominent companies that support the ecosystems from around the world. The WBA Board comprises influential organizations such as Airties, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, Boldyn Networks, Broadcom, BT, Charter Communications, Cisco Systems, Comcast, HFCL, Intel, Reliance Jio, Telecom Deutschland and Turk Telekom.
About Clair Global
Building on over 55 years of experience, Clair Global is renowned for deploying and developing technologies that elevate the human experience at events and in spaces around the world. With a steadfast commitment to tirelessly exceed client expectations, Clair Global is represented by a collective of 14 powerful brands spanning 21 geographic locations and serves a broad range of clients and markets worldwide
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