Max WiFi

Nothing matches the pressure of putting on a live event, and the pressure grows with every person who watches it. No one knows this better than Richard Hughes, Technical Director at Max WiFi, a Hampshire company that delivers wireless Internet solutions to live events like The Open Golf Tournament, The Welsh Rally, The Stella Artois Tennis Championships, London Fashion Week, The European PGA Tournament, The BRIT Awards, and dozens of professional conferences and exhibitions. When it comes to Internet connectivity for an event, Max WiFi is the only game in town. With very little time to set up and test transient networks, the connectivity has to be right every single time.

Business Challenge

Max WiFi specialise in connecting high-profile events. Internet connectivity is more than just a nicety. It is truly a necessity. National and international media converge on an event from all directions. Their work is highly time-dependent and they rely on the Internet to file news stories. At trade shows, both attendees and exhibitors want to conduct business while they are on the show floor. For the show to be successful, the Internet has to be available, fast and ready to handle high-volume traffic in a short period of time.

The cost of fixed IP services for these events, even on a temporary basis, would be astronomical, if it's even available. Trade shows and conferences are normally held at hotels or conference centres, where infrastructure and services may be readily available. Live sporting events are a different story. Sometimes held in out–of-the-way places, the infrastructure needed to deliver high bandwidth may not be available at all or it may not be deliverable to the right place at the right time. Costs are also tightly controlled. The "spare-no-expense" image of a high-profile event doesn't transfer to the support services behind it. Max WiFi need to take advantage of what's available wherever they can get it and as economically as possible.

Hughes recalls the way Max WiFi operated when setting up a large event. "We used to set up multiple networks in the place. Last year at the European PGA Tour, we set up 6 WiFi networks in exactly the same place, each using a single Broadband. This of course meant 6 routers and a vast amount of access points and switches." The amount of equipment required was daunting, and desirability of the connection was diminished because each separate network was limited to using a single broadband connection.

As the size of these events increased, and the need for fast, reliable Internet access grew, Hughes knew he needed to find a different solution. According to Hughes, a single event may take up to 30 broadband circuits. "We simply didn’t have any other options. The cost of bandwidth for a 10Mb or higher circuit for a two week network was unacceptable, so we had to find a way of bonding all our DSL together" said Hughes.

The Solution

So how does Max WiFi bring together 30 broadband lines from multiple sources, of different types and capacities, and make them work together flawlessly for a few days? They use the Xrio Load Balancer, of course.

"We generally connect between 10 & 30 Broadband lines to our main Xrio box and set up smaller back-up networks on other Xrios," said Hughes, describing the solution he chose for Max WiFi. "We use the Xrio load balancer on major networks, which are backed up or supplemented by two larger units. All WiFi, Fixed data, as well as VoIP traffic, is routed through our Xrio load balancer.

"Xrio Load Balancers are simple to configure. Even with multiple DSL’s, it takes only 30 minutes to bring the network up." Once Hughes started using the Xrio Load Balancer, he was immediately sold.

"We have been using the Xrio Load Balancers in a live environment since June of 2006, at the PGA European Tour at the Grove in Watford, The World Rally GB and the Artois Tournament at Queens Club," said Hughes, casually naming off some of the most prestigious sporting events in Europe. Hughes is so confident in the Xrio Load Balancer, that Max WiFi not only recommends the product to other companies, they also rent them out on a daily basis. "We have recommended the Xrio Load Balancers to various contacts within our area of work, and of course we have the Xrio available on a day rental basis to other networking companies," says Hughes.

The Results

Hughes is not reserved in his praise of the Xrio Load Balancer. "The Xrio Load Balancer has fundamentally changed the way our business works. We have much more control of the network and the bandwidth, and we can reduce the amount of devices we need to take on a single job." When you spend most of your time on the road, that means a lot.

"The Xrio Load Balancers have performed very well for us," said Hughes as he and the Max WiFi team prepared to set up the network for the Stella Artois Tennis Championships. "We cannot have failures. We have, at best, one week to build the entire network from scratch, including cabling. Once live, the network cannot fail or be worked on, except in the middle of the night. The Xrio Load Balancers have proved to be a very stable part of our network."