Mary, Our goal is to cover occupied spaces indoors with a standard density deployment. We deploy high density for large auditoriums/classrooms that have a primary or significant use by the campus population. We lean on the building/venue management and department heads for “specialty” Wi-Fi needed in large stadiums/arenas/theaters where the majority of occupants are guests here for a ticketed event. In those cases we ask the venue/department to help fund the installation/maintenance because the cost that is above our typical offering. Sometimes this works, sometimes it does not.
Athletics covers some of the cost for high density guest Wi-Fi in areas like basketball and football but choose not to cover high density for baseball, soccer, and Lacrosse. Hockey is likely to be the next specialty guest Wi-Fi since we have been talking about it for a long time. But again, this would be contingent on athletics funding a portion of the installation/maintenance. Our performing arts theatre was due for wireless upgrades this year. That venue choose to go with just the standard campus density deployment for the office and work spaces while turning down high density “specialty” Wi-Fi in the large auditoriums. History shows for this particular venue we end up setting up temporary Wi-Fi once a year. It is hard to fault them on choosing to not put extra money into large venue high density deployment when their customers (events) only demand “usable” Wi-Fi once a year. In this case the temporary setup is usually a couple APs and a dedicated radio/SSID. Another good example my co-worker uses is the dining halls. We cover the dining hall Wi-Fi upgrades with maintenance/upgrade funds because these are campus users. In the past the dining hall wanted little or no Wi-Fi so students would eat and get out. That has slowly changed but it is a good example that we have to keep the big picture in perspective and protect our customers from themselves. *Mike Atkins * Network Engineer Office of Information Technology University of Notre Dame *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv < WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> *On Behalf Of *Bull, Mary *Sent:* Tuesday, October 22, 2019 12:34 PM *To:* WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] Theater wifi - to have or not to have Hello all, I’m wondering if anyone here has dealt with a decision on wireless in the theaters, concert halls, or recital halls on their campus. We have a new arts complex coming on line in the next two years and there’s no clear direction from faculty on whether wireless for the audience is desirable. The previous main theater, and other currently used theaters on campus, did/do not have full connectivity for the audience (just a few aps tacked on the walls that were useless when the room was full). Facilities planning is favorable toward building it in, so I’d prefer that too, especially since it would be much harder or impossible to install if the faculty changes their mind in a few years once the building is complete. However, I’m not sure whether there is really an expectation from the audience that they should have wifi when they attend a show or concert. Has anyone dealt with this on their campus? What influenced your choice? Mary Bull William and Mary 757-221-2491 mb...@wm.edu ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community ********** Replies to EDUCAUSE Community Group emails are sent to the entire community list. If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message, copy and paste their email address and forward the email reply. Additional participation and subscription information can be found at https://www.educause.edu/community
