• • • CASE STUDY

Plano Balloon Festival

Outdoor Festival Wireless Communications

PROJECT

The City of Plano engaged Scientel Solutions to create a temporary outdoor event Wi-Fi environment and control center for use by on-ground first responders during its Plano Balloon Festival.

CHALLENGE

Create a secure Wi-Fi network for a Command Vehicle at the three-day public event that sees an estimated 60,000 visitors. The Wi-Fi network needed to be installed within a short time frame and as a temporary fixture required to be economical.

“Our goal was to support 1,000+ simultaneous user connections, and Scientel Solutions’ engineering team, needed to design and configure access points, controller, and a minimum of 12 hardwired ports available on the network.”

SOLUTION

Scientel Solutions leveraged existing infrastructure at the Oak Park Amphitheatre to align Point-to-Point (P2P) with light poles in strategic locations and run sturdy CAT5 cable to the Command Vehicle.

TASK AT HAND

Scientel’s engineers placed the master side P2P link, aligned a link from the light pole closest to the Command Vehicle, and installed an Edge Switch to cross connect SM to P2P link. Once the remote location was powered up and tested, Scientel’s engineers moved onto the Command Vehicle.

Scientel Solutions then installed the slave side of the P2P link. They also installed 1 WLAN Access Point (SSID), Nema Enclosure, and an Edge Switch before running a CAT5 cable between the Edge Switch and the WLAN Access Point and the Command Vehicle.

TIMELINE

1-2 days for installation and 1-2 days for decommissioning after the festival. Scientel installed the system five days before the festival to ensure plenty of time for testing.

RESULT

Scientel Solutions designed a solution that could be deployed rapidly and economically. The City of Plano was adequately prepared for any emergency response required during the highly attended Plano Balloon Festival. And of course, as many as 60,000 people enjoyed the balloon festival safely.