I would suggest checking with the organizers to see if they want 
basic/free/cheap or really nice with cost. They may have big dreams and 
will seek a way to make it happen in conjuction with you for reasonable 
money. I don't do free festivals or events. I give away enough every 
month to regular nonprofits and other trade arrangements, I don't need 
to get distracted by big events for free when I should be taking care of 
local paying customers.

While you might be doing them a great favor to provide something for 
free, Internet might be a very very important thing to them and the 
sponsors/vendors and they might want to make it a priority for the sake 
of commerce and community development. National sponsors wouldn't bat an 
eyelash at an elaborate broadband improvement for the festival.

If they go for the latter, you might get paid to install year round 
infrastructure throughout the area, and gain year round customers. And 
they wouldn't have to rethink/upgrade Internet again the next year and 
the next. You might also make nicer relationships with repeater site 
owners if the impetus is to prepare for the festival more so than 
strictly business profit.


On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 10:02:00AM -0400, Charles Hooper wrote:
> Oh yeah, I'm doing this for free. I don't really have any hardware other 
> than a Bullet with an omni that a friend gave me. I planned on buying 
> some equipment and I don't mind, provided I can use it for other 
> projects after this one, but I'd like to keep the budget under $300 (if 
> that's laughable, do let me know!)
> 
> My thoughts were to use NS5Ls for the backhaul and up to three 
> well-placed 2.4 Bullets w/ omnis, but the fewer the better.
> 
> 
> Josh Luthman wrote:
> > Nanos would be cheaper then MT wouldn't it?
> >
> > On 4/17/10, Mike <[email protected]> wrote:
> >   
> >> Marlon's idea is good.  Put a high 5.8 omni at the crossroads.  Put some 
> >> 5.8
> >> cpe at a few different places with 2.4 low power radios connected to them.
> >> A P2P to the crossroads system from your demark would complete the system.
> >>
> >> You could do it with Deliberant radios, or Mikrotik quite easily.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
> >> Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer
> >> Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 7:08 PM
> >> To: WISPA General List
> >> Subject: Re: [WISPA] Internet for festival: Laptop/PDA signal strength?
> >>
> >> I use a 24dB grid for a project like this.  We can  get to a laptop (in
> >> open air) about a mile away this way ;-).  It's pretty cool.
> >>
> >> You'd never be able to handle the volume that way though.
> >>
> >> I'd probably try to go with REALLY low powered omni or sectors with a LOT 
> >> of
> >>
> >> them.  5 gig 802.11 a and b/g.  I'd also run a 5 gig system over the top of
> >> it for backhaul.
> >>
> >> Unless you are doing this for free.  Then put in what you've got that's
> >> cheap and go from there.
> >> marlon
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Charles Hooper" <[email protected]>
> >> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>
> >> Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 11:27 AM
> >> Subject: [WISPA] Internet for festival: Laptop/PDA signal strength?
> >>
> >>
> >>     
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> Every year in July we have a fairly large, 3-day festival in town with
> >>> over 100 vendors and over 300,000 visitors. I'm teaming up with a local
> >>> non-profit that I'm involved with to try to provide Internet access to
> >>> those vendors, as well as any of those 300,000 people with
> >>> smartphones/PDAs who feel the need to get online. Essentially, the area
> >>> I want to cover is in green on this map (plus the pier):
> >>>
> >>> http://sailfest.org/images/page/sailfest2009_event_guide.gif
> >>>
> >>> For a sense of scale, those green sections are only about 400 feet long
> >>> and are (mostly) flat and the buildings around them are made of brick.
> >>> There will be tents and stands all along the street. This is one of the
> >>> areas:
> >>>
> >>> http://sailfest.org/images/page/vendorarea_03.jpg
> >>>
> >>> If I put a Ubiquiti bullet in that intersection of the green area with
> >>> an omnidirectional antenna, I have very little doubt that its signal
> >>> will get wherever it needs to go, but will people's laptops and PDAs
> >>> have a problem with connections at that range? Or should I put a
> >>> repeater halfway down those streets, or even for this use case use a
> >>> Mesh network design?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks in advance,
> >>> Charles
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>       
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