70 GB of Data to Over 2,000
Clients
Esperanza Spalding performs
with her Radio Music Society
band on the final day
of the 55th annual Monterey Jazz
Festival.
The Monterey Jazz
Festival completed its second fully
WiFi-enabled event using Meraki’s
indoor and outdoor access points.
The 55th Annual Monterey Jazz
Festival took place on September
21-23, 2012, and welcomed over
38,000 attendees who came to watch
500 artists in 90 performances on
eight stages. The Festival featured
lauded performers including Tony
Bennett, Trombone Shorty, and
Esperanza Spalding, the first jazz
artist to win the GRAMMY® Award for
Best New Artist (2011).
The venue’s existing Meraki
deployment was supplemented with
additional MR-series outdoor access
points to support the high-density
requirements for the Monterey Jazz
Festival. High-capacity indoor MR16
access points in conjunction with
outdoor MR58 and MR66 APs
accommodated the various stages and
buildings throughout the Monterey
County Fairgrounds, where
performances were held. The
Fairgrounds’ vast and heavily wooded
terrain had been a problem in the
past when using other manufacturers’
equipment, but Meraki’s rugged
outdoor APs ensured high-performance
mesh networking and a seamless
experience for event attendees.
Kimberly Knight, Marketing
Director for Monterey Jazz Festival,
notes that having fast and reliable
WiFi was crucial for this year’s
event. “We had folks who were
concerned about WiFi for this year’s
event and with Meraki on board, I
could tell them with full confidence
that our WiFi would be better than
ever,” she said.
The deployment incorporated
multiple SSIDs, including a private
network for Monterey Jazz Festival
staff and performers, two ticketing
systems, and the free public network
for attendees. Over the course of
the Festival, the wireless network
transferred over 70 GB of total data
to over 2,000 clients, with 50% of
the data dedicated to the guest
network alone. Attendees used iPads
and other mobile devices to stream
apps such as Netflix for
entertainment while waiting in
between performances. The WiFi also
made it possible for Monterey Jazz
Festival organizers to provide
information to attendees via the
2012 Monterey Jazz Festival
application for iOS and Android
devices. Over 1,400 users used the
Monterey Jazz Festival App to check
and receive alerts for performance
schedules, view a map of the
fairgrounds, peruse food vendors’
menus, and research merchandise
purchasing options--all from their
mobile devices.
For the second consecutive year,
the Meraki 802.11n access points
allowed the use of Yamaha’s
Disklavier RemoteLive technology to
be incorporated into certain
Monterey Jazz Festival performances.
Through a special bridge with Yamaha
software and the WiFi connection,
every key and every note played on
the piano from the actual
performance would be recreated
simultaneously on the Yamaha player
piano with RemoteLive technology in
a viewer’s living room, producing a
unique and rich experience for the
viewer. Pianist/singer Judy Roberts
was showcased using the Yamaha
AvantGrand piano, as well as the
pianists for artists Christian
Scott, Tierney Sutton, Gerald
Clayton, and the Berklee-Monterey
Sextet.
Despite the numerous demands on
the network, the Festival went
smoothly for the Alvarez team.
Curtis commented that “everything
worked the way it was supposed to
work.” From his monitoring of the
dashboard, Thomas noticed that there
were no major issues during the
event and that “from the beginning
of the day when there were only
10-15 users to hundreds upon
hundreds, there was no real change.
It was seamless. Meraki is
unmatched.”
Curtis Thomas,
Director of Managed Services at
Alvarez Technology Group, said that
using Meraki equipment for the event
was a “no-brainer. We’ve tested
other solutions, but we’ve
consistently had the most success
with Meraki.”
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