Bel Air Internet Delivers Next-Day Internet With Siklu for Jordan Brand at the NBA All-Star Weekend

FORT LEE, New Jersey, July 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Introduction
The need for reliable, high-speed temporary Internet and Wi-Fi for live events has exploded over the last five years. Event Internet helps to power interactive guest experiences, provides smooth back-of-house processes (including digital ticket taking and iPad drink orders) and gives guests the ability to share to social media and build organic buzz for the hosting brand.

The Jordan Brand pop-up for the NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles in February 2018 was exactly the type of high-profile event for which quality Internet is mission-critical. The event was being held at Studio 23 in L.A.'s Little Tokyo and would include a shoe unveiling, art collaborations and several interactive features, including a live recording studios from Interscope Records for guests to use as well as gaming areas in a VIP greenroom.

The IT team needed a low-latency 100 Mbps fully guaranteed temporary Internet connection for the duration of the multi-day event in order to handle all the events' needs.

The Challenge
The day before the event was set to debut, the event's IT team realized that their Internet Service Provider was not supplying the amount of traffic they needed for the event, being promised 100 Mbps and only getting about 10 Mbps. Though the IT team had built out a superior Wi-Fi set-up, it would be useless without high bandwidth connections to the Internet. They needed a new temporary Internet provider that could not only deliver a low-latency, 100 Mbps guaranteed connection - but one that could do it the next day on less than 24-hours notice.

BAI Live, the temporary Internet division for boutique ISP Bel Air Internet (BAI), was called that night to see if they could provide their Pop-Up Internet solution for this event in such a short time frame.  While BAI Live frequently provides temporary Internet for high-profile events throughout Southern California utilizing Siklu products, the two direct challenges in this scenario were the location of the event and the compressed timeline. In order to deliver Internet connectivity, BAI Live requires line of sight to BAI distribution, which this location did not have. In addition, with the event starting later that day, BAI Live's engineers didn't have much time to find an alternative solution.

The Solution
BAI Live's engineers were able to get creative. After gaining access to a building down the street, they discovered that this second building did have line of sight from the rooftop and could serve as a "bounce" location. They installed a Siklu mmWave wireless Etherhaul™ 2200FX link with a 1-foot antenna at BAI's base station, and a 2-foot antenna at the "bounce" location. They then installed a Siklu Etherhaul™ 600 link from there to the event space. The links utilized narrow beam technology to eliminate interference from outside networks and pushed 440 Mbps symmetric connectivity with 1 millisecond latency to the customer's location, far exceeding the IT team's expectations.  This installation included battery backup and remote monitoring of power.

Results
While the tight timeline meant there was no room for error, BAI Live was able to deliver the Internet connection in time for the event, with absolutely no downtime or technical issues during the entirety of the event. Siklu's radios was unaffected by the plethora of 5GHz WiFi APs by operating in the 60GHz spectrum with over 14GHz of bandwidth available. "We were pleased to be an integral part of the NBA All-Star weekend," said Eyal Assa, CEO at Siklu. "Given the size of this event, it was extremely important that BAI deploy a reliable network that could provide continuous coverage over a large indoor area. Siklu's mmWave solutions offer fiber quality with the flexibility, speed of deployment and affordable cost associated with a wireless network to many high profile events, including the SuperBowl LIVE event, New York City Marathon and the Tour de France."

About Siklu
Siklu delivers multi-gigabit fiber-like wireless connectivity in urban, suburban and rural areas. Operating in the millimeter wave bands, Siklu's wireless solutions are used by leading service providers and system integrators to provide gigabit services in the 5G fixed wireless and smart city projects. Thousands of carrier-grade systems are delivering interference-free performance worldwide. Easily installed on street-fixtures or rooftops, the price-competitive radios have proved to be ideal for networks requiring fast and simple deployment of secure, fiber-like and future-proof connectivity at Gigabit speeds. www.siklu.com.

SOURCE Siklu

Related Links

http://www.siklu.com